Implementing perfSONAR in the South African National Research and Education Network

Abstract

The South African National Research Network (SANReN) serves over 1 million users who expect high performance. To ensure optimal operation, rapid detection and correction of abnormalities is crucial. PerfSONAR is a network measurement toolkit that can be used to test and monitor end-to-end network performance and achieve this goal. The tools provided can verify the limits of a network (primarily in terms of throughput and loss/latency) and reveal faults and issues. The SANReN team use perfSONAR to evaluate the network on a hop-by-hop basis with test results conveyed through a dashboard for rapid visualisation and alerting. There are many cases where it has proven its utility in the SANReN network. This paper provides an overview of the SANReN and perfSONAR prior to covering the deployment scenario and use cases to highlight the benefits provided.