Generating realistic routing tables in a test-lab

Lots of new features are added to the Internet every day to improve quality of service. These features include RED, fair queuing, etc. Unfortunately testing and evaluation of the effectiveness of these mechanisms in test environments is often limited by the simplicity of the test setup. Yet, variability is necessary to locate equipment bugs and to evaluate the features benefits. As a result the real test is the deployment in the operational network - not a sound testing methodology.As a first step towards addressing this problem, we are building a tool that can generate realistic routing tables of arbitrary size and updates of arbitrary frequency. To this end, we first define a set of metrics that can capture important characteristics of routing tables and routing updates. Next, we present insights of a characterization of measured routing tables and updates and identify some key insights. These results are then used to parameterize our tool. Finally, we describe the key ideas behind the tool and conclude with a brief discussion of future work.