Performance and Fault Management

Chapter 7. Understanding and Using Basic Network Statistics

Before beginning this chapter, please make sure that you understand the material in Chapter 2, “Policy-Based Network Management.” The operational objectives for network management from Chapter 2, in conjunction with the material presented here, will assist you in defining measurable policies and agreements.

Why does a network manager need to have basic statistical knowledge? And what probability and statistical knowledge is needed to understand networking data? This chapter addresses these questions. In particular, it will focus on presenting the level of statistical knowledge that we feel is needed to understand network management and performance, especially with regard to service level ...