Workload measurement method into a Distributed Measurement Laboratory

The Distributed Measurement Laboratory (DML) is an heterogeneous system and the workload evaluation is an important aspect to support the performance management strategies in case the specific requirements must to be respected. This paper describes the method to evaluate the workload of the co-operating hardware equipments of the DML, in particular: the connecting networks, and the PCs. In this manner useful indexes are achievable to monitor the functioning conditions of the whole DML. The proposed method is based on three different tools known and tested in the literature. The first one concerns with the synchronization among the clocks of the different co-operating PCs. The second one concerns the One-Way Delay parameter measurements of the path from the source to the destination. The third one concerns the workload measurement of the CPU of each PC. The results of several experimental tests showing the performance and the accuracy of the method are shown. Based on the analysis of these tests, some practical criteria can be inferred to point out performance management strategies.