huawei Network Quality Analyzer (NQA)

Posted on January 30, 2012

What is NQA?
It is a feature that functions above link layer to measure performance of protocols running at
the network layer, transport layer and application layer. It is useful to monitor network and
locate faults occurring in the network. NQA can accurately test the network and collect
statistics as well. You can configure and display NQA statistics through CLI but, as NQA is
fully supported by Huawei NMS, you can also do this in GUI.
Most of Huawei devices support NQA but configuration can vary a little bit between NE
routers, AR routers and switches. Of course we can perform more advanced test on carrier
class devices. In this post we will focus on CLI and use CX600 router as an example.

NQA tests supported by CX600:

ICMP test
DHCP test
FTP test
HTTP test
DNS test
Traceroute test
SNMP test
TCP test
UDP test
ICMP Jitter test
UDP Jitter test
LSP Ping test
LSP Traceroute test
LSP Jitter test
MTrace test
MPing test
PWE3 Ping test
PWE3 Trace test
MAC Ping test
MACTunnel Ping test
VPLS MAC Ping
VPLS MAC Trace
ICMP Jitter test
Path Jitter test
Path MTU test
ittertest based on the mechanism that the LPU sends packets
ICMP Jitter test based on the mechanism that the LPU sends packets
VPLS Mping test
VPLS Mtrace test

Lets configure a few examples. Below our testing topology:

To ensure communication between loopback interfaces use static or dynamic routing

protocols. In this case static routing has been configured on both routers. We will use CX_1
as NQA client:
ip route-static
static 172.16.200.2 255.255.255.255 10.100.200.2

NQA ICMP test

nqa test-instance
instance labnario ICMP
test-type icmp
destination-address
address ipv4 172.16.200.2
source-address
address ipv4 172.16.200.1

Please use start command to start the test.

You can display results of ICMP test by the command:
dis nqa results test-instance
instance labnario ICMP
NQA entry(labnario, ICMP) :testflag is inactive ,testtype is icmp
1 . Test 1 result
The test is finished
Send operation times: 3
Receive response times: 3
Completion:success
RTD OverThresholds number: 0
Attempts number:1
Drop operation number:0
Disconnect operation number:0
Operation timeout number:0
System busy operation number:0
number:0
Connection fail number:0
Operation sequence errors number:0
RTT Stats errors number:0
Destination ip address:172.16.200.2
Min/Max/Average Completion Time: 1/7/4
Sum/Square-Sum
Sum Completion Time: 14/86
Last Good Probe Time: 2012-01-30
2012
14:59:03.7
Lost packet ratio: 0 %

By default, the command output shows the results of the latest five tests.

NQA trace test

nqa test-instance
instance labnario trace
test-type trace
destination-address
address ipv4 172.16.200.2
source-address
address ipv4 172.16.200.1
start now
dis nqa results test-instance
instance labnario trace
NQA entry(labnario, trace) :testflag is inactive ,testtype is trace
1 . Test 1 result
The test is finished
Completion:success
Attempts number:1
Disconnect operation number:0
number:0
Operation timeout number:0
System busy operation number:0
Connection fail number:0

Operation sequence errors number:0

RTT Stats errors number:0
Drop operation number:0
Last good path Time:2012-01-30 15:06:55.3
1 . Hop 1
Send operation times: 3
Receive response times: 3
Min/Max/Average Completion Time: 3/10/6
Sum/Square-Sum Completion Time: 18/134
RTD OverThresholds number: 0
Last Good Probe Time: 2012-01-30 15:06:55.3
Destination ip address:10.100.200.2
Lost packet ratio: 0 %

NQA Jitter test

First configure CX_2 router as NQA server:
nqa-server udpecho 172.16.200.2 9000

Configure NQA test on CX_1:

nqa test-instance labnario jitter
test-type jitter
destination-address ipv4 172.16.200.2
destination-port 9000
start now
dis nqa results test-instance labnario jitter
NQA entry(labnario, jitter) :testflag is inactive ,testtype is jitter
1 . Test 1 result
The test is finished
SendProbe:60
ResponseProbe:60
Completion:success
RTD OverThresholds number:0
OWD OverThresholds SD number:0
OWD OverThresholds DS number:0
Min/Max/Avg/Sum RTT:1/20/2/117
RTT Square Sum:699
NumOfRTT:60
Drop operation number:0
Operation sequence errors number:0
RTT Stats errors number:0
System busy operation number:0
Operation timeout number:0
Min Positive SD:1
Min Positive DS:1
Max Positive SD:10
Max Positive DS:13
Positive SD Number:9
Positive DS Number:21
Positive SD Sum:60
Positive DS Sum:72
Positive SD Square Sum:482
Positive DS Square Sum:584
Min Negative SD:1
Min Negative DS:1
Max Negative SD:14
Max Negative DS:11
Negative SD Number:9
Negative DS Number:22
Negative SD Sum:50
Negative DS Sum:83
Negative SD Square Sum:454
Negative DS Square Sum:641
Min Delay SD:0
Min Delay DS:0
Avg Delay SD:0
Avg Delay DS:0
Max Delay SD:10
Max Delay DS:9
Delay SD Square Sum:161
Delay DS Square Sum:112
Packet Loss SD:0
Packet Loss DS:0
Packet Loss Unknown:0
Average of Jitter:4
Average of Jitter SD:6
Average of Jitter DS:3
jitter out value:0.1145833
jitter in value:0.1614583
NumberOfOWD:60
Packet Loss Ratio: 0%
OWD SD Sum:39
OWD DS Sum:18
ICPIF value: 0
MOS-CQ value: 0
TimeStamp unit: ms

Additional useful commands:

agetime configures the aging time of an NQA test, by default 0 means test in not aged
clear-records clears all historical statistics and test results
datasize sets the size of the test packet, by default 0 and the test packet is then constructed
with 100 bytes
fail-percent sets the percentage of failed probes, if the number of failed probe exceeds this
value, the test is considered as failing.
frequency sets the interval for the automatic test, by default not configured, means the test
is performed ones
interval sets the interval for sending NQA test packets, by default 20 milliseconds for jitter
tests, 4 seconds for all other tests
probe-count sets the probe times in the NQA test, by default 3
restart restarts an NQA test
send-trap configures conditions for sending trap messages
stop stops a test.
Of course you can do all tests you want and check NQA functionality to confirm that it would
be useful feature in your network.