Benchmarking Methodology for Network Security Device Performance

15 years have passed since IETF recommended test methodology and terminology for firewalls initially (). The requirements for network security element performance and effectiveness have increased tremendously since then. Security function implementations have evolved to more advanced areas and have diversified into intrusion detection and prevention, threat management, analysis of encrypted traffic, etc. In an industry of growing importance, well-defined, and reproducible key performance indicators (KPIs) are increasingly needed as they enable fair and reasonable comparison of network security functions. All these reasons have led to the creation of a new next-generation network security device benchmarking document and this document supersedes .

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", “NOT RECOMMENDED”, "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 , when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

This document provides testing terminology and testing methodology for modern and next-generation network security devices. It covers the validation of security effectiveness configurations of network security devices, followed by performance benchmark testing. This document focuses on advanced, realistic, and reproducible testing methods. Additionally, it describes test bed environments, test tool requirements, and test result formats.

Test setup defined in this document is applicable to all benchmarking tests described in . The test setup MUST be contained within an Isolated Test Environment (see Section 3 of ).

Test bed configuration MUST ensure that any performance implications that are discovered during the benchmark testing aren't due to the inherent physical network limitations such as the number of physical links and forwarding performance capabilities (throughput and latency) of the network devices in the test bed. For this reason, this document recommends avoiding external devices such as switches and routers in the test bed wherever possible. In some deployment scenarios, the network security devices (Device Under Test/System Under Test) are connected to routers and switches which will reduce the number of entries in MAC or ARP tables of the Device Under Test/System Under Test (DUT/SUT). If MAC or ARP tables have many entries, this may impact the actual DUT/SUT performance due to MAC and ARP/ND (Neighbor Discovery) table lookup processes. This document also recommends using test equipment with the capability of emulating layer 3 routing functionality instead of adding external routers in the test bed. The test bed setup Option 1 () is the RECOMMENDED test bed setup for the benchmarking test.

+-----------------------+ +-----------------------+ | +-------------------+ | +-----------+ | +-------------------+ | | | Emulated Router(s)| | | | | | Emulated Router(s)| | | | (Optional) | +----- DUT/SUT +-----+ (Optional) | | | +-------------------+ | | | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | +-----------+ | +-------------------+ | | | Clients | | | | Servers | | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | | | | | Test Equipment | | Test Equipment | +-----------------------+ +-----------------------+ If the test equipment used is not capable of emulating layer 3 routing functionality or if the numbers of used ports are mismatched between test equipment and the DUT/SUT (need for a test equipment ports aggregation), the test setup can be configured as shown in .

+-------------------+ +-----------+ +--------------------+ |Aggregation Switch/| | | | Aggregation Switch/| | Router +------+ DUT/SUT +------+ Router | | | | | | | +----------+--------+ +-----------+ +--------+-----------+ | | | | +-----------+-----------+ +-----------+-----------+ | | | | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | | Emulated Router(s)| | | | Emulated Router(s)| | | | (Optional) | | | | (Optional) | | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | | Clients | | | | Servers | | | +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ | | | | | | Test Equipment | | Test Equipment | +-----------------------+ +-----------------------+

A unique DUT/SUT configuration MUST be used for all benchmarking tests described in . Since each DUT/SUT will have their own unique configuration, users SHOULD configure their device with the same parameters and security features that would be used in the actual deployment of the device or a typical deployment in order to achieve maximum network security coverage. Table 1 and Table 2 below describe the RECOMMENDED and OPTIONAL sets of network security feature list for NGFW and NGIDS/NGIPS respectively. The selected security features SHOULD be consistently enabled on the DUT/SUT for all the benchmarking tests described in . To improve repeatability, a summary of the DUT/SUT configuration including a description of all enabled DUT/SUT features MUST be published with the benchmarking results.

+------------------------+ | NGFW | +--------------- +-------------+----------+ | | | | |DUT/SUT Features| RECOMMENDED | OPTIONAL | | | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |SSL Inspection | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |IDS/IPS | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Spyware | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Virus | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Botnet | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Web Filtering | | x | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Data Loss | | | |Protection (DLP)| | x | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |DDoS | | x | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Certificate | | x | |Validation | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Logging and | x | | |Reporting | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Application | x | | |Identification | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+

+------------------------+ | NGIDS/NGIPS | +----------------+-------------+----------+ | | | | |DUT/SUT Features| RECOMMENDED | OPTIONAL | | | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |SSL Inspection | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Malware | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Spyware | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Botnet | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Logging and | x | | |Reporting | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Application | x | | |Identification | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Deep Packet | x | | |Inspection | | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ |Anti-Evasion | x | | +----------------+-------------+----------+ The following table provides a brief description of the security features.

