Web Caching and Replication

6.1. Evaluation Methods

Before we start our discussion of Web properties, it will be helpful to outline the main methods that are used to discover these properties and evaluate new technologies. Performance evaluation methods fall into three main categories: live measurements, trace-based methods, and benchmarking. The next subsections briefly consider these categories.

6.1.1. Live Measurements

Live measurements refer to observations of real Web behavior as it occurs. Live measurements are especially useful to evaluate the actual performance of the Web, either end-to-end (that is, the performance as seen by Web users) or from the perspective of individual components, such as proxies and Web servers. On the other hand, live measurements are often ...