Throughput Analysis Between High End Workstations Across an FDDI network
Abstract
Recently developed high speed networks are capable of transmitting data at rates of 100 Mbps or more. One such network protocol is Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). This network has a physical transmission rate of 100 Mbps. Analytical and simulation studies have shown that the FDDI protocol should provide actual throughput of 80% to 95% of this physical rate. Can the end user expect to see this kind of performance? If not, then what kind of throughput can actually be expected and where are the bottle necks? In order to answer these and other related questions, two areas were studied: First, a performance comparison between a 40MHz SPARCstation 10 workstation and a 5OMHz SPARCstation 10 workstation was conducted using the Neal Nelson commercial benchmark tool. Next, a well-known network measurement tool, ttcp, was used to obtain data transfer rates while varying several tunable operating system and network parameters. The parameters varied were: Target Token Rotation Time, TCP/ IP window size, NFS asynchronous threads. Logical Link buffer size and Maximum Transfer Unit size. The results from the commercial benchmark analysis were used to determine if there are any differences which can affect transfer rates between the two workstations. The results from the commercial benchmark tool clearly showed that the newer, higher speed processor is faster. The network tool ttcp showed that the TCP/IP window size had the largest impact on throughput performance. Throughput more than doubles from a window size of 4k to a window size of 20k.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 16, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA283608
Entities
People
- Mark A. Schivley
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School