Warren Matthews, PhD Research Scientist II Office of Information Technology w arren.matthews@oit.gatech.edu

1. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance Warren Matthews, PhD Research Scientist II Office of Information Technology warren.matthews@oit.gatech.edu Lisa Flynn, EdS Chemistry and Technology Integration Osborne High School, Cobb County Schools lisa.flynn@cobbk12.org

2. Abstract • We will present quantitative data of network performance from school districts around Georgia, and describe the limitations it sets for the performance of education applications in the classroom. The measurements will also be put in perspective by examining the districts own technology plan. The session is suitable for both IT support staff and teachers interested in the use of technology to enhance their classes.

3. Funding GAMMON is funded in part by

4. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance. Part 1: What and why?

5. What is GAMMON? • The Georgia Measurement and Monitoring (GAMMON) project gathers quantitative data about network and application performance. • Troubleshooting, Planning (analytics, business intelligence), Security, Inventory. • Provide the quantitative evidence to back-up qualitative experiences. • Since 2006, revitalized in 2011. If you don’t measure, you don’t know. (Kevin Walsh, UCSD) Measure, measure, measure. (Rico Mariani, Microsoft)

6. Active Measurements Active measurements inject additional traffic onto the network to determine end-to-end performance across the Internet. GAMMON Server GAMMON Server Internet GAMMON servers are placed at the edge of the school district network, making tests and measuring performance across the Internet between each other. GAMMON Server

7. Passive Monitoring Passive monitoring is peeking at real traffic as it goes by, not adding to the traffic on the network. Internet Core Switch GAMMON Server GAMMON servers can gather data as they enter and leave the district. ES MS HS Admin

8. Why? • Network demand in the classroom has quadrupled over the last five years. • In a 2010 Federal Communications Commissions survey of E-rate connected schools, nearly 80% of respondents reported that they had inadequate bandwidth to meet educational needs.

10. Learning Management Systems

11. Direct-To-Discovery GT Professor Lisa Yaszek leading a book discussion between GT class and middle school kids in Barrow County. GT Professor Jim Sowell leading an astronomy lesson with classroom in Australia.

12. Application Performance Not interactive Highly interactive HD video conferencing Gaming Telephone call Web surfing Email • High bandwidth • Low latency • Low jitter • Low bandwidth • Latencyand jitter are almost unimportant When you’re out for a Sunday Drive. When you’ve got to get to the Airport.

13. Motivation (1/2). • Is it feasible to expect schools to do more and more online? • Governor’s Digital Education Task Force. • “I learned with paper and pencil. Today’s students learn with light” (Anonymous). • But many school districts in Georgia experience slow downloads, choppy audio and video. Access points are maxed out. Online resources too have downtime.

14. Motivation (2/2). • Teachers are expected to teach bell-to-bell, but they can’t if they’re waiting for the technology. Many report that this is the rule, not the exception. • Our assumption is this disrupts online learning. • Not surprisingly, districts want to know what is going on in their network. • but report that they are blind, or partially blind.

15. Why develop more tools? • Varying levels of hardware and software to monitor traffic. • Do not reinvent the wheel, but • Common platform to compare results. • Cost of GAMMON vs numerous commercial tools. • Extra pair of eyes. • Share the philosophy of research.

16. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance. Part 2: History and background

17. Can we be Friends? • Similarities with the research community • Bandwidth is required but not sufficient. • Development of Research networks (15-20 years ago) • Research and education are birds of a feather.

18. perfSONAR

19. Capacity • Is it enough? • Now? • Next month? • Next Year? • How do you know? • What do the school districts plan to do with online learning?

20. Current Deployment. Currently there are 18 GAMMON servers deployed around Georgia. Each server measures the one-way delay and route to all the others. Data is being gathered but analysis and interpretation is required. The current servers are mostly reused machines from older projects. GAMMON itself grew out of CPR, an on-campus measurement project.

