IP Routing Fundamentals

WAN Performance Criteria

Having reviewed some of the various ways to construct networks using routers, it is also important to establish some criteria for measuring the efficacy of your network. Many different criteria, or metrics, can be applied. Some of these are fairly objective and can be automatically extracted from the network monitoring protocols native to virtually every network device. Others are subjective and can be next to impossible to determine in advance. Some of the more common metrics include the following:

• Component uptime

• Traffic volumes

• Delay

• Resource utilization rates

Each of these metrics is discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Component Uptime

Each physical component of the WAN can be monitored and measured ...