Argus Loss and Jitter reporting

[Carter Bullard]

Hey Ricardo,
Hopefully you download argus-2.0.3 or the newest version
argus-2.0.4.beta.5, as these are the latest versions available.
See http://qosient.com/argus/downloads.htm if you need a pointer.

Packet loss metrics are calculated automatically for TCP connections,
RTP and ESP connections but in order to measure jitter, you need
to run argus with the -J option or turn on the option in the
/etc/argus.conf file that is supplied with the distribution
(./support/Config).  Set the ARGUS_GENERATE_JITTER_DATA variable
to "yes".

Argus will now generate micro-flow activity records that include jitter
metrics.  In order to read the loss and jitter values, use raxml(),
as it prints the values in a manner that is easy to digest.

To look at flow records that have TCP retransmissions, you can
use the "retrans" filter keyword to select just those connections that
had TCP retransmissions, which Argus uses to indicate packet loss.
Using raxml() to read the values, run:

   raxml -r argus.data - retrans | less

This will printout a lot of stuff.  The retransmission and loss data is
in
the <<ExtFlow> <TCPExtFlow  <TCPExtMetrics >>> sub-record.
The number of retransmitted packets is one value that Argus provides,
and the number of dropped bytes from the Src to the Dst can be
calculated
as (SrcTCPBytes - SrcTCPAckBytes).  Dst to Src can be calculated from
as (DstTCPBytes - DstTCPAckBytes).

The jitter data is labeled <ArgusTimeStats> and the values will be
reported as <SrcIdle  n = x MeanUsec = x StdDev = x MaxUsec = x MinUsec
= x /> 
and there is one for the <DstIdle  n = x .....>.  These will be the
interpacket
arrival time means, std.... as sent from the Src, and from the Dst.

These tools are all in development, so please, if there are any
problems, or
if you have any suggestions, please send mail to the argus mailing list.

Carter

Carter Bullard
QoSient, LLC
300 E. 56th Street, Suite 18K
New York, New York  10022

carter at qosient.com
Phone +1 212 588-9133
Fax   +1 212 588-9134
http://qosient.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ricardo J Castaneda [mailto:rcasta at tyr.mty.itesm.mx] 
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 6:56 PM
To: carter at qosient.com
Subject: Argus


Hi !

I've downloaded Argus-2.0.0.
Im quite interested in measuring packet loss as well as jittering.

What do I have to do ???

(is it has to be installed on 2 end nodes ?)

kind regards,