PMOL D. Malas
Internet-Draft CableLabs
Intended status: Standards Track A. Morton
Expires: March 13, 2010 AT&T Labs
September 9, 2009
SIP End-to-End Performance Metrics
draft-ietf-pmol-sip-perf-metrics-04
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Abstract
This document defines a set of metrics and their usage to evaluate
the performance of end-to-end Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based
services in both production and testing environments. The purpose of
this document is to combine a standard set of common metrics,
allowing interoperable performance measurements, easing the
comparison of industry implementations.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Time Interval Measurement and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. SIP Performance Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Registration Request Delay (RRD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2. Ineffective Registration Attempts (IRA) . . . . . . . . . 9
4.3. Session Request Delay (SRD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.3.1. Successful Session Setup SRD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3.2. Failed Session Setup SRD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3.3. Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.4. Session Disconnect Delay (SDD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.4.1. Successful session completion SDD . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.4.2. Failed session completion SDD . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.5. Session Duration Time (SDT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.5.1. Successful session duration SDT . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.5.2. Failed session completion SDT . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.6. Hops per Request (HpR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.7. Session Establishment Ratio (SER) . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.7.1. Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.8. Session Establishment Effectiveness Ratio (SEER) . . . . . 23
4.9. Session Defects Ratio (SDR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.10. Ineffective Session Attempts (ISA) . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.11. Session Disconnect Failures (SDF) . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.12. Session Completion Ratio (SCR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.12.1. Successful Session Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.12.2. Failed Session Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.13. Session Success Ratio (SSR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5. Metric Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6. Additional Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.1. Back-to-back User Agent (B2BUA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.2. Authorization and Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.3. Forking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.4. Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.5. Testing Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
7. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
10. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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1. Introduction and Scope
SIP has become a widely-used standard among many service providers,
vendors, and end users. Although there are many different standards
for measuring the performance of signaling protocols, none of them
specifically address SIP.
The scope of this document is limited to the definitions of a
standard set of metrics for measuring and reporting SIP performance
from an end-to-end perspective. The metrics introduce a common
foundation for understanding and quantifying performance expectations
between service providers, vendors, and the users of services based
on SIP. The intended audience for this document can be found among
network operators, who often collect information on the
responsiveness of the network to customer requests for services.
Measurements of the metrics described in this document are affected
by variables external to SIP. The following is a non-exhaustive list
of examples:
o Network connectivity
o Switch and router performance
o Server processes and hardware performance
Note that some metrics in this document may not apply to all
applications of SIP. This document defines a list of pertinent
metrics, which may be used individually or as a set based on the
usage of SIP within the context of a given service.
The metrics defined in this document DO NOT take into consideration
the impairment or failure of actual application processing of a
request or response. The metrics do not distinguish application
processing time from other sources of delay, such as packet transfer
delay.
Metrics designed to quantify single device application processing
performance are beyond the scope of this document.
This document does not provide any numerical objectives or acceptance
threshold values for the SIP performance metrics defined below, as
these items are beyond the scope of IETF activities, in general.
The metrics defined in this document are applicable in scenarios
where the SIP messages launched (into a network under test) are
dedicated messages for testing purposes, or where the messages are
user-initiated and a portion of the live traffic present. These two
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scenarios are sometimes referred to as active and passive
measurement, respectively.
2. Terminology
The following terms and conventions will be used throughout this
document:
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
End-to-End - This is described as two or more elements utilized for
initiating a request, receiving the request, and responding to the
request. It encompasses elements as necessary to be involved in a
session dialog between the originating user agent client (UAC),
destination user agent server (UAS), and any interim proxies (may
also include back-to-back user agent's (B2BUA's)). This may be
relative to a single operator's set of elements or extend to
encompass all elements (if beyond a single operator's network)
associated with a session.
Session - As described in RFC 3261 [RFC3261], SIP is used primarily
to request, create, and conclude sessions. "These sessions include
Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia
conferences." The metrics within this document measure the
performance associated with the processes necessary to establish
these sessions; therefore, they are titled as: Session Request Delay,
Session Disconnect Delay, etc. Although the titles of many of the
metrics include this term, they are specifically measuring the
signaling aspects only. Each session is identified by a unique
Call-ID.
Session Establishment - Session establishment occurs when a 200 OK
response from the UAS has been received, in response to a
corresponding UAC's INVITE setup request, indicating the session
setup request was successful.
Session Setup - As referenced within the sub-sections of 4.2 in this
document, session setup is the set of messages and included
parameters directly related to the process of a UAC requesting to
establish a session with a corresponding UAS. This is also described
as a set of steps in order to establish "ringing" [RFC3261].
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3. Time Interval Measurement and Reporting
Many of the metrics defined in this memo utilize a clock to assess
the time interval between two events. This section defines time-
related terms and reporting requirements.
