« Blogeneering | Main | Open-source network measurement »
March 19, 2003
Metrics, the network operator and the network user
Jim has been writing about another aspect of network measurement.
Since I first started working with networks in the pre-Mosaic days, I've been intrigued by network operations and particularly network metrics.
Network users think about the network much differently than network operators. As a network user, even a technical user, my perception of the network is based on how my applications perform over the network. I get accustomed to applications responding in a certain way, and when they perform differently--even slightly--I notice it.
A network operator sees the network much differently. Usually the network operator is connected to the network much better than the users are. The operator also uses a different set of applications--the ones that manage the network--than users do, and the management applications rarely run over the network in the same way user applications do. Network operators interact differently with the network management applications, and network problems rarely impact the way the management applications work.
The best measurement of a network is how it performs for the people that use it. Few network management tools can measure more than a few factors that related to user experience. The metrics they measure are sometimes relevant (especially when something breaks), but just because the metrics are good doesn't mean that the user experience is good. Unfortunately, this is not often recognized by network operators, who will usually point to all the green lights on their management tool and tell the network user it can't be a network problem, must be "something else". But if the user can prove it's a network problem, the operator will be "happy" to look into it further.
The irony is that when that operator goes home and becomes a network user (especially if it's on someone else's network), he will immediately switch metrics and measure the network like any other user. Other metrics (like those he uses at work) are only used when he senses theres a problem because applications don't work normally.
The more I've thought about it, the more I believe that the reason why network operators have a different perspective than their users is simply because they don't have the metrics to measure their users' experience. I think that if operators could measure metrics relevant to their users' experience, those would quickly become the most important metrics and the other metrics--the metrics they rely on solely now--would supplement and fill in the detail of the user experience metrics.
Posted by pete at March 19, 2003 10:48 PM
Comments
I agree whole-heartedly! I am looking to developing network metrics that will measure the users' experience. I need to know how a particular network is operating from the user's perspective.
Do you have any ideas, samples or thoughts that can put me in the ball park and maybe save me some time?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Errol
Posted by: Errol Ballance at February 3, 2004 7:52 AM