Performance Analysis For Wide Area Network Optimization: The Case Of Addis Ababa University
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Date
2014-10-16
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Wide Area Network (WAN) is one of the most important tool for organizations to run their day to day activities. Today, applications and services that are given using local area network (LAN) are also provided using WAN. However, there is more impact on the WAN performance. Besides, most protocols designed for LAN environments do not perform well over the WAN. The factors affecting the WAN are network availability, bandwidth, network latency, congestion and packet loss. WAN at AAU is no exception. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of different WAN factors using performance analysis tool, with the view to develop a WAN optimization framework that can improve the performance of the AAU network traffic flows over the WAN link.
To achieve the objective of the study, an experiment has been conducted using real-time cases that are taken from the AAU WAN environment. The experimentation is conducted through three major phases: network traffic data is collected using Network Performance Monitor (NPM) tool from the AAU WAN environment. The collected data is then analyzed and evaluated to investigate the network performance using metrics such as network availability, response time, and packet loss. Finally, based on the analysis result a WAN optimization framework is developed. In order to develop the WAN optimization framework the researcher followed steps such as Network Condition Recognizer, WAN Bottleneck Determiner, Optimization Solution Provider and Event Reporter.
The results of this study indicates that, high response time rate, high packet loss rate, and fluctuating network availability is exhibited in the AAU WAN environment. The WAN optimization framework is developed to solve the real time bottleneck status of the WAN link and apply optimization techniques accordingly. There is also a need to evaluate application performance of the network from the point view of users’ experience. It is therefore recommended for further research.
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Keywords
Network Performance Metrics, Network Traffic data, AAU WAN, Optimization framework.