T1 - start time
This is the time instant (when a request is sent) that begins a
continuous time interval. T1 occurs when the designated request has
been processed by the SIP application and the first bit of the
request packet has been sent from the UA or proxy (and is externally
observable at some logical or physical interface).
T1 represents the time at which each request-response test begins,
and SHALL be used to designate the time-of-day when a particular
measurement was conducted (e.g., The Session Request Delay at "T1"
and (some specific UA interface) was measured to be X ms.)
T4 - end time
This is the time instant that concludes the continuous time interval
begun when the related request is sent. T4 occurs when the last bit
of the designated response is received by the SIP application at the
requesting device (and is externally observable at some logical or
physical interface).
Note: The designations T2 and T3 are reserved for future use at
another interface involved in satisfying a request.
Section 10.1 of RFC 2330 [RFC2330] describes time-related issues in
measurements, and defines the errors that can be attributed to the
clock themselves. These definitions are used in the material below.
Time of Day Accuracy
As defined above, T1 is associated with the start of a request and
also serves as the time-of-day stamp associated with a single
specific measurement. The clock offset [RFC2330] is the difference
between T1 and a recognized primary source of time, such as UTC
(offset = T1 - UTC).
When measurement results will be correlated with other results or
information using time-of-day stamps, then the time clock that
supplies T1 SHOULD be synchronized to a primary time source, to
minimize the clock's offset. The clocks used at the different
measurement points SHOULD be synchronized to each other, to minimize
the relative offset (as defined in RFC2330). The clock's offset and
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the relative offset MUST be reported with each measurement.
Time Interval Accuracy
The accuracy of the T4-T1 interval is also critical to maintain and
report. The difference between a clock's offsets at T1 and T4 is one
source of error for the measurement and is associated with the
clock's skew [RFC2330].
A stable and reasonably accurate clock is needed to make the time
interval measurements required by this memo. This source of error
SHOULD be constrained to less than +/- 1 ms, implying 1 part per 1000
frequency accuracy for a 1 second interval. This implies greater
stability is required as the length of the T4-T1 increases, in order
to constrain the error to be less than +/- 1ms.
There are several other important aspects of clock operation:
1. Synchronization protocols require some ability to make
adjustments to the local clock. However, these adjustments
(clock steps or slewing) can cause large errors if they occur
during the T1 to T4 measurement interval. Clock correction
SHOULD be suspended during a T1 to T4 measurement interval,
unless the time interval accuracy requirement above will be met.
Alternatively, a measurement SHOULD NOT be performed during clock
correction, unless the time interval accuracy requirement above
will be met.
2. If a free-running clock is used to make the time interval
measurement, then the time of day reported with the measurement
(which is normally timestamp T1) SHOULD be derived from a
different clock that meets the time of day accuracy requirements
described above.
The physical operation of reading time from a clock may be
constrained by the delay to service the interrupt. Therefore, if the
accuracy of the time stamp read at T1 or T4 includes the interrupt
delay, this source of error SHOULD be known and included in the error
assessment.
4. SIP Performance Metrics
In regards to all of the following metrics, T1 begins with the first
associated SIP message sent by the UAC or UAS, and is not reset if
the UAC or UAS must retransmit the same request, with the same
Call-ID, multiple times. The first associated SIP message indicates
the T1 associated with the user or application expectation relative
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to the request.
Some metrics are calculated based on the final response message.
These metrics do not take into consideration route advances to
additional signaling functions based on "final" failure responses.
In these unique cases, the final response related to the initial
setup attempt SHOULD be utilized for input to the metric.
In regards to all of the metrics, the accuracy and granularity of the
output values are related to the accuracy and granularity of the
input values.
The following metrics may be utilized for many different SIP
applications.
4.1. Registration Request Delay (RRD)
Registration Request Delay (RRD) is a measurement of the delay in
responding to a UAC REGISTER request. RRD SHALL be measured and
reported only for successful REGISTER requests, while Ineffective
Registration Attempts (Section 4.2) SHALL be reported for failures.
This metric is measured at the UAC. The output value of this metric
is numerical and SHOULD be stated in units of milliseconds. The RRD
is calculated using the following formula:
RRD = Time of Final Response - Time of REGISTER Request
In a successful registration attempt, RRD is defined as the time
interval from the first bit of the initial REGISTER message
containing the necessary information is passed by the originating UAC
to the intended registrar until the last bit of the 200 OK is
received indicating the registration attempt has completed
successfully. This dialog includes an expected authentication
challenge prior to receiving the 200 OK as described in the following
registration flow examples.
