Open Source Software for Evaluation of Applications and Traffic Measurement in an Experimental Testbed for Converged Networks P. H. P. DE CARVALHO 1 , H. ABDALLA JR 1 , A. M. SOARES 1 , L. MARTINS 1 , P. SOLÍS BARRETO 3 , R. LAMBERT 2 , G. AMVAME-NZE 2 , R. S. BIZERRA 2 , M. BRAVO 2 1,2 Department of Electrical Engineering, 3 Department of Computer Science, University of Brasília Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro - Asa Norte CEP 70910-900, BRASÍLIA - DF – BRASIL 1 {paulo,abdalla,martins,lucio}@ene.unb.br, 2 { roquelam,georges, martin,renato}@labcom.unb.br, 3 {pris@cic.unb.br} Abstract In this paper we present the development and validation of an experimental platform based in open source software and the development of a package for monitoring purposes. The software package with its components is described and validated through a group of tests and examples. These results are the initial support for future research which includes new ideas in the NGN (Next Generation Networks) topics, such as QoS (Quality of Service) mechanisms, traffic characterization and MPLS (Multi-protocol Label Switching) hybrid routing. The procedures shown in this paper may give other research groups an overview of the primary steps for the implementation of a research lab with similar interests. Keywords- convergence, networks, QoS monitoring, MOS, traffic characterization, traffic measurement. 1. Introduction 2. 1 The rapid growth of services and applications driven by the IP protocol trend to the packet switched network as the natural choice for the future of telecommunications. Moreover, the migration of all services to IP (Internet Protocol), require guaranteeing QoS (Quality of Service) specially for real time applications which results in the need to provide fast provisioning and scalability in order to offer multi-service capabilities [1]. Considering the above topics, we designed a testbed configuration, that in a first moment will allow to interact with different protocols, in a second moment will integrate different equipments of different vendors in a close to reality environment, and finally, under simulation studies of different kinds of traffic flows will prove its accuracy and the necessary adjustments for future research This work presents a testbed and a software package that aim to implement a reliable 1 This work was supported by Anatel (Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações), CNPQ (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico), CAPES (Conselho de Aperfeiçoamento de Ensino Superior) and FINATEC (Fundação de Empreendimentos Científicos e Tecnológicos). environment for converged networks topics research. This environment was developed at the Labcom-ENE-FT-University of Brasilia, a laboratory founded from the collaboration of the academic community and the telecom companies. This work is organized as follows: in section 2 we describe the testbed as well as the equipments involved and their functionality. Also in this section, we describe the software package, formed by three main elements: a remote QoS monitor and administrator, a end-to-end QoS tool which considers traffic characterization for multimedia applications and an objective MOS classificator for VoIP applications. In section 3, relied on the testbed and with the use of the software package mentioned above, we show the validation of the testbed and a set of diagnosis, which intend to demonstrate the potentiality of future developments and improvements. Finally, in section 4 we present our conclusions and future work. 2. The Experimental Environment 2.1 The Testbed The testbed structure is shown in Fig. 1. Basically, it is formed by five different networks: a PSTN (Public Switched Telephony Network), an ADSL (Assymetric Digital Subscriber Line) access network, two local area networks (LANs), a wireless LAN and a MPLS/Diffserv core. The PSTN is formed with two local exchanges. The ADSL network, two local area networks and a wireless LAN are both interconnected by the MPLS core, so in this way, we concentrate the traffic from different sources in an unique point. The MPLS/Diffserv core has four routers, based on the open source MPLS implementation [2]. The routers are interconnected by 10/100 Mbps links. The first router, LSR01, connects three LANs to the core, and the LSR03, via a radio link of 2 Mbps, connects the fourth LAN. The routers LSR02 and LSR04 are the forwarding elements of the core. All the routers are based on the Linux OS. The MPLS core has support for Diffserv as well as MPLS tunnels establishment. 1-4244-0106-2/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE