Configure gateway parameters

When you use NV Network Editor to create an NV profile, you can specify gateway parameters.

Overview

When network virtualization is applied, gateway parameters are used to emulate the behavior of access gateways on the real networks. For example, in the NV profile, you can specify the bandwidth or queue limitation that a specific gateway imposes on the actual network.

Note:

  • Entering gateway parameters is optional when you configure an NV profile.
  • The definitions of the gateway parameters are the same for both the client and the server gateways.

The gateway parameters can be configured separately for incoming and outgoing traffic.

Gateway parameters include bandwidth settings and queue settings.

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Bandwidth settings

You can select pre-defined bandwidth settings, specify custom bandwidth settings, or import recorded settings from a file.

You can specify different bandwidth values for upstream network traffic and downstream network traffic.

Note: The following procedures are valid for both the upstream and downstream settings.

To define bandwidth settings:

  1. In the NV Network Editor, on the Client Gateway or the Server Gateway page, select one of the following options:

    • Predefined: Select one of the available values. The available values correspond to common bandwidth settings, such as T1.
    • Custom: Specify a specific bandwidth. Valid values are between 2.4 and 10,000,000 Kbps.
    • Recorded: Import recorded bandwidth settings from an .ntx file. Click Choose File to select a file. For details, see Import recorded bandwidth settings.
  2. Click OK.

Import recorded bandwidth settings

You can import recorded parameters from an .ntx file directly into a virtual location, as described in Configure a virtual location. Import the recorded parameters into an NV profile using NV Network Editor only if you want to edit the recorded parameters before importing them into a virtual location.

Importing recorded network conditions is supported only for Vuser groups that share the specified bandwidths, not for Vuser groups that allocate the specified bandwidth to each Vuser. For details, see Configure a virtual location.

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Queue settings

The queue settings define the queue limitations and packet overhead that are used in network emulations.

Enable queue limitation

This group contains parameters that emulate limitations imposed on the maximum size of IP packet queues at the gateway NIC. If you specify a queue size, NV emulates network behavior by dropping data packets when the queue is full.

  1. On the Client Gateway or the Server Gateway page, select the Queue Limitation checkbox.
  2. Select from the following parameters:

    Parameter Description
    Queue size Select the amount of memory (KB) that NV allocates to the queue. Valid values: 16 to 4,096 MB.
    Drop mode
    • Drop Tail: Select this option for NV to drop newer data packets when the queue is full.
    • Random Early Detection (RED): This option provides a more sophisticated queue management method. The RED algorithm keeps track of the average increase in queue occupancy. If it detects an increase, it signals to the packet source that the queue may soon be full, by randomly dropping very small amounts of data packets.

      Keep Queue size between: Indicate the minimum and maximum average occupancy. The system issues signals (by dropping data packets) when the average occupancy fluctuates between the two values. It drops all packets if the average occupancy exceeds the maximum threshold.

    Fill mode
    • Use the fixed size: 1,500 bytes for each packet.
    • Use the actual packet size.

Enable packet overhead

If your gateway adds overhead bytes to the IP data that flows through the gateway NIC, use this parameter to specify the number of additional bytes, in order to emulate the bandwidth consumption they impose on the network.

  1. On the Client Gateway or the Server Gateway page, select the Packet Overhead checkbox.
  2. Select either Ethernet (adds 18 bytes to each packet) or PPP (adds 9 bytes to each packet).

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See also: