Implementing and Operating Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies (ENCOR) v1.2InfrastructureMedium
A network operations team is preparing for a major software upgrade on their core routing infrastructure. Before the upgrade, they want to establish a baseline of network performance, specifically focusing on end-to-end delay, jitter, and packet loss for critical voice traffic paths. Which feature can be used to generate synthetic traffic and measure these specific metrics?
- ASyslog
- BIP SLA
- CSNMP
- DNetFlow
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. IP SLA
IP Service Level Agreements (IP SLA) can generate synthetic traffic (e.g., UDP jitter) and measure various network performance metrics such as end-to-end delay, jitter, and packet loss, which is ideal for baselining and monitoring critical traffic paths.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Syslog collects log messages from devices for event notification, but it does not generate traffic or measure performance metrics.
- C. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) collects management information from devices, but it does not generate traffic or directly measure end-to-end performance metrics like jitter.
- D. NetFlow collects information about actual traffic flows, but does not generate synthetic traffic or directly measure delay/jitter/packet loss with the precision of IP SLA.
IP SLA
IP Service Level Agreements (IP SLA) is a Cisco feature that generates and analyzes traffic to measure network performance metrics like jitter, latency, packet loss, and more, for proactive monitoring and troubleshooting.
- Generates synthetic traffic.
- Measures end-to-end performance metrics.
- Supports various operation types (UDP Jitter, ICMP Echo).
- Used for baselining, QoS verification, and troubleshooting.
Memory trick: To know the 'SLA' of your 'IP' path, generate traffic and measure its wrath.