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating RRD during a successful
registration completion:
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UA1 Registrar
| |
|REGISTER |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ | 401|
|| |<---------------------|
RRD |REGISTER |
|| |--------------------->|
\/ | 200|
T4---->|<---------------------|
| |
4.2. Ineffective Registration Attempts (IRA)
Ineffective registration attempts are utilized to detect failures or
impairments causing an inability for a registrar to receive a UAC
REGISTER request. This metric is measured at the UAC. The output
value of this metric is numerical and SHOULD be reported as a
percentage of registration attempts.
This metric is calculated as a percentage of total REGISTER requests.
The IRA is calculated using the following formula:
# of IRA
IRA % = ----------------------------- x 100
Total # of REGISTER Requests
A failed registration attempt is defined as a final failure response
to the initial REGISTER request. It usually indicates a failure
received from the destination registrar, interim proxies, or due to a
timeout of the REGISTER request at the originating UA. A failure
response is described as a 4XX (excluding 401, 402, and 407 non-
failure challenge response codes), 5XX, or possible 6XX message. A
timeout failure is identified by the timer F expiring. IRA may be
used to detect problems in downstream signaling functions, which may
be impairing the REGISTER message from reaching the intended
registrar; or, it may indicate a registrar has become overloaded and
is unable to respond to the request.
The following flow provides a timeout example of an identifiable
event necessary for input as a failed registration attempt:
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UA1 Registrar
| |
|REGISTER |
|--------------------->|
|REGISTER |
|--------------------->|
|REGISTER |
|--------------------->|
| |
Failure ---->|***Timer F Expires |
| |
In the previous message flow the UAC retries a REGISTER request
multiple times before the timer, indicating the failure, expires.
Only the first REGISTER request MUST used for input to the
calculation and an IRA. Subsequent REGISTER retries are identified
by the same Call-ID and MUST be ignored for purposes of metric
calculation. This ensures an accurate representation of the metric
output.
The following flow provides a registrar servicing failure example of
an identifiable event necessary for input as a failed registration
attempt:
UA1 Registrar
| |
|REGISTER |
|--------------------->|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| 503|
Failure ---->|<---------------------|
| |
4.3. Session Request Delay (SRD)
Session Request Delay is utilized to detect failures or impairments
causing delays in responding to a UA session request. SRD is
measured for both successful and failed session setup requests as
this metric usually relates to a user experience; however, SRD for
session requests ending in a failure MUST NOT be combined in the same
result with successful requests. The duration associated with
success and failure responses will likely vary substantially, and the
desired output time associated with each will be significantly
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different in many cases. This metric is similar to Post-Selection
Delay [E.721] or Post-Dial Delay (PDD) in telephony applications of
SIP, and it is measured at the UAC only. The output value of this
metric MUST indicate whether the output is for successful or failed
session requests and SHOULD be stated in units of seconds. The SRD
is calculated using the following formula:
SRD = Time of Status Indicative Response - Time of INVITE
4.3.1. Successful Session Setup SRD
In a successful request attempt, SRD is defined as the time interval
from the first bit of the initial INVITE message containing the
necessary information is sent by the originating agent or user to the
intended mediation or destination agent until the last bit of the
first provisional response is received indicating an audible or
visual status of the initial session setup request. In SIP, the
message indicating status would be a non-100 Trying provisional
message received in response to an INVITE request. In some cases, a
non-100 Trying provisional message is not received, but rather a 200
message is received as the first status message instead. In these
situations, the 200 message would be used to calculate the interval.
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SRD during a successful session
setup request without a redirect (i.e. 3XX message):
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ | |
|| | |
SRD | |
|| | |
\/ | 180|
T4---->|<---------------------|
| |
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SRD during a successful session
setup with a redirect (e.g. 302 Moved Temporarily):
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UA1 Redirect Server UA2
| | |
|INVITE | |
T1---->|--------------------->| |
/\ | 302| |
|| |<---------------------| |
|| |ACK | |
SRD |--------------------->| |
|| |INVITE |
|| |------------------------------------------->|
\/ | 180|
T4---->|<-------------------------------------------|
4.3.2. Failed Session Setup SRD
In a failed request attempt, SRD is defined as the time interval from
the first bit of the initial INVITE message containing the necessary
information sent by the originating agent or user to the intended
mediation or destination agent until the last bit of the first
provisional response or a failure indication response. A failure
response is described as a 4XX (excluding 401, 402, and 407 non-
failure challenge response codes), 5XX, or possible 6XX message. SRD
may be used to detect problems in downstream signaling functions,
which may be impairing the INVITE message from reaching the intended
UA. While this metric calculates the delay associated with a failed
session request, the metric Ineffective Session Attempts (Section
4.10) is used for calculating a ratio of session attempt failures.
