RE: Network Speed Testing and Monitoring Platform

[Philip Loenneker <Philip.Loenneker () tasmanet com au>]

Hi Colton,

Sorry for getting your name switched around last time, I only just noticed that!

A specific TR-069 implementation that I know has the speed test function is UMP Cloud, however I’m not sure exactly how 
it does it. You can see their spiel here:
https://www.avsystem.com/products/cloud-ump/

That said, TR-143 includes a time-based throughput test, so that you can test for defined number of seconds instead of 
a particular file size. That should allow you to suitably test any speed service. Refer to section 4.3 in the following 
document:
https://www.broadband-forum.org/technical/download/TR-143.pdf

Regards,
Philip Loenneker | Network Engineer | TasmaNet


From: Colton Conor <colton.conor () gmail com>
Sent: Saturday, 19 January 2019 1:34 AM
To: Philip Loenneker <Philip.Loenneker () tasmanet com au>
Cc: NANOG <nanog () nanog org>
Subject: Re: Network Speed Testing and Monitoring Platform

Philip,

Which TR-069 tools are you referring to? I looked at TR-143, but its my understanding it downloads a small file (like 
50MB) from the TR-069 server to the CPE's ram. Then uploads the file back. Unfortunately I couldn't see how this would 
reliability test 1Gbps connections. Can you increase the file size? Most of these modems have like 128MB ram right now?

On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 5:07 PM Philip Loenneker <Philip.Loenneker () tasmanet com au<mailto:Philip.Loenneker () 
tasmanet com au>> wrote:
Connor,

If you use the Traffic Generator tool instead of the Bandwidth Test tool built into MikroTik, you can definitely flood 
a 1Gbps link. However it requires the device to receive the packets that it has sent out, so it’s only viable for links 
with the same up/down speed.

We have been investigating some TR-069 platforms, and several of those offer speed test functionality built in. This 
means our helpdesk guys can just click a few buttons to trigger it, it only talks to the CPE (nothing on customer LAN), 
and people don’t need to know how to configure the test other than “click here”. TR-069 also has a lot of other 
advantages which you can easily discover with a quick search.

Regards,
Philip Loenneker | Network Engineer | TasmaNet

From: NANOG <nanog-bounces () nanog org<mailto:nanog-bounces () nanog org>> On Behalf Of Colton Conor
Sent: Friday, 18 January 2019 12:17 AM
To: James Bensley <jwbensley () gmail com<mailto:jwbensley () gmail com>>
Cc: NANOG <nanog () nanog org<mailto:nanog () nanog org>>
Subject: Re: Network Speed Testing and Monitoring Platform

All, thanks for the recommendations both on and off list.

It has been brought to my attention that a Mikrotik has a bandwidth speed test tool built into their operating system. 
Someone recommended a https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2 for MSRP of $69. The release notes of the newest version say:

!) speedtest - added "/tool speed-test" for ping latency, jitter, loss and TCP and UDP download, upload speed 
measurements (CLI only);
*) btest - added multithreading support for both UDP and TCP tests;

Do you think this device can push a full 1Gbps connection? It does have a quad core qualcom processor.

Besides mikrotik, I haven't found anything that doesn't require me to build a solution. Like OpenWRT with ipef3, or 
something like that.

Seems like a commercial solution would exist for this.  I though CAF providers have to test bandwidth for the FCC 
randomly to get funding?

On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 2:59 AM James Bensley <jwbensley () gmail com<mailto:jwbensley () gmail com>> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jan 2019 at 16:54, Colton Conor <colton.conor () gmail com<mailto:colton.conor () gmail com>> wrote:
> As an internet service provider with many small business and residential customers, our most common tech support 
> calls are speed related. Customers complaining on slow speeds, slowdowns, etc.
>
> We have a SNMP and ping monitoring platform today, but that mainly tells us up-time and if data is flowing across the 
> interface. We can of course see the link speed, but customer call in saying the are not getting that speed.
>
> We are looking for a way to remotely test customers internet connections besides telling the customer to go to 
> speedtest.net<http://speedtest.net>, or worse sending a tech out with a laptop to do the same thing.
>
> What opensource and commercial options are out there?

Hi Colton,

In the past I have used CPEs which support remote loopback. When the
customer complains we enable remote loopback, send the traffic to that
customers connection (rather than requiring a CPE that can generate
the traffic or having an on site device) and measuring what comes
back.

Cheers,
James.