Network Performance Testing: Measuring Quality of Service

In my previous video, I showed you how I used the Netscout OptiView XG’s throughput test to determine if the Ubiquiti Router X would meet my client’s needs.

In this video, I use another option within the OptiView XG that performs quality testing. This can test whether network performance conforms with your carrier's service-level agreement. It can analyze bandwidth, packet loss or jitter of your carrier's link.

For example, testing might show that you have 5% packet loss or 3 milliseconds of jitter, but does that mean it would have a noticeable impact on your network performance and fall short of the SLA? Whatever tool you use should have a configurable screen that reports a pass or fail.

In this test, I want to see how well the router will perform when I specify a 150 Mb circuit and other specific loss and jitter parameters. The OptiView XG has many more criteria that you can set, but I chose to leave those alone for these tests.

A feature I like in OptiView XG tests the configuration before it runs a full-blown test. This is extremely helpful because the XG reports why it failed, so you can adjust your test parameters and know if they're valid before running extended tests.