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SRD during a failed session setup
attempt without a redirect (i.e. 3XX message):
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ | |
|| | |
SRD | |
|| | |
\/ | 480|
T4---->|<---------------------|
| |
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
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necessary for inputs in calculating SRD during a failed session setup
attempt with a redirect (e.g. 302 Moved Temporarily):
UA1 Redirect Server UA2
| | |
|INVITE | |
T1---->|--------------------->| |
/\ | 302| |
|| |<---------------------| |
|| |ACK | |
SRD |--------------------->| |
|| |INVITE |
|| |------------------------------------------->|
\/ | 480|
T4---->|<-------------------------------------------|
4.3.3. Instant Messaging
This metric is also applicable to MESSAGE [RFC3428] requests. In the
above metric, INVITE can be replaced with MESSAGE to provide SRD for
instant messaging (IM). The dialog will vary slightly as described
in RFC 3428 [RFC3428]. The inputs for this metric SHOULD be utilized
regardless of whether a prior SIP dialog was utilized to setup the
session. In that case both the SIP dialog and the MESSAGE requests
are measured independently.
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SRD during a successful session
MESSAGE request:
UA1 UA2
| |
|MESSAGE |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ | |
|| | |
SRD | |
|| | |
\/ | 200|
T4---->|<---------------------|
| |
Failure requests occur similarly as to those described in section
4.2.2 with MESSAGE in replacement of INVITE as the IM session request
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method.
4.4. Session Disconnect Delay (SDD)
This metric is utilized to detect failures or impairments delaying
the time necessary to end a session. It can be measured from both a
UAC and UAS perspective. SDD is measured for both successful and
failed session completions. The output value of this metric is
numerical and SHOULD be stated in units of milliseconds. The SDD is
calculated using the following formula:
SDD = Time of 2XX or Timeout - Time of Completion Message (BYE)
4.4.1. Successful session completion SDD
In a successful session completion, SDD is defined as the interval
between the first bit of the sent session completion message, such as
a BYE, and the last bit of the subsequently received 2XX
acknowledgment. The following flows provide an example of
identifiable events necessary for inputs in calculating SDD during a
successful session completion:
Measuring SDD at the UAC -
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|
|ACK |
|--------------------->|
|BYE |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ | |
|| | |
SDD | |
|| | |
\/ | 200|
T4---->|<---------------------|
Measuring SDD at the UAS -
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UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|
|ACK |
|--------------------->|
| BYE|
|<---------------------|<----T1
| | /\
| | ||
| | SDD
| | ||
|200 | \/
|--------------------->|<----T4
4.4.2. Failed session completion SDD
In some cases, no response is received after a session completion
message is sent and potentially retried. In this case, SDD is
defined as the interval between the first bit of the sent session
completion message, such as a BYE, and the resulting Timer F
expiration. The following flows provide an example of identifiable
events necessary for inputs in calculating SDD during a failed
session completion attempt:
Measuring SDD at the UAC -
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UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|
|ACK |
|--------------------->|
|BYE |
T1---->|--------------------->|
/\ |BYE |
|| |--------------------->|
SDD |BYE |
|| |--------------------->|
\/ | |
T4---->|***Timer F Expires |
Measuring SDD at the UAS -
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|
|ACK |
|--------------------->|
| BYE|
|<---------------------|<----T1
| BYE| /\
|<---------------------| ||
| BYE| SDD
|<---------------------| ||
| | \/
| Timer F Expires***|<----T4
4.5. Session Duration Time (SDT)
This metric is used to detect problems (e.g. poor audio quality)
causing short session durations. SDT is measured for both successful
and failed session completions. It can be measured from both a UAC
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and UAS perspective. This metric is similar to Call Hold Time, and
is traditionally calculated as Average Call Hold Time (ACHT) in
telephony applications of SIP. The output value of this metric is
numerical and SHOULD be stated in units of seconds. The SDT is
calculated using the following formula:
SDT = Time of BYE or Timeout - Time of 200 OK response to INVITE
4.5.1. Successful session duration SDT
In a successful session completion, SDT is calculated as an average
and is defined as the duration of a dialog defined by the interval
from receipt of the first bit of a 200 OK response to an INVITE and
receipt of the last bit of an associated BYE message indicating
dialog completion.
The following flows provide an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SDT during a successful session
completion (The message flows are changed between the UAC and UAS to
provide varying examples.):
Measuring SDT at the UAC -
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
T1---->|<---------------------|
/\ |ACK |
|| |--------------------->|
|| | |
SDT | |
|| | |
|| | |
\/ |BYE |
T4---->|--------------------->|
| |
When measuring SDT at the UAS, it is defined by the interval from
sending the first bit of a 200 OK response to an INVITE and receipt
of the last bit of an associated BYE message indicating dialog
completion. If the UAS initiates the BYE, then it is defined by the
interval from sending the first bit of a 200 OK response to an INVITE
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and sending the first bit of an associated BYE message indicating
dialog completion. This is illustrated in the following example
message flow -
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|<----T1
|ACK | /\
|--------------------->| ||
| | ||
| | SDT
| | ||
| | ||
| BYE| \/
|<---------------------|<----T4
| |
(In these two examples, T1 is the same even if the UAC/UAS receives
the BYE instead of sending it.)
