Lab - Testing Network Latency with Ping and Traceroute

Topology

Objectives
Part 1: Use Ping to Document Network Latency
Part 2: Use Traceroute to Document Network Latency

Background / Scenario
To obtain realistic network latency statistics, this activity must be performed on a live network. Be sure to
check with your instructor for any local security restrictions against using the ping command on the network.
The purpose of this lab is to measure and evaluate network latency over time, and during different periods of
the day to capture a representative sample of typical network activity. This will be accomplished by analyzing
the return delay from a distant computer with the ping command. Return delay times, measured in
milliseconds, will be summarized by computing the average latency (mean) and the range (maximum and
minimum) of the delay times.

Required Resources
 1 PC (Windows 7 or 8 with Internet access)

Part 1: Use Ping to Document Network Latency

In Part 1, you will examine network latency of several websites in different parts of the globe. This process
can be used in an enterprise production network to create a performance baseline.

Step 1: Verify connectivity.

Ping the following Regional Internet Registry (RIR) websites to verify connectivity:
C:\Users\User1> ping www.arin.net
C:\Users\User1> ping www.lacnic.net
C:\Users\User1> ping www.afrinic.net
C:\Users\User1> ping www.apnic.net
Note: Because www.ripe.net does not reply to ICMP requests, it cannot be used for this lab.
Note: If the websites are resolved to IPv6 addresses, the option -4 can be used to resolve to IPv4 addresses
if desired. The command becomes ping -4 www.arin.net.

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Lab - Testing Network Latency with Ping and Traceroute

Step 2: Collect network data.

You will collect a sufficient amount of data to compute statistics on the ping output by sending out 25 echo
requests to each address listed in Step 1. Record the results for each website to text files.
a. At the command prompt, type ping to list the available options.
C:\Users\User1> ping

Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
[-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
[-w timeout] [-R] [-S srcaddr] [-4] [-6] target_name

Options:
-t Ping the specified host until stopped.
To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
To stop - type Control-C.
-a Resolve addresses to hostnames.
-n count Number of echo requests to send.
-l size Send buffer size.
-f Set Don't Fragment flag in packet (IPv4-only).
-i TTL Time To Live.
-v TOS Type Of Service (IPv4-only. This setting has been deprecated
<output omitted>

b. Using the ping command with the count option, you can send 25 echo requests to the destination as
illustrated below. Furthermore, it will create a text file with filename of arin.txt in the current directory. This
text file will contain the results of the echo requests.
C:\Users\User1> ping –n 25 www.arin.net > arin.txt
Note: The terminal remains blank until the command has finished, because the output has been redirected to
a text file, arin.txt, in this example. The > symbol is used to redirect the screen output to the file and overwrite
the file if it already exists. If appending more results to the file is desired, replace > with >> in the command.
c. Repeat the ping command for the other websites.
C:\Users\User1> ping –n 25 www.afrinic.net > afrinic.txt
C:\Users\User1> ping –n 25 www.apnic.net > apnic.txt
C:\Users\User1> ping –n 25 www.lacnic.net > lacnic.txt

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Lab - Testing Network Latency with Ping and Traceroute

Step 3: Verify data collection.

To see the results in the file created, use the more command at the command prompt.
C:\Users\User1> more arin.txt

Pinging www.arin.net [192.149.252.76] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.149.252.76: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=45
Reply from 192.149.252.76: bytes=32 time=114ms TTL=45
Reply from 192.149.252.76: bytes=32 time=112ms TTL=45
<output omitted>
Reply from 192.149.252.75: bytes=32 time=111ms TTL=45
Reply from 192.149.252.75: bytes=32 time=112ms TTL=45
Reply from 192.149.252.75: bytes=32 time=112ms TTL=45

Ping statistics for 192.149.252.75:

Packets: Sent = 25, Received = 25, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 107ms, Maximum = 121ms, Average = 111ms

Note: Press the Spacebar to display the rest of the file or press q to exit.
To verify that the files have been created, use the dir command to list the files in the directory. Also the
wildcard * can be used to filter only the text files.
C:\Users\User1> dir *.txt
Volume in drive C is OS
Volume Serial Number is 0A97-D265

Directory of C:\Users\User1

02/07/2013 12:59 PM 1,642 afrinic.txt

02/07/2013 01:00 PM 1,615 apnic.txt
02/07/2013 12:40 PM 1,641 arin.txt
02/07/2013 12:58 PM 1,589 lacnic.txt
4 File(s) 6,487 bytes
0 Dir(s) 34,391,453,696 bytes free

Record your results in the following table.