+------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | DUT/SUT Features | Description | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | SSL Inspection | DUT/SUT intercepts and decrypts inbound HTTPS | | | traffic between servers and clients. Once the | | | content inspection has been completed, DUT/SUT | | | encrypts the HTTPS traffic with ciphers | | | and keys used by the clients and servers. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | IDS/IPS | DUT/SUT detects and blocks exploits | | | targeting known and unknown vulnerabilities | | | across the monitored network. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Anti-Malware | DUT/SUT detects and prevents the transmission | | | of malicious executable code and any associated| | | communications across the monitored network. | | | This includes data exfiltration as well as | | | command and control channels. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Anti-Spyware | Anti-Spyware is a subcategory of Anti Malware. | | | Spyware transmits information without the | | | user's knowledge or permission. DUT/SUT detects| | | and block initial infection or transmission of | | | data. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Anti-Botnet | DUT/SUT detects traffic to or from botnets. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Anti-Evasion | DUT/SUT detects and mitigates attacks that have| | | been obfuscated in some manner. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Web Filtering | DUT/SUT detects and blocks malicious website | | | including defined classifications of website | | | across the monitored network. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | DLP | DUT/SUT detects and blocks the transmission | | | of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) | | | and specific files across the monitored network| +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Certificate | DUT/SUT validates certificates used in | | Validation | encrypted communications across the monitored | | | network. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Logging and | DUT/SUT logs and reports all traffic at the | | Reporting | flow level across the monitored. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Application | DUT/SUT detects known applications as defined | | Identification | within the traffic mix selected across | | | the monitored network. | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ In summary, a DUT/SUT SHOULD be configured as follows: All RECOMMENDED security inspection enabled Disposition of all flows of traffic are logged - Logging to an external device is permissible Geographical location filtering and Application Identification and Control configured to be triggered based on a site or application from the defined traffic mix In addition, a realistic number of access control rules (ACL) SHOULD be configured on the DUT/SUT where ACL's are configurable and also reasonable based on the deployment scenario. This document determines the number of access policy rules for four different classes of DUT/SUT; namely Extra Small (XS), Small (S), Medium (M) and Large (L). A sample DUT/SUT classification is described in . The Access Control Rules (ACL) defined in Table 4 MUST be configured from top to bottom in the correct order as shown in the table. This is due to ACL types listed in specificity decreasing order, with "block" first, followed by "allow", representing typical ACL based security policy. The ACL entries SHOULD be configured with routable IP subnets by the DUT/SUT. (Note: There will be differences between how security vendors implement ACL decision making.) The configured ACL MUST NOT block the security and measurement traffic used for the benchmarking tests.

The Security features (defined in table 1 and 2) of the DUT/SUT MUST be configured effectively in such a way to detect, prevent, and report the defined security Vulnerability sets. This Section defines the selection of the security Vulnerability sets from Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list for the testing. The vulnerability set MUST reflect a minimum of 500 CVEs from no older than 10 calendar years to the current year. These CVEs SHOULD be selected with a focus on in-use software commonly found in business applications, with a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Severity of High (7-10). This document is primarily focused on performance benchmarking. However, it is RECOMMENDED to validate the security features configuration of the DUT/SUT by evaluating the security effectiveness as a prerequisite for performance benchmarking tests defined in the section 7. In case the Benchmarking tests are performed without evaluating security effectiveness, the test report MUST explain the implications of this. The methodology for evaluating Security effectiveness is defined in .

In general, test equipment allows configuring parameters in different protocol layers. These parameters thereby influence the traffic flows which will be offered and impact performance measurements. This section specifies common test equipment configuration parameters applicable for all benchmarking tests defined in . Any benchmarking test specific parameters are described under the test setup section of each benchmarking test individually.

This section specifies which parameters SHOULD be considered while configuring clients using test equipment. Also, this section specifies the RECOMMENDED values for certain parameters.

The TCP stack SHOULD use a congestion control algorithm at client and server endpoints. The default IPv4 and IPv6 MSS segments size SHOULD be set to 1460 bytes and 1440 bytes respectively and a TX and RX initial receive windows of 64 KByte. Client initial congestion window SHOULD NOT exceed 10 times the MSS. Delayed ACKs are permitted and the maximum client delayed ACK SHOULD NOT exceed 10 times the MSS before a forced ACK. Up to 3 retries SHOULD be allowed before a timeout event is declared. All traffic MUST set the TCP PSH flag to high. The source port range SHOULD be in the range of 1024 - 65535. Internal timeout SHOULD be dynamically scalable per RFC 793. The client SHOULD initiate and close TCP connections. TCP connections MUST be closed via FIN.

The sum of the client IP space SHOULD contain the following attributes. The IP blocks SHOULD consist of multiple unique, discontinuous static address blocks. A default gateway is permitted. The IPv4 Type of Service (ToS) byte or IPv6 traffic class should be set to '00' or ‘000000’ respectively. The following equation can be used to define the total number of client IP addresses that will be configured on the test equipment. Desired total number of client IP = Target throughput [Mbit/s] / Average throughput per IP address [Mbit/s] As shown in the example list below, the value for "Average throughput per IP address" can be varied depending on the deployment and use case scenario. DUT/SUT deployment scenario 1 : 6-7 Mbit/s per IP (e.g. 1,400-1,700 IPs per 10Gbit/s throughput) DUT/SUT deployment scenario 2 : 0.1-0.2 Mbit/s per IP (e.g. 50,000-100,000 IPs per 10Gbit/s throughput) Based on deployment and use case scenario, client IP addresses SHOULD be distributed between IPv4 and IPv6 type. The Following options can be considered for a selection of traffic mix ratio. 100 % IPv4, no IPv6 80 % IPv4, 20% IPv6 50 % IPv4, 50% IPv6 20 % IPv4, 80% IPv6 no IPv4, 100% IPv6 Note: The IANA has assigned IP address range for the testing purpose as described in .

