■ Network performance—This is measured by the following three metrics rather than just
throughput:
— Application response time— Measures how quickly an application
responds to changes on a network and network congestion by changing its
link speed.
— Device performance—Measures the limitations in performance of
individual network devices such as switches or routers. A poorly performing
device can become a bottleneck to the network, so it is important to ensure
that devices are not overtaxed. Device performance measures errors, drops,
and CPU usage as well as packet-per-second throughput.
— Protocol performance—Measures the ability of devices to operate
dynamically by verifying that devices and the network can handle the use of
routing protocols and the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).