4.5.2. Failed session completion SDT
In some cases, no response is received after a session completion
message is sent and potentially retried. In this case, SDT is
defined as the interval between receiving the first bit of a 200 OK
response to an INVITE, and the resulting Timer F expiration. The
following flows provide an example of identifiable events necessary
for inputs in calculating SDT during a failed session completion
attempt:
Measuring SDT at the UAC -
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UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
T1---->|<---------------------|
/\ |BYE |
|| |--------------------->|
|| |BYE |
SDT |--------------------->|
|| |BYE |
|| |--------------------->|
\/ | |
T4---->|***Timer F Expires |
When measuring SDT at the UAS, SDT is defined as the interval between
sending the first bit of a 200 OK response to an INVITE, and the
resulting Timer F expiration. This is illustrated in the following
example message flow -
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
|--------------------->|
| 180|
|<---------------------|
| 200|
|<---------------------|<----T1
| BYE| /\
|<---------------------| ||
| BYE| ||
|<---------------------| SDT
| BYE| ||
|<---------------------| ||
| | \/
| Timer F Expires***|<----T4
4.6. Hops per Request (HpR)
This metric is used to indicate potential inefficient routing and to
detect failure occurrences related to the number of elements
traversed by a single SIP INVITE or MESSAGE request. HpR is defined
as the number of hops traversed by an INVITE or MESSAGE request.
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This metric requires the Max-Forwards value to be captured at both
the originating UAC or proxy and the terminating UAS or proxy
perspective as relative to the end-to-end network under measurement.
The output value of this metric is measured in a numerical value
indicating a number of hops.
The following variables MUST be captured for use in the HpR formula:
a = Initial INVITE/MESSAGE "Max-Forwards" value
b = Initial INVITE/MESSAGE received by terminating UAS "Max-
Forwards" value
c = # of Hops for INVITE/MESSAGE requests
Using the variables defined above, the HpR is calculated using the
following formula:
c = a - b
The following dialog provides an example describing the inputs
necessary for this calculation. Although this example is of an
INVITE SIP dialog request, a MESSAGE request is similar in its use of
the Max-Forwards header. (The dialog continuation was omitted for
clarity):
UA1 Proxy 1 Proxy 2 UA2
| | | |
|INVITE | | |
|--------------->| | |
| 407| | |
|<---------------| | |
|ACK | | |
|--------------->| | |
|INVITE (F4) | | |
|--------------->|INVITE (F5) | |
| 100|--------------->|INVITE (F6) |
|<---------------| 100|--------------->|
| |<---------------| |
Message Details (Only the message details of the INVITE messages have
been included for clarity. Also, some headers after Max-Forwards
have been omitted for additional clarity.):
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(F4) INVITE UA1 -> Proxy 1
INVITE sip:ua2@biloxi.example.com SIP/2.0
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP
client.atlanta.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK74bf9
Max-Forwards: 70
Route: <sip:ss1.atlanta.example.com;lr>
From: UA1 <sip:ua1@atlanta.example.com>;tag=9fxced76sl
To: UA2 <sip:ua2@biloxi.example.com>
(F5) INVITE Proxy 1 -> Proxy 2
INVITE sip:ua2@biloxi.example.com SIP/2.0
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP
ss1.atlanta.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK2d4790.1
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP
client.atlanta.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK74bf9
;received=192.0.2.101
Max-Forwards: 69
Record-Route: <sip:ss1.atlanta.example.com;lr>
From: UA1 <sip:ua1@atlanta.example.com>;tag=9fxced76sl
To: UA2 <sip:ua2@biloxi.example.com>
(F6) INVITE Proxy 2 -> UA2
INVITE sip:ua2@client.biloxi.example.com SIP/2.0
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP ss2.biloxi.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK721e4.1
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP
ss1.atlanta.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK2d4790.1
;received=192.0.2.111
Via: SIP/2.0/TCP
client.atlanta.example.com:5060;branch=z9hG4bK74bf9
;received=192.0.2.101
Max-Forwards: 68
Record-Route: <sip:ss2.biloxi.example.com;lr>,
<sip:ss1.atlanta.example.com;lr>
From: UA1 <sip:ua1@atlanta.example.com>;tag=9fxced76sl
To: UA2 <sip:ua2@biloxi.example.com>
4.7. Session Establishment Ratio (SER)
This metric is used to detect the ability of a terminating UA or
downstream proxy to successfully establish sessions per new session
INVITE requests. SER is defined as the number of new session INVITE
requests resulting in a 200 OK response, to the total number of
attempted INVITE requests less INVITE requests resulting in a 3XX
response. This metric is similar to Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR)
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[E.411] in telephony applications of SIP. It is measured at the UAC
only. The output value of this metric is numerical and SHOULD be
adjusted to indicate a percentage of successfully established
sessions. The SER is calculated using the following formula:
# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 200 OK
SER = --------------------------------------------------------- x 100
(Total # of INVITE Requests)-(# of INVITE Requests w/ 3XX Response)
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in determining session establishment as
described above:
UA1 UA2
| |
|INVITE |
+----------->|------------------>|
| | 180|
| |<------------------|
Session Established | |
| | |
| | 200|
+----------->|<------------------|
| |
4.7.1. Instant Messaging
This metric is also applicable to MESSAGE [RFC3428] requests. In the
above metric, INVITE can be replaced with MESSAGE to provide SER for
IM. The dialog will vary slightly as described in RFC 3428
[RFC3428].