The emulated web client contains attributes that will materially affect how traffic is loaded. The objective is to emulate modern, typical browser attributes to improve realism of the result set. For HTTP traffic emulation, the emulated browser MUST negotiate HTTP 1.1. HTTP persistence MAY be enabled depending on the test scenario. The browser MAY open multiple TCP connections per Server endpoint IP at any time depending on how many sequential transactions are needed to be processed. Within the TCP connection multiple transactions MAY be processed if the emulated browser has available connections. The browser SHOULD advertise a User-Agent header. Headers MUST be sent uncompressed. The browser SHOULD enforce content length validation. For encrypted traffic, the following attributes SHALL define the negotiated encryption parameters. The test clients MUST use TLSv1.2 or higher. TLS record size MAY be optimized for the HTTPS response object size up to a record size of 16 KByte. The client endpoint SHOULD send TLS Extension Server Name Indication (SNI) information when opening a security tunnel. Each client connection MUST perform a full handshake with server certificate and MUST NOT use session reuse or resumption. The following ciphers and keys are RECOMMENDED to use for HTTPS based benchmarking tests defined in . ECHDE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 with Prime256v1 (Signature Hash Algorithm: ecdsa_secp256r1_sha256 and Supported group: sepc256r1) ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 with RSA 2048 (Signature Hash Algorithm: rsa_pkcs1_sha256 and Supported group: sepc256) ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 with Secp521 (Signature Hash Algorithm: ecdsa_secp384r1_sha384 and Supported group: sepc521r1) ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 with RSA 4096 (Signature Hash Algorithm: rsa_pkcs1_sha384 and Supported group: secp256) Note: The above ciphers and keys were those commonly used enterprise grade encryption cipher suites. It is recognized that these will evolve over time. Individual certification bodies SHOULD use ciphers and keys that reflect evolving use cases. These choices MUST be documented in the resulting test reports with detailed information on the ciphers and keys used along with reasons for the choices.

This section specifies which parameters should be considered while configuring emulated backend servers using test equipment.

The TCP stack on the server side SHOULD be configured similar to the client side configuration described in . In addition, server initial congestion window MUST NOT exceed 10 times the MSS. Delayed ACKs are permitted and the maximum server delayed ACK MUST NOT exceed 10 times the MSS before a forced ACK.

The sum of the server IP space SHOULD contain the following attributes. The server IP blocks SHOULD consist of unique, discontinuous static address blocks with one IP per Server Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) endpoint per test port. A default gateway is permitted. The IPv4 ToS byte and IPv6 traffic class bytes should be set to '00' and ‘000000’ respectively. The server IP addresses SHOULD be distributed between IPv4 and IPv6 with a ratio identical to the clients distribution ratio. Note: The IANA has assigned IP address range for the testing purpose as described in .

The server pool for HTTP SHOULD listen on TCP port 80 and emulate HTTP version 1.1 with persistence. The Server MUST advertise server type in the Server response header . For HTTPS server, TLS 1.2 or higher MUST be used with a maximum record size of 16 KByte and MUST NOT use ticket resumption or Session ID reuse. The server MUST listen on port TCP 443. The server SHALL serve a certificate to the client. The HTTPS server MUST check Host SNI information with the FQDN if the SNI is in use. Cipher suite and key size on the server side MUST be configured similar to the client side configuration described in .

This section describes the traffic pattern between client and server endpoints. At the beginning of the test, the server endpoint initializes and will be ready to accept connection states including initialization of the TCP stack as well as bound HTTP and HTTPS servers. When a client endpoint is needed, it will initialize and be given attributes such as a MAC and IP address. The behavior of the client is to sweep through the given server IP space, sequentially generating a recognizable service by the DUT. Thus, a balanced, mesh between client endpoints and server endpoints will be generated in a client port server port combination. Each client endpoint performs the same actions as other endpoints, with the difference being the source IP of the client endpoint and the target server IP pool. The client MUST use the server's IP address or Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) in Host Headers . For TLS the client MAY use Server Name Indication (SNI).

Client endpoints are independent of other clients that are concurrently executing. When a client endpoint initiates traffic, this section describes how the client steps through different services. Once the test is initialized, the client endpoints SHOULD randomly hold (perform no operation) for a few milliseconds to allow for better randomization of the start of client traffic. Each client will either open a new TCP connection or connect to a TCP persistence stack still open to that specific server. At any point that the service profile may require encryption, a TLS encryption tunnel will form presenting the URL or IP address request to the server. If using SNI, the server will then perform an SNI name check with the proposed FQDN compared to the domain embedded in the certificate. Only when correct, will the server process the HTTPS response object. The initial response object to the server MUST NOT have a fixed size; its size is based on benchmarking tests described in . Multiple additional sub-URLs (response objects on the service page) MAY be requested simultaneously. This MAY be to the same server IP as the initial URL. Each sub-object will also use a conical FQDN and URL path, as observed in the traffic mix used.