21. Problem. This graph show the round trip time (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a school district central office . We look “under the hood” and see what causes the slow downloads, choppy audioand video. Think about the time it takes to drive through Atlanta at different times of the day. Round Trip Time Day of the month In the evenings and weekends, delay is 5 milliseconds, just like driving on I-85. Severely congested connections mean long delays, just like driving on I-85.

22. Solution. 2.4 milliseconds Round Trip Time 2.2 milliseconds Day of the month This graph show the delay (in milliseconds) between the clean room at Georgia Tech and a school district central office . Compare to the problem graph – good connectivity is like your own private Peach Pass.

23. Example of an Upgrade. Barrow County School System upgraded from 20 Mbps to 150 Mbps. Immediately see usage 2-3x previous capacity. More capacity means less congestion. Less Congestion enables interactive applications. Interactive Applications enhance learning, especially when combined with the right teacher and the right opportunities.

24. Putnam County Schools • "GAMMON greatly helped me sell the need for bandwidth to my school board.” • -Keith Ellenberg, Chief Operating Officer, • Putnam County Charter School System

25. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance. Part 3: Measurements

26. Achievable Bandwidth Preliminary Preliminary * Barrow, Ware, Gilmer, Sumter, Clarke, Dawson, White, and Rabun have multiple providers.

27. Achievable Bandwidth Per Student • The only good network is one that is not a bottleneck. • Measurements will be put into context. Preliminary Another view is under development.

28. Smokeping

29. Network Map Might replace MRTG with Cacti.

30. Hosts Hosts seen by school. Last 5 minutes. Last Hour. Yesterday.

31. NMAP • Create a database of ports • Track services • Detect Changes • Evaluate free tools • Intrusion detection

32. Total Traffic by Protocol Evaluating plugin to monitor SYN and RST packets

33. Traffic by Application

34. Traffic by Destination

35. Pythia • Pythia uses GAMMON measurements to detect and diagnose network problems.

36. More Tools • Work in Progress • Verify Content Filters • More External measurement • PAM tools • More Internal measurements • More netflow analytics • SYN Flood • Routing (especially multi-homed).

37. Join the Website • https://gammon.gatech.edu • Not much to see yet.

38. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance. Part 4: What does it all mean?

39. Summary • GAMMON quantified network performance • Provides decision makers with data based information to improve network performance • improves network utilization in the classroom decreasing loss of valuable educational time • Limitations are identified using the data which are impeding the performance of educational applications and media in the classroom. • Work in Progress • Catch up at GAMEIS or GAETC next year.

40. Conclusions and Recommendations • Even with a small sample, variation in performance and philosophy is huge. • Many districts suffer congestion. • No surprises but graphs to prove it. • We assume this impacts learning. • How much is enough? • External bottlenecks -> internal bottlenecks.

41. This year (2013-2014) • More measurements, More analysis • Readiness Index • District’s Technology Plans • Summer 2014 • Performance workshop and GAMMON training. • Secure K-12 workshop • We hope to have funding to increase deployment next year • What if you can’t wait?

42. How to get involved • Let us know you’re interested. • Join the monthly conference call. • Install your own server • We can provide specs • Install software, Provide access for us to analyze. • Create account on website. • Allow us to share information amongst the community.

43. Contact Us. • For more information, please contact Warren Matthews • warren.matthews@oit.gatech.edu • 678-992-9185

44. Thanks • Bill Price and GTA • Bob Swiggum, Rep. Mike Dudgeon, Joseph Barrow. • Annette, Gino, Leon, Suren

45. Thanks • And especially all the sites that host servers, and the people that got them there. • John St.Clair, Morad El-Jourbagy, Jeremy Caswell, Terry Treadgill, Phil Kline, Keith Ellenberg, Sam Ganas, Carol Helton, Jodi Perdue, William Sperin, Chris Usrey, John Call, JeffereyHarrel, Twanda Banks, Charlie Coleman, Aubrey Jones, David Smith, Taylor Duke, Tim Maynard.

46. What Everyone Needs to Know About Network Performance. Any Questions?