Computer Laboratory

A First Look at Data Center Network Conditions Through The Eyes of PTPmesh

Authors: Diana Andreea Popescu, Andrew W. Moore.

Abstract

Increased network latency and packets losses can affect substantially application performance. Due to the scale of data centers, custom network monitoring tools have been developed to measure network latency and packet loss. In our previous work, we used the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to measure one-way delay and to quantify packet loss ratios, and we proposed PTPmesh as a cloud network monitoring tool. In this work, we provide a better understanding on how to exploit the measurement data offered by PTPmesh and present a detailed analysis of PTPmesh measurements collected in ten data centers from three cloud providers. Our findings reveal different latency, latency variance and packet loss characteristics across data centers. Through our analysis, we showcase the strengths and limitations of PTPmesh as a cloud network monitoring tool. To foster further research in this area, we make our dataset available to the public.

For any questions, please contact Diana Andreea Popescu at diana.popescu@cl.cam.ac.uk

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