The loading of traffic is described in this section. The loading of a traffic load profile has five distinct phases: Init, ramp up, sustain, ramp down, and collection. During the Init phase, test bed devices including the client and server endpoints should negotiate layer 2-3 connectivity such as MAC learning and ARP. Only after successful MAC learning or ARP/ND resolution SHALL the test iteration move to the next phase. No measurements are made in this phase. The minimum RECOMMEND time for Init phase is 5 seconds. During this phase, the emulated clients SHOULD NOT initiate any sessions with the DUT/SUT, in contrast, the emulated servers should be ready to accept requests from DUT/SUT or from emulated clients. In the ramp up phase, the test equipment SHOULD start to generate the test traffic. It SHOULD use a set approximate number of unique client IP addresses actively to generate traffic. The traffic SHOULD ramp from zero to desired target objective. The target objective will be defined for each benchmarking test. The duration for the ramp up phase MUST be configured long enough, so that the test equipment does not overwhelm the DUT/SUT's stated performance metrics namely; connections per second, throughput, concurrent TCP connections, and application transactions per second. No measurements are made in this phase. Sustain phase starts when all required clients (connections) are active and operating at their desired load condition. In the sustain phase, the test equipment SHOULD continue generating traffic to constant target value for a constant number of active clients. The minimum RECOMMENDED time duration for sustain phase is 300 seconds. This is the phase where measurements occur. In the ramp down/close phase, no new connections are established, and no measurements are made. The time duration for ramp up and ramp down phase SHOULD be the same. The last phase is administrative and will occur when the test equipment merges and collates the report data.

This section recommends steps to control the test environment and test equipment, specifically focusing on virtualized environments and virtualized test equipment. Ensure that any ancillary switching or routing functions between the system under test and the test equipment do not limit the performance of the traffic generator. This is specifically important for virtualized components (vSwitches, vRouters). Verify that the performance of the test equipment matches and reasonably exceeds the expected maximum performance of the system under test. Assert that the test bed characteristics are stable during the entire test session. Several factors might influence stability specifically, for virtualized test beds. For example, additional workloads in a virtualized system, load balancing, and movement of virtual machines during the test, or simple issues such as additional heat created by high workloads leading to an emergency CPU performance reduction. Test bed reference pre-tests help to ensure that the maximum desired traffic generator aspects such as throughput, transaction per second, connection per second, concurrent connection, and latency. Test bed preparation may be performed either by configuring the DUT in the most trivial setup (fast forwarding) or without presence of the DUT.

This section describes how the final report should be formatted and presented. The final test report MAY have two major sections; Introduction and detailed test results sections.

The following attributes SHOULD be present in the introduction section of the test report. The time and date of the execution of the test MUST be prominent. Summary of test bed software and Hardware details DUT/SUT Hardware/Virtual Configuration This section SHOULD clearly identify the make and model of the DUT/SUT The port interfaces, including speed and link information MUST be documented. If the DUT/SUT is a Virtual Network Function (VNF), host (server) hardware and software details, interface acceleration type such as DPDK and SR-IOV used CPU cores, used RAM, and the resource sharing (e.g. Pinning details and NUMA Node) configuration MUST be documented. The virtual components such as Hypervisor, virtual switch version MUST be also documented. Any additional hardware relevant to the DUT/SUT such as controllers MUST be documented DUT/SUT Software The operating system name MUST be documented The version MUST be documented The specific configuration MUST be documented DUT/SUT Enabled Features Configured DUT/SUT features (see Table 1 and Table 2) MUST be documented Attributes of those featured MUST be documented Any additional relevant information about features MUST be documented Test equipment hardware and software Test equipment vendor name Hardware details including model number, interface type Test equipment firmware and test application software version Key test parameters Used cipher suites and keys IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution Number of configured ACL Details of application traffic mix used in the benchmarking test Throughput Performance with Application Traffic Mix Name of applications and layer 7 protocols Percentage of emulated traffic for each application and layer 7 protocols Percentage of encrypted traffic and used cipher suites and keys (The RECOMMENDED ciphers and keys are defined in ) Used object sizes for each application and layer 7 protocols Results Summary / Executive Summary Results SHOULD resemble a pyramid in how it is reported, with the introduction section documenting the summary of results in a prominent, easy to read block.

In the result section of the test report, the following attributes should be present for each benchmarking test. KPIs MUST be documented separately for each benchmarking test. The format of the KPI metrics should be presented as described in . The next level of details SHOULD be graphs showing each of these metrics over the duration (sustain phase) of the test. This allows the user to see the measured performance stability changes over time.

This section lists key performance indicators (KPIs) for overall benchmarking tests. All KPIs MUST be measured during the sustain phase of the traffic load profile described in . All KPIs MUST be measured from the result output of test equipment. Concurrent TCP ConnectionsThe aggregate number of simultaneous connections between hosts across the DUT/SUT, or between hosts and the DUT/SUT (defined in ). TCP Connections Per SecondThe average number of successfully established TCP connections per second between hosts across the DUT/SUT, or between hosts and the DUT/SUT. The TCP connection must be initiated via a TCP 3 way handshake (SYN, SYN/ACK, ACK). Then the TCP session data is sent. The TCP session MUST be closed via either a TCP 3 way close (FIN, FIN/ACK, ACK), or a TCP 4 way close (FIN, ACK, FIN, ACK), and not by a RST. Application Transactions Per SecondThe average number of successfully completed transactions per second. For a particular transaction to be considered successful, all data must have been transferred in its entirety. In case of HTTP(S) transaction, it must have a valid status code, and the appropriate FIN, FIN/ACK sequence must have been completed. TLS Handshake RateThe average number of successfully established TLS connections per second between hosts across the DUT/SUT, or between hosts and the DUT/SUT. ThroughputThe number of bits per second of allowed traffic a DUT/SUT can be observed to transmit to the correct destination interface(s) in response to a specified offered load (defined in ). The throughput benchmarking tests defined in SHOULD measure the average throughput value. This document recommends presenting the throughput value in Gbit/s rounded to two places of precision with a more specific Kbit/s in parenthesis. Time to First Byte (TTFB)TTFB is the elapsed time between the start of sending the TCP SYN packet from the client and the client receiving the first packet of application data from the server or DUT/SUT. The benchmarking tests HTTP Transaction Latency and HTTPS Transaction Latency measure the minimum, average and maximum TTFB. The value SHOULD be expressed in millisecond. URL Response time / Time to Last Byte (TTLB)URL Response time / TTLB is the elapsed time between the start of sending the TCP SYN packet from the client and the client receiving the last packet of application data from the server or DUT/SUT. The benchmarking tests HTTP Transaction Latency and HTTP Transaction Latency measure the minimum, average and maximum TTLB. The value SHOULD be expressed in millisecond.

