Benchmarking Methodology for Firewall Performance
RFC 3511
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RFC - Informational
(April 2003; No errata)
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Last updated |
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2015-10-14
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IETF
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No shepherd assigned
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IESG state |
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RFC 3511 (Informational)
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Unknown
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Responsible AD |
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Randy Bush
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<kdubray@juniper.net>
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Network Working Group B. Hickman
Request for Comments: 3511 Spirent Communications
Category: Informational D. Newman
Network Test
S. Tadjudin
Spirent Communications
T. Martin
GVNW Consulting Inc
April 2003
Benchmarking Methodology for Firewall Performance
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document discusses and defines a number of tests that may be
used to describe the performance characteristics of firewalls. In
addition to defining the tests, this document also describes specific
formats for reporting the results of the tests.
This document is a product of the Benchmarking Methodology Working
Group (BMWG) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Test setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1 Test Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Virtual Client/Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.3 Test Traffic Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4 DUT/SUT Traffic Flows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.5 Multiple Client/Server Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.6 Network Address Translation (NAT). . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.7 Rule Sets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.8 Web Caching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.9 Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Hickman, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 3511 Methodology for Firewall Performance April 2003
4.10 TCP Stack Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Benchmarking Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1 IP throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 Concurrent TCP Connection Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.3 Maximum TCP Connection Establishment Rate. . . . . . . . 12
5.4 Maximum TCP Connection Tear Down Rate. . . . . . . . . . 14
5.5 Denial Of Service Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.6 HTTP Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.7 Maximum HTTP Transaction Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.8 Illegal Traffic Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.9 IP Fragmentation Handling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.10 Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7. Security Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix A - HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix B - Connection Establishment Time Measurements . . . . 31
Appendix C - Connection Tear Down Time Measurements . . . . . . 32
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1. Introduction
This document provides methodologies for the performance benchmarking
of firewalls. It covers four areas: forwarding, connection, latency
and filtering. In addition to defining tests, this document also
describes specific formats for reporting test results.
A previous document, "Benchmarking Terminology for Firewall
Performance" [1], defines many of the terms that are used in this
document. The terminology document SHOULD be consulted before
attempting to make use of this document.
2. Requirements
In this document, the words that are used to define the significance
of each particular requirement are capitalized. These words are:
* "MUST" This word, or the words "REQUIRED" and "SHALL" mean that
the item is an absolute requirement of the specification.
* "SHOULD" This word or the adjective "RECOMMENDED" means that there
may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore this
item, but the full implications should be understood and the case
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