The following flow provides an example of identifiable events
necessary for inputs in calculating SER for MESSAGE requests:
UA1 UA2
| |
|MESSAGE |
+----------->|------------------>|
| | |
Session Established | |
| | 200|
+----------->|<------------------|
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| |
4.8. Session Establishment Effectiveness Ratio (SEER)
This metric is complimentary to SER, but is intended to exclude the
potential effects of the terminating UAS from the metric. SEER is
defined as the number of INVITE requests resulting in a 200 OK
response and INVITE requests resulting in a 480, 486, or 600; to the
total number of attempted INVITE requests less INVITE requests
resulting in a 3XX, 401, 402, and 407 response. This metric is
similar to Network Effectiveness Ratio (NER) [E.411] in telephony
applications of SIP. It is measured at the UAC only. The output
value of this metric is numerical and SHOULD be adjusted to indicate
a percentage of successfully established sessions less common UAS
failures.
In order to simplify the formula, the following variable is used to
summarize multiple SIP responses:
a = 3XX, 401, 402, and 407
The SEER is calculated using the following formula:
# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 200 OK, 480, 486, or 600
SEER = -------------------------------------------------------- x 100
(Total # of INVITE Requests)-(# of INVITE Requests w/ 'a' Response)
Reference the example flow is Section 4.7.
4.9. Session Defects Ratio (SDR)
Session defects provide a subset of SIP failure responses, which
consistently indicate a failure in dialog processing. Defects are
necessary to provide input to calculations such as Defects per
Million (DPM) or other similar metrics. These failure responses are
in response to initial session setup requests, such as a new INVITE.
The output value of this metric is numerical and SHOULD be adjusted
to indicate a percentage of defective sessions. The following
failure responses provide a guideline for defective criterion:
o 500 Server Internal Error
o 503 Service Unavailable
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o 504 Server Timeout
This set of failure responses was derived through correlating more
granular ISUP failure responses as described in RFC 3398 [RFC3398].
The SDR is calculated using the following formula:
# of INVITE Requests w/ associated 500, 503, or 504
SDR = ----------------------------------------------------- x 100
Total # of INVITE Requests
4.10. Ineffective Session Attempts (ISA)
Ineffective session attempts occur when a proxy or agent internally
releases a setup request with a failed or overloaded condition. This
metric is similar to Ineffective Machine Attempts (IMA) in telephony
applications of SIP, and was adopted from Telcordia GR-512-CORE
[GR-512]. The output value of this metric is numerical and SHOULD be
adjusted to indicate a percentage of ineffective session attempts.
The following failure responses provide a guideline for this
criterion:
o 408 Request Timeout
o 500 Server Internal Error
o 503 Service Unavailable
o 504 Server Timeout
This set was derived in a similar manner as described in Section 4.9,
in addition 408 failure responses is indicative a overloaded state
with a downstream element.
This metric is calculated as a percentage of total session setup
requests. The ISA is calculated using the following formula:
# of ISA
ISA % = ----------------------------- x 100
Total # of Session Requests
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4.11. Session Disconnect Failures (SDF)
Session disconnect failures occur when an active session is
terminated due to a failure condition that can be identified by a
REASON header [RFC3326] in a BYE message. This occurs, for example,
when a user agent (UA) is controlling an IP or TDM (Time Division
Multiplexing) media gateway, and the media gateway notifies the UA of
a failure condition causing the loss of media related to an
established session. The UA will release the session with a BYE, but
SHOULD include a REASON header indicating the session was
disconnected abnormally. The REASON value is utilized to determine
the disconnect was a failure. This metric is similar to Cutoff Calls
(CC) in telephony applications of SIP, and was adopted from Telcordia
GR-512-CORE [GR-512]. The input variables for this metric are
captured from the originating UAC or proxy perspective as relative to
the end- to-end network under measurement. The output value of this
metric is numerical and SHOULD be adjusted to indicate a percentage
of session disconnect failures.