Using a relevant application traffic mix, determine the sustainable throughput performance supported by the DUT/SUT. Based on customer use case, users can choose the application traffic mix for this test. The details about the traffic mix MUST be documented in the report. At least the following traffic mix details MUST be documented and reported together with the test results: Name of applications and layer 7 protocols Percentage of emulated traffic for each application and layer 7 protocols Percentage of encrypted traffic and used cipher suites and keys (The RECOMMENDED ciphers and keys are defined in .) Used object sizes for each application and layer 7 protocols

Test bed setup MUST be configured as defined in . Any benchmarking test specific test bed configuration changes MUST be documented.

In this section, the benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented. In case the DUT is configured without SSL inspection feature, the test report MUST explain the implications of this to the relevant application traffic mix encrypted traffic.

Traffic profile: This test MUST be run with a relevant application traffic mix profile.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of total attempt transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. Note: Criteria a. and b. above are synonymous with the zero-packet loss criteria for Throughput, and recognize the additional complexity of application layer performance.

Following KPI metrics MUST be reported for this benchmarking test: Mandatory KPIs (benchmarks): Throughput, TTFB (minimum, average, and maximum), TTLB (minimum, average, and maximum) and Application Transactions Per Second Note: TTLB MUST be reported along with the object size used in the traffic profile. Optional KPIs: TCP Connections Per Second and TLS Handshake Rate

The test procedures are designed to measure the throughput performance of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IP types; IPv4 only, IPv6 only and IPv4 and IPv6 mixed traffic distribution.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to generate test traffic at the "Initial throughput" rate as described in the parameters . The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial throughput" during the sustain phase. Measure all KPI as defined in . The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria "a" and "b" defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to step 2.

Configure test equipment to generate traffic at the "Target throughput" rate defined in the parameter table. The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs and the frequency of measurements SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective ("Target throughput") in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable throughput within the test results validation criteria. Final test iteration MUST be performed for the test duration defined in .

Using HTTP traffic, determine the sustainable TCP connection establishment rate supported by the DUT/SUT under different throughput load conditions. To measure connections per second, test iterations MUST use the different fixed HTTP response object sizes (the different load conditions) defined in .

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. MUST be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of total attempt transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded at a constant rate. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate.

TCP Connections Per Second MUST be reported for each test iteration (for each object size).

The test procedure is designed to measure the TCP connections per second rate of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of the traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IP types; IPv4 only, IPv6 only and IPv4 and IPv6 mixed traffic distribution.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure the traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "initial connections per second" as defined in the parameters . The traffic load profile SHOULD be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial connections per second" before the sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria a, b, c, and d defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish the target objective ("Target connections per second") defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . During the ramp up and sustain phase of each test iteration, other KPIs such as throughput, concurrent TCP connections and application transactions per second MUST NOT reach to the maximum value the DUT/SUT can support. The test results for specific test iterations SHOULD NOT be reported, if the above mentioned KPI (especially throughput) reaches the maximum value. (Example: If the test iteration with 64 KByte of HTTP response object size reached the maximum throughput limitation of the DUT, the test iteration MAY be interrupted and the result for 64 KByte SHOULD NOT be reported). The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs and the frequency of measurements SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective ("Target connections per second") in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable TCP connections per second within the test results validation criteria.

Determine the sustainable throughput of the DUT/SUT for HTTP transactions varying the HTTP response object size.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. must be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

+---------------------+---------------------+ | Object size (KByte) | Number of requests/ | | | Weight | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 0.2 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 6 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 8 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 9 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 10 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 25 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 26 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 35 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 59 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+ | 347 | 1 | +---------------------+---------------------+

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of attempt transactions. Traffic should be forwarded constantly. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate. Note: Criteria a. above is synonymous with the zero-packet loss criteria for Throughput, and recognize the additional complexity of application layer performance.

Throughput and HTTP Transactions per Second MUST be reported for each object size.

The test procedure is designed to measure HTTP throughput of the DUT/ SUT. The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution and HTTP response object sizes.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "Initial Throughput" as defined in the parameters . The traffic load profile SHOULD be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial Throughput" during the sustain phase. Measure all KPI as defined in . The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria "a" defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish the target objective ("Target throughput") defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs and the frequency of measurements SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable throughput within the test results validation criteria and measure the KPI metric Transactions per Second. Final test iteration MUST be performed for the test duration defined in .

