Getting network baselining right

While simple in concept, network baselining is often misunderstood.

Baselining involves recording network traffic and performance, saving it for future reference and/or reviewing it to see traffic patterns. Once baselines are saved, they can be used as a benchmark with which to compare other traffic patterns.

The technique provides the network administrator insight into expected behavior on the network and subsequently, the ability to notice changes. People often think of expected behavior as always being good traffic, meaning that expected behavior of a network reflects when everything is running perfectly. This is incorrect. Think of expected behavior as known vs. unknown traffic.