Load testing
Finding out the capacity threshold of your system
Examples
Early load testing is a vitally important part of testing any IP-based network or service before commercial launch. To be able to deliver the service level customers are expecting, it is crucial to find out what the capacity threshold of your system is and make fixes if necessary.
Even a well-designed service does not bring value to the customer if it crashes under a heavy user load. On the other hand, over-investment in network infrastructure can be avoided, if the actual capacity has been confirmed to meet the SLA commitments.
A well-tested network is a reliable and profitable network:
- consistent level of service to customers
- optimized investment on infrastructure
- quick recovery from problems avoids downtime
From the service continuity standpoint, it is crucial to understand the limits of the system and the functionality of the recovery processes.
Load testing an early-stage system
Load testing an early stage network may seem either unnecessary or impossible, or both. However, it is well worth the effort to detect and fix flaws early.
Using the Ruge IP load generator, a traffic load can be created from recorded traces for capacity testing.
The same traces can be modified, to create negative testing scenarios.
Even malicious traffic scenarios can be created and launched towards the system.
Rugged IP load generator Ruge
Ruge is capable of generating a massive IP load up to full line rate in a matter of milliseconds. To verify the system capacity, the generated data can be set according to certain specifications or SLA commitments.
Data amounts outside the specifications can be used for provocative testing purposes and finding capacity thresholds.
Rugged Tooling provides traffic profiles for different traffic scenarios to ensure the data is as realistic as possible and gives realistic test results. Ruge is suited for latency measurements, pass through check and data verification.
With Ruge, it is possible to generate an increasing traffic load to find out exactly where the capacity threshold for the given network lies. With Rugged Tooling’s intelligent test solutions, you can stress test your network elements easily with varying traffic profiles and with the right type of data.