Using HTTP traffic, determine the HTTP transaction latency when DUT is running with sustainable HTTP transactions per second supported by the DUT/SUT under different HTTP response object sizes. Test iterations MUST be performed with different HTTP response object sizes in two different scenarios. One with a single transaction and the other with multiple transactions within a single TCP connection. For consistency both the single and multiple transaction test MUST be configured with HTTP 1.1. Scenario 1: The client MUST negotiate HTTP 1.1 and close the connection with FIN immediately after completion of a single transaction (GET and RESPONSE). Scenario 2: The client MUST negotiate HTTP 1.1 and close the connection FIN immediately after completion of 10 transactions (GET and RESPONSE) within a single TCP connection.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. MUST be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Ramp up and ramp down phase SHOULD NOT be considered. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of attempt transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded at a constant rate. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate. After ramp up the DUT MUST achieve the "Target objective" defined in the parameter and remain in that state for the entire test duration (sustain phase).

TTFB (minimum, average and maximum) and TTLB (minimum, average and maximum) MUST be reported for each object size.

The test procedure is designed to measure TTFB or TTLB when the DUT/SUT is operating close to 50% of its maximum achievable connections per second or throughput. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IP types (IPv4 only, IPv6 only and IPv4 and IPv6 mixed traffic distribution), HTTP response object sizes and single and multiple transactions per connection scenarios.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "Initial objective" as defined in the parameters . The traffic load profile can be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial objective" before the sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria a, b, c, d, e and f defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish "Target objective" defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs and the frequency of measurement SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT MUST reach the desired value of the target objective in the sustain phase. Measure the minimum, average and maximum values of TFB and TTLB.

Determine the number of concurrent TCP connections that the DUT/ SUT sustains when using HTTP traffic.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. must be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

Test equipment configuration parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Following parameters MUST be noted for this benchmarking test: Client IP address range defined in Server IP address range defined in Traffic distribution ratio between IPv4 and IPv6 defined in Target concurrent connection: Initial value from product datasheet or the value defined based on requirement for a specific deployment scenario. Initial concurrent connection: 10% of “Target concurrent connection” (an optional parameter for documentation) Maximum connections per second during ramp up phase: 50% of maximum connections per second measured in benchmarking test TCP/HTTP Connections per second Ramp up time (in traffic load profile for "Target concurrent connection"): “Target concurrent connection" / "Maximum connections per second during ramp up phase" Ramp up time (in traffic load profile for "Initial concurrent connection"): “Initial concurrent connection" / "Maximum connections per second during ramp up phase" The client MUST negotiate HTTP 1.1 with persistence and each client MAY open multiple concurrent TCP connections per server endpoint IP. Each client sends 10 GET commands requesting 1 KByte HTTP response object in the same TCP connection (10 transactions/TCP connection) and the delay (think time) between each transaction MUST be X seconds. X = (“Ramp up time” + ”steady state time”) /10 The established connections SHOULD remain open until the ramp down phase of the test. During the ramp down phase, all connections SHOULD be successfully closed with FIN.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transaction) of total attempted transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. During the sustain phase, traffic SHOULD be forwarded constantly.

Average Concurrent TCP Connections MUST be reported for this benchmarking test.

The test procedure is designed to measure the concurrent TCP connection capacity of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure test equipment to establish “Initial concurrent TCP connections" defined in . Except ramp up time, the traffic load profile SHOULD be defined as described in . During the sustain phase, the DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the “Initial concurrent TCP connections”. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria “a” and “b” defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to “Step 2”.

Configure test equipment to establish the target objective (“Target concurrent TCP connections”). The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition (except ramp up time) as described in . During the ramp up and sustain phase, the other KPIs such as throughput, TCP connections per second and application transactions per second MUST NOT reach to the maximum value that the DUT/SUT can support. The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record KPIs defined in . The frequency of measurement SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable concurrent TCP connections capacity within the test results validation criteria.

Using HTTPS traffic, determine the sustainable SSL/TLS session establishment rate supported by the DUT/SUT under different throughput load conditions. Test iterations MUST include common cipher suites and key strengths as well as forward looking stronger keys. Specific test iterations MUST include ciphers and keys defined in . For each cipher suite and key strengths, test iterations MUST use a single HTTPS response object size defined in the test equipment configuration parameters to measure connections per second performance under a variety of DUT Security inspection load conditions.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. MUST be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria: Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of attempt transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded at a constant rate. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate.

TCP Connections Per Second MUST be reported for each test iteration (for each object size). The KPI metric TLS Handshake Rate can be measured in the test using 1KByte object size.

The test procedure is designed to measure the TCP connections per second rate of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "Initial connections per second" as defined in . The traffic load profile MAY be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial connections per second" before the sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria a, b, c, and d defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish "Target connections per second" defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . During the ramp up and sustain phase, other KPIs such as throughput, concurrent TCP connections and application transactions per second MUST NOT reach the maximum value that the DUT/SUT can support. The test results for specific test iteration SHOULD NOT be reported, if the above mentioned KPI (especially throughput) reaches the maximum value. (Example: If the test iteration with 64 KByte of HTTPS response object size reached the maximum throughput limitation of the DUT, the test iteration can be interrupted and the result for 64 KByte SHOULD NOT be reported). The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs. The frequency of measurement SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective ("Target connections per second") in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable connections per second within the test results validation criteria.

