Network Baseline
Do you know your standard network throughput volume and most types of traffic used in your network? If you have no information about the above questions then you should require baseline your network. The network baseline is one of the most useful tools for monitoring and troubleshooting network performance.
For the effective network baseline performance record is required over time. Measuring performance at varying times and loads will help in creating a better image of overall network performance
How to baseline a network
To baseline a network, you need to monitor the network traffic for a long time, because a wider time presents a more realistic picture of a traffic pattern. We can use the network baseline as listed below:
- Evaluate network management policies agreement.
- Understand network pattern and traffic trends.
- Speed up troubleshooting network problems.
- Understand network resources allocation.
- Provide network up-gradation history statistics.
- Provide data for decision-making as well as for network and security management.
To baseline a network, network administrators need software Colasoft nChronos and Capsa to baseline their networks. Both software is used to listen to packet data of wire and generate all kinds of a report on the network. Further, the network administrator can copies, past and save the results from an executed ping, trace and other related commands into a text file with time and date.
Then, the network administrator can use these text files to compare with other results, error messages and the response times from host to host. If there is a huge increase in response times, there may be a latency issue to address. The figures below illustrate the result of the ping command for the same IP address with different timings and the comparison of both.
The output resulting from network commands can give data to the network baseline. Commercial networks should have widespread baselines. Professional-grade software tools are also available for storing and maintaining baseline information.