This metric is calculated as a percentage of total session completed
successfully as defined in Section 3.5. The SDF is calculated using
the following formula:
# of SDF's
SDF % = ------------------------------- x 100
Total # of Session Requests
4.12. Session Completion Ratio (SCR)
A session completion is defined as a SIP dialog, which completes
without failing due to a lack of response from an intended proxy or
UA. This metric is only used when at least one proxy is involved in
the dialog. This metric is similar to Call Completion Ratio (CCR) in
telephony applications of SIP. The output value of this metric is
numerical and SHOULD be adjusted to indicate a percentage of
successfully completed sessions.
This metric is calculated as a percentage of total sessions completed
successfully. The SCR is calculated using the following formula:
# of Successfully Completed Sessions
SCR % = --------------------------------------- x 100
Total # of Session Requests
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4.12.1. Successful Session Completion
A session completes successfully when it begins with a setup request
and ends with a session completion message.
The following dialog [RFC3665] provides an example describing the
necessary events of a successful session completion:
UA1 Proxy 1 Proxy 2 UA2
| | | |
|INVITE | | |
|--------------->| | |
| 407| | |
|<---------------| | |
|ACK | | |
|--------------->| | |
|INVITE | | |
|--------------->|INVITE | |
| 100|--------------->|INVITE |
|<---------------| 100|--------------->|
| |<---------------| |
| | | 180|
| | 180 |<---------------|
| 180|<---------------| |
|<---------------| | 200|
| | 200|<---------------|
| 200|<---------------| |
|<---------------| | |
|ACK | | |
|--------------->|ACK | |
| |--------------->|ACK |
| | |--------------->|
| Both Way RTP Media |
|<================================================>|
| | | BYE|
| | BYE|<---------------|
| BYE|<---------------| |
|<---------------| | |
|200 | | |
|--------------->|200 | |
| |--------------->|200 |
| | |--------------->|
| | | |
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4.12.2. Failed Session Completion
Session completion fails when an INVITE is sent from a UAC, but there
is no indication the INVITE reached the intended UAS. This can also
occur if the intended UAS does not respond to the UAC or the response
never reaches the UAC associated with the session.
The following dialog provides an example describing the necessary
events of an unsuccessful session completion:
UA1 Proxy 1 Proxy 2 UA2
| | | |
|INVITE | | |
|--------------->| | |
| 407| | |
|<---------------| | |
|ACK | | |
|--------------->| | |
|INVITE | | |
|--------------->|INVITE | |
| 100|--------------->|INVITE |
|<---------------| 100|--------------->|
| |<---------------| |
| | |INVITE |
| | |--------------->|
| | | |
| | |INVITE |
| | |--------------->|
| | | |
| | 408| |
| 408|<---------------| |
|<---------------|ACK | |
| |--------------->| |
|ACK | | |
|--------------->| | |
4.13. Session Success Ratio (SSR)
Session success ratio is defined as the percentage of successfully
completed sessions compared to sessions, which fail due to ISA or
SDF. This metric is also known as Call Success Ratio (CSR) in
telephony applications of SIP. The output value of this metric is
numerical and SHOULD be adjusted to indicate a percentage of
successful sessions. The SSR is calculated using the following
formula:
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SSR = 100% - (ISA% + SDF%)
5. Metric Correlations
These metrics may be used to determine the performance of a domain
and/or user. This would be to provide a metric relative to one or
more dimensions. The following is a subset of dimensions for
providing further granularity per metric:
o To "user"
o From "user"
o Bi-direction "user"
o To "domain"
o From "domain"
o Bi-direction "domain"
6. Additional Considerations
6.1. Back-to-back User Agent (B2BUA)
A B2BUA may impact the ability to collect these metrics with an end-
to-end perspective. It is necessary to realize a B2BUA may act as an
originating UAC and terminating UAS or it may act as a proxy. In
some cases, it may be necessary to consider information collected
from both sides of the B2BUA in order to determine the end-to-end
perspective. In other cases, the B2BUA may act simply as a proxy
allowing data to be derived as necessary for the input into any of
the listed calculations.
6.2. Authorization and Authentication
During the process of setting up a SIP dialog, various authentication
methods may be utilized. These authentication methods will add to
the duration as measured by the metrics, and the length of time will
vary based on those methods. The failures of these authentication
methods will also be captured by these metrics, since SIP is
ultimately used to indicate the success or failure of the
authorization and/or authentication attempt. The metrics in section
3 are inclusive of the duration associated with this process, even if
the method is external to the SIP protocol. This was included
purposefully, due to its inherent impact on the protocol and the
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subsequent SIP dialogs.