Determine the throughput for HTTPS transactions varying the HTTPS response object size. Test iterations MUST include common cipher suites and key strengths as well as forward looking stronger keys. Specific test iterations MUST include the ciphers and keys defined in the parameter .

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. must be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of attempt transactions. Traffic should be forwarded constantly. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate. Note: Criteria a. above is synonymous with the zero-packet loss criteria for Throughput, and recognize the additional complexity of application layer performance.

Throughput and HTTP Transactions per Second MUST be reported for each object size.

The test procedure consists of three major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution and HTTPS response object sizes.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "initial throughput" as defined in the parameters . The traffic load profile should be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial Throughput" during the sustain phase. Measure all KPI as defined in . The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria "a" defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish the target objective ("Target throughput") defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs. The frequency of measurement SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired value of the target objective in the sustain phase. Follow step 3, if the measured value does not meet the target value or does not fulfill the test results validation criteria.

Determine the achievable throughput within the test results validation criteria. Final test iteration MUST be performed for the test duration defined in .

Using HTTPS traffic, determine the HTTPS transaction latency when DUT is running with sustainable HTTPS transactions per second supported by the DUT/SUT under different HTTPS response object size. Scenario 1: The client MUST negotiate HTTPS and close the connection with FIN immediately after completion of a single transaction (GET and RESPONSE). Scenario 2: The client MUST negotiate HTTPS and close the connection with FIN immediately after completion of 10 transactions (GET and RESPONSE) within a single TCP connection.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. MUST be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Ramp up and ramp down phase SHOULD NOT be considered. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of attempt transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded at a constant rate. Concurrent TCP connections MUST be constant during steady state and any deviation of concurrent TCP connections SHOULD be less than 10%. This confirms the DUT opens and closes TCP connections almost at the same rate After ramp up the DUT MUST achieve the "Target objective" defined in the parameter and remain in that state for the entire test duration (sustain phase).

TTFB (minimum, average and maximum) and TTLB (minimum, average and maximum) MUST be reported for each object size.

The test procedure is designed to measure TTFB or TTLB when the DUT/SUT is operating close to 50% of its maximum achievable connections per second or throughput. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IP types (IPv4 only, IPv6 only and IPv4 and IPv6 mixed traffic distribution), HTTPS response object sizes and single and multiple transactions per connection scenarios.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish "Initial objective" as defined in the parameters . The traffic load profile can be defined as described in . The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "Initial objective" before the sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria a, b, c, d, e and f defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

Configure test equipment to establish "Target objective" defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD follow the traffic load profile definition as described in . The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs. The frequency of measurement SHOULD be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed. Within the test results validation criteria, the DUT/SUT MUST reach the desired value of the target objective in the sustain phase. Measure the minimum, average and maximum values of TFB and TTLB.

Determine the number of concurrent TCP connections that the DUT/SUT sustains when using HTTPS traffic.

Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in . Any specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces and interface type, etc. MUST be documented.

In this section, benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Any configuration changes for this specific benchmarking test MUST be documented.

Test equipment configuration parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . Following parameters MUST be documented for this benchmarking test: Client IP address range defined in Server IP address range defined in Traffic distribution ratio between IPv4 and IPv6 defined in RECOMMENDED cipher suites and key sizes defined in Target concurrent connections: Initial value from product datasheet or the value defined based on requirement for a specific deployment scenario. Initial concurrent connections: 10% of “Target concurrent connections” (an optional parameter for documentation) Connections per second during ramp up phase: 50% of maximum connections per second measured in benchmarking test TCP/HTTPS Connections per second Ramp up time (in traffic load profile for "Target concurrent connections"): “Target concurrent connections" / "Maximum connections per second during ramp up phase" Ramp up time (in traffic load profile for "Initial concurrent connections"): “Initial concurrent connections" / "Maximum connections per second during ramp up phase" The client MUST perform HTTPS transaction with persistence and each client can open multiple concurrent TCP connections per server endpoint IP. Each client sends 10 GET commands requesting 1 KByte HTTPS response objects in the same TCP connections (10 transactions/TCP connection) and the delay (think time) between each transaction MUST be X seconds. X = (“Ramp up time” + ”steady state time”) /10 The established connections SHOULD remain open until the ramp down phase of the test. During the ramp down phase, all connections SHOULD be successfully closed with FIN.

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole sustain phase of the traffic load profile. Number of failed Application transactions (receiving any HTTP response code other than 200 OK) MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 transactions) of total attempted transactions. Number of Terminated TCP connections due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.001% (1 out of 100,000 connections) of total initiated TCP connections. During the sustain phase, traffic SHOULD be forwarded constantly.

Average Concurrent TCP Connections MUST be reported for this benchmarking test.

Verify the link status of all connected physical interfaces. All interfaces are expected to be in "UP" status. Configure test equipment to establish “initial concurrent TCP connections" defined in . Except ramp up time, the traffic load profile SHOULD be defined as described in . During the sustain phase, the DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the “Initial concurrent TCP connections”. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria “a” and “b” defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the test results validation criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to “Step 2”.

Determine the achievable concurrent TCP connections within the test results validation criteria.

