BattleMeshV5 Tests

General Rules

• routing protocol configuration shall be the same for every test
• routing protocols are tested in turn (i.e. not altogether)
• cpu and memory consumption will be tracked during each test
• no points, just results and a final analysis

Tests

Be Quick or Be Stable Test

To be performed on a subset of the nodes

 +----+
 | L1 |-----(A) : : : : : : (B)
 +----+      :       r1      |
             :               |
             :               |
             : r2            |
             :               |
             :            +----+
            (C)-----------| L2 |
                          +----+

• L1, L2: laptops
• A, B, C: wireless nodes
• link A-B uses association rate r1
• link A-C uses association rate r2

• r2 > r1

• - and | are cables
• : are wireless links

Steps

1. perform a continuous traceroute (mtr or wathever) from L1 to L2
2. load the network with UDP (iperf or wathever) from L1 to L2
3. start a 21 minutes download from L2 to L1
4. see how many times (if any) the route flaps in 21 minutes
5. see if the routing protocol prefers the slow or the fast route
6. only 1x for each protocol

Goals

Check the stability of the routing protocol, and if the metric is effective.

References

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZLv2G0Hhn4

The ZooBab Test

To be performed on a subset of the nodes

 +----+
 | L1 |-----(A) : : : : : : (B)
 +----+      :       x       :
             :               :
           x :               : x
             :               :   
             :               :
             :               :
            (C)             (E)       
             |               |        +----+
            (D) : : : : : : (F)-------| L2 |
                     y                +----+

• L1, L2: laptops
• A, B, C, E: nodes set on channel x
• D, F: nodes set on channel y
• - and | are cables
• : are wireless links

Steps

1. load the network with TCP (iperf or wathever) from L1 to L2
2. sleep for 3 minutes

3. perform a traceroute from L1 to L2 and see if the routing protocol chooses the best route (L1->A->C->D->F->L2)

4. repeat 3x for each protocol

Goal

See if the routing protocol prefers the channel-changing route, by design or by just because is the best path.

Convergence Time Test

To be performed on the whole mesh

           .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.       
    (A) : (                       ) 
         (                         )     
          (                       )
         (           (N)           )
          (                       )
         (                         )     
          (                       ) : (B)
         (        MESH CLOUD       )     
          .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Steps - part 1

1. traceroute from one end (node A) to the other (node B) of the mesh until the path is stable

2. find a critical node N in the path so that

   1. has good quality links with its neighbors (possibly more than one)
   2. if shut down the network does not split

3. start a ping from A to B

4. turn off N

5. count the number of pings from the first lost ping to the first subsequent successful ping
6. repeat 3x for each protocol

Steps - part 2

1. start a continuous traceroute (mtr or wathever) from node A to node B

2. turn back on node N and start a stopwatch

3. measure the time needed to get the node N (back) into the traceroute

Goal

Just convergence time.

Don't Cross the Streams Test

To be performed on the whole mesh

 +----+            .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.            +----+
 | L1 |-----(A) : (                       ) : (C)-----| L3 |
 +----+          (                         )          +----+
                  (                       )
                 (          MESH           )
                  (         CLOUD         )
 +----+          (                         )          +----+
 | L4 |-----(D) : (                       ) : (B)-----| L2 |
 +----+          (                         )          +----+
                  .~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

• L1, L2, L3, L4: laptops
• A, B, C, D: edge wireless nodes

Steps

1. start, at the same time:
   1. a TCP stream between L1 to L2
   2. a TCP stream between L3 to L4
   3. a stopwatch
2. sleep for 21 minutes
3. measure the total number of bytes transferred
4. only 1x for each protocol

Goal

See if the routing protocol can choose the paths for the two streams that maximizes throughput.

References

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaLZHiJJnE