Modeling network behavior to study server performance

The RFC3730 describes the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), an XML-based protocol created for providing a standard Internet domain name registration protocol on behalf of domain name registrars and registries. The goal of our study is to understand the key elements in performance of an EPP system designed to automate the domain name registration process. In this paper we describe our approach for measuring server performance and focus on the creation of the test bed environment. In particular we illustrate features of Dummynet, an option furnished by the BSD operating system, which offer a powerful mechanism for simply modeling network behavior in different environments and under various conditions.