Minimum Maximum Average

Request Request Request

www.afrinic.net Timed Out Timed Out Timed Out
www.apnic.net 10 59 34
Request Request Request
www.arin.net Timed Out Timed Out Timed Out
www.lacnic.net 384 384 384

Compare the delay results. How is delay affected by geographical location?

The further away the servers are the larger the response time if there is a response time.

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Lab - Testing Network Latency with Ping and Traceroute

Part 2: Use Traceroute to Document Network Latency

The routes traced may go through many hops and a number of different ISPs depending on the size of the
ISPs and the location of the source and destination hosts. The traceroute commands can also be used to
observe network latency. In Part 2, the tracert command is used to trace the path to the same destinations in
Part 1. The command tracert is the Windows version of the traceroute command.
The tracert command uses ICMP TTL Exceed packets and ICMP echo replies to trace the path.

Step 1: Use the tracert command and record the output to text files.
Copy the following commands to create the traceroute files:
C:\Users\User1> tracert www.arin.net > traceroute_arin.txt
C:\Users\User1> tracert www.lacnic.net > traceroute_lacnic.txt
C:\Users\User1> tracert www.afrinic.net > traceroute_afrinic.txt
C:\Users\User1> tracert www.apnic.net > traceroute_apnic.txt
Note: If the websites are resolved to IPv6 addresses, the option -4 can be used to resolve to IPv4 addresses
if desired. The command becomes tracert -4 www.arin.net > traceroute_arin.txt.

Step 2: Use the more command to examine the traced path.

a. Use the more command to access the content of these files:
C:\Users\User1> more traceroute_arin.txt

Tracing route to www.arin.net [192.149.252.75]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1

2 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms 10.39.0.1
3 10 ms 15 ms 11 ms 172.21.0.116
4 19 ms 10 ms 11 ms 70.169.73.90
5 13 ms 10 ms 11 ms chnddsrj01-ae2.0.rd.ph.cox.net [70.169.76.229]
6 72 ms 71 ms 70 ms mrfddsrj02-ae0.0.rd.dc.cox.net [68.1.1.7]
7 72 ms 71 ms 72 ms 68.100.0.146
8 74 ms 83 ms 73 ms 172.22.66.29
9 75 ms 71 ms 73 ms 172.22.66.29
10 74 ms 75 ms 73 ms wsip-98-172-152-14.dc.dc.cox.net [98.172.152.14]
11 71 ms 71 ms 71 ms host-252-131.arin.net [192.149.252.131]
12 73 ms 71 ms 71 ms www.arin.net [192.149.252.75]

Trace complete.

In this example, it took less than 1 ms to receive a reply from the default gateway (192.168.1.1). In hop
count 6, the round trip to 68.1.1.7 took an average of 71 ms. For the round trip to the final destination at
www.arin.net took an average of 72 ms.
Between lines 5 and 6, there is more network delay as indicated by the round trip time increase from an
average of 11 ms to 71 ms

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Lab - Testing Network Latency with Ping and Traceroute

b. Perform the same analysis with the rest of the tracert results.
What can you conclude regarding the relationship between the roundtrip time and geographical location?
If the location is further away it will take longer for a response

Reflection
1. The tracert and ping results can provide important network latency information. What do you need to do if
you want an accurate baseline picture regarding network latency for your network?
For a better average measure data over a prolonged period, checking the ping everyday and comparing daily
averages can help measure network latency
2. How can you use the baseline information?
Use baseline information to formulate baseline data

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