The IANA has allocated 2001:0200::/48 for IPv6 testing, which is a 48-bit prefix from the pool. For IPv4 testing, the IP subnet 198.18.0.0/15 has been assigned to the BMWG by the IANA. This assignment was made to minimize the chance of conflict in case a testing device were to be accidentally connected to part of the Internet. The specific use of the IPv4 addresses is detailed in Appendix C.

The primary goal of this document is to provide benchmarking terminology and methodology for next-generation network security devices. However, readers should be aware that there is some overlap between performance and security issues. Specifically, the optimal configuration for network security device performance may not be the most secure, and vice-versa. The Cipher suites recommended in this document are just for test purpose only. The Cipher suite recommendation for a real deployment is outside the scope of this document.

The following individuals contributed significantly to the creation of this document: Alex Samonte, Amritam Putatunda, Aria Eslambolchizadeh, David DeSanto, Jurrie Van Den Breekel, Ryan Liles, Samaresh Nair, Stephen Goudreault, and Tim Otto

The authors wish to acknowledge the members of NetSecOPEN for their participation in the creation of this document. Additionally, the following members need to be acknowledged: Anand Vijayan, Baski Mohan, Chao Guo, Chris Brown, Chris Marshall, Jay Lindenauer, Michael Shannon, Mike Deichman, Ray Vinson, Ryan Riese, Tim Carlin, and Toulnay Orkun

This test methodology verifies the DUT/SUT is able to detect, prevent and report the vulnerabilities. In this test, background test traffic will be generated in order to utilize the DUT/SUT. In parallel, the CVEs will be sent to the DUT/SUT as encrypted and as well as clear text payload formats using a traffic generator. The selection of the CVEs is described in . Number of blocked CVEs Number of bypassed (nonblocked) CVEs Background traffic performance (verify if the background traffic is impacted while sending CVE toward DUT/SUT) Accuracy of DUT/SUT statistics in term of vulnerabilities reporting

The same Test bed MUST be used for security effectiveness test and as well as for benchmarking test cases defined in .

In this section, the benchmarking test specific parameters SHOULD be defined.

DUT/SUT configuration Parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . The same DUT configuration MUST be used for Security effectiveness test and as well as for benchmarking test cases defined in . The DUT/SUT MUST be configured in inline mode and all detected attack traffic MUST be dropped and the session Should be reset

Test equipment configuration parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in . The same Client and server IP ranges MUST be configured as used in the benchmarking test cases. In addition, the following parameters MUST be documented for this benchmarking test: Background Traffic: 45% of maximum HTTP throughput and 45% of Maximum HTTPS throughput supported by the DUT/SUT (measured with object size 64 KByte in the benchmarking tests "HTTP(S) Throughput" defined in and . RECOMMENDED CVE traffic transmission Rate: 10 CVEs per second RECOMMEND to generate each CVE multiple times (sequentially) at 10 CVEs per second Ciphers and Keys for the encrypted CVE traffic MUST use the same cipher configured for HTTPS traffic related benchmarking tests ( - )

The following test Criteria is defined as test results validation criteria. Test results validation criteria MUST be monitored during the whole test duration. Number of failed Application transaction in the background traffic MUST be less than 0.01% of attempted transactions Number of Terminated TCP connections of the background traffic (due to unexpected TCP RST sent by DUT/SUT) MUST be less than 0.01% of total initiated TCP connections in the background traffic During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded at a constant rate False positive MUST NOT occur in the background traffic

Following KPI metrics MUST be reported for this test scenario: Mandatory KPIs: Blocked CVEs: It should be represented in the following ways: Number of blocked CVEs out of total CVEs Percentage of blocked CVEs Unblocked CVEs: It should be represented in the following ways: Number of unblocked CVEs out of total CVEs Percentage of unblocked CVEs Background traffic behavior: it should represent one of the followings ways: No impact (traffic transmission at a constant rate) Minor impact (e.g. small spikes- +/- 100 Mbit/s) Heavily impacted (e.g. large spikes and reduced the background throughput > 100 Mbit/s) DUT/SUT reporting accuracy: DUT/SUT MUST report all detected vulnerabilities. Optional KPIs: List of unblocked CVEs

The test procedure is designed to measure the security effectiveness of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of the traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of two major steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution.

Generate the background traffic at the transmission rate defined in the parameter section. The DUT/SUT MUST reach the target objective (throughput) in sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet the test results validation criteria a, b, c and d defined in . If the KPI metrics do not meet the acceptance criteria, the test procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".

While generating the background traffic (in sustain phase), send the CVE traffic as defined in the parameter section. The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified KPIs. The frequency of measurement MUST be less than 2 seconds. Continue the test until all CVEs are sent. The measured KPIs MUST meet all the test results validation criteria a, b, c, and d defined in . In addition, the DUT/SUT SHOULD report the vulnerabilities correctly.

This document attempts to classify the DUT/SUT in four different four different categories based on its maximum supported firewall throughput performance number defined in the vendor datasheet. This classification MAY help user to determine specific configuration scale (e.g., number of ACL entries), traffic profiles, and attack traffic profiles, scaling those proportionally to DUT/SUT sizing category. The four different categories are Extra Small, Small, Medium, and Large. The RECOMMENDED throughput values for the following categories are: Extra Small (XS) - supported throughput less than 1Gbit/s Small (S) - supported throughput less than 5Gbit/s Medium (M) - supported throughput greater than 5Gbit/s and less than 10Gbit/s Large (L) - supported throughput greater than 10Gbit/s