Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pyramid.swansea.ac.UK!iiit-ih
From: iiit-ih@pyramid.swansea.ac.UK (Ivan Izikowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso
Subject: Re: Performance Metrics
Message-ID: <16612.8905050940@pyr.swan.ac.uk>
Date: 5 May 89 10:40:48 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38

Robert,

It is interesting to hear of the work that you are involved in. The
BSI group is looking into ways of quantifying the performance of OSI
protocols/profiles so that implementors like yourself will be able to
get some sort of guide as to the bounds of the system in the temporal domain.
These metrics would possibly be used by vendors to specify the performance
of their products and consequently enable users to compare similar products 
from different vendors. As you know, in the connection-oriented approach, 
multiple associations are active at any one time - each requiring a share of
the available resources. The net result of such a system is highly non-
deterministic. As a bit of background....

The working group at the BSI is an initiative brought about by the poor 
performance of ODISI networks in time-critical environments (I'm sure you
have heard all the horror stories about MAP!!!) We are looking at the
use of current OSAII standards in time-critical environments and if need be,
we will make recommendations for new standards and/or additions to existing
standards. We are currently looking at the "Quality of Service" feature 
provided in the transport layer (in conjunction with the session layer) as
a possible means of improving the response time.

As you may appreciate I have only skimmed the surface of such issues but
if you have any definite questions about the work I will be happy to reply.

Aside from this, in my official capacity, we are involved in time 
synchronization over networks (including distributed clock synchronization)
and I would be interested in hearing about your work (if it is not commercially
sensitive of course).

Regards,

        Ivan

PS. If you are indeed actively involved in time-critical comms over OSI
and you feel that the group may benefit from your experience AND there
is a budget at HP for standards work, I could possibly look into nominating
you as a member of the group (we meet in London approx. every 4-5 weeks).