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Abstract
Measurement has always been an integral part of network operation. However, the current trend of increasing functionality being performed inside the network has complicated the task of network measurement. This work aims to design a next generation measurement architecture which is capable of performing measurement tasks inside the network and presenting results in real-time. Operational challenges such as IP address anonymization and payload scanning are addressed and solutions are proposed. The increasing use of network processors in routers and switches provides an ideal platform on which the measurement system can be built. Based on the proposed architecture, a network processor based measurement node is designed, implemented and deployed in a live network. The need to characterize network processing is motivated and a system to quantitatively analyze workloads is presented. The results of this work enable more effective measurement and monitoring of networks and a deeper insight into the characteristics of network processing.