6.3. Forking
Forking SHOULD be considered when determining the messages associated
with the input values for the described metrics. If all of the
forked dialogs were used in the metric calculations, the numbers
would skew dramatically. There are two different points of forking,
which MUST be considered. First, forking may occur at a proxy
downstream from the UAC that is being used for metric input values.
Since, the downstream proxy is responsible for forking a message and
then only sending the accepted response to the UAC, the UAC will only
see messages as indicated in the described metrics. Second, in the
cases where the observed UAC or proxy is forking the messages, then
it MUST utilize the first INVITE or set of INVITE messages sent and
the first accepted 200 OK. A tag will identify this dialog as
distinct from the other 200 OK responses, which are acknowledged and
an immediate BYE is sent. The application responsible for capturing
and/or understanding the input values MUST utilize this tag to
distinguish between dialogs.
6.4. Data Collection
The input necessary for these calculations may be collected in a
number of different manners. It may be collected or retrieved from
call detail records (CDR) or raw signaling information generated by a
proxy or UA. When using records, time synchronization MUST be
considered between applicable elements.
The information may also be transmitted through the use of network
management protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
and via future extensions to the SIP Management Information Base
(MIB) modules [RFC4780], or through a potential undefined new
performance metric event package [RFC3265] retrieved via SUBSCRIBE
requests.
Data may be collected for a sample of calls or all calls, and may
also be derived from test call scenarios. These metrics are flexible
based on the needs of the application.
6.5. Testing Documentation
In some cases, these metrics will be used to provide output values to
signify the performance level of a specific SIP-based element. When
using these metrics in a test environment, the environment MUST be
accurately documented for the purposes of replicating any output
values in future testing and/or validation.
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7. Conclusions
The proposed guideline provides a description of common performance
metrics, and their defined use with SIP. The use of these metrics
will provide a common viewpoint across all vendors, service
providers, and users. These metrics will likely be utilized in
production SIP environments for providing input regarding Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) and Service Level Agreement (SLA)
indications; however, they may also be used for testing end-to-end
SIP-based service environments.
8. IANA Considerations
There are no IANA considerations at this time.
9. Security Considerations
Security SHOULD be considered in the aspect of securing the relative
data utilized in providing input to the above calculations. All
other aspects of security SHOULD be considered as described in RFC
3261 [RFC3261].
10. Contributors
The following people made substantial contributions to this work:
Carol Davids Illinois Institute of Technology
Marian Delkinov Ericsson
Adam Uzelac Global Crossing
Jean-Francois Mule CableLabs
Rich Terpstra Level 3 Communications
11. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank John Hearty and Dean Bayless for their efforts
in reviewing the draft and providing insight regarding clarification
of certain aspects described throughout the draft. We also thank Dan
Romascanu for his insightful comments and Vijay Gurbani for agreeing
to perform the role of document shepherd.
12. References
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12.1. Normative References
[E.411] ITU-T, "Series E: Overall Network Operation, Telephone
Service, Service Operation and Human Factors", E.411 ,
March 2000.
[E.721] ITU-T, "Series E: Overall Network Operation, Telephone
Service, Service Operation and Human Factors", E.411 ,
May 1999.
[GR-512] Telcordia, "LSSGR: Reliability, Section 12", GR-512-
CORE Issue 2, January 1998.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC3261] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,
A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
June 2002.
[RFC3265] Roach, A., "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-Specific
Event Notification", RFC 3265, June 2002.
[RFC3326] Schulzrinne, H., Oran, D., and G. Camarillo, "The Reason
Header Field for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)",
RFC 3326, December 2002.
[RFC3428] Campbell, B., Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Huitema, C.,
and D. Gurle, "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension
for Instant Messaging", RFC 3428, December 2002.
[RFC3665] Johnston, A., Donovan, S., Sparks, R., Cunningham, C., and
K. Summers, "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Basic Call
Flow Examples", BCP 75, RFC 3665, December 2003.
[RFC4780] Lingle, K., Mule, J-F., Maeng, J., and D. Walker,
"Management Information Base for the Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP)", RFC 4780, April 2007.
12.2. Informative References
[RFC2330] Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J., and M. Mathis,
"Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330,
May 1998.
[RFC3398] Camarillo, G., Roach, A., Peterson, J., and L. Ong,
"Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) User Part
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(ISUP) to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Mapping",
RFC 3398, December 2002.
Authors' Addresses
Daryl Malas
CableLabs
858 Coal Creek Circle
Louisville, CO 80027
US
Phone: +1 303 661 3302
Email: d.malas@cablelabs.com
Al Morton
AT&T Labs
200 Laurel Avenue South
Middletown, NJ 07748
US
Phone: +1 732 420 1571
Email: acmorton@att.com
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