[smokeping-users] Graph throughput distribution via SNMP

[Distant Smokes JPP]

Dear list,

I love Smokeping not only because it puts emphasis on (near) end-to-end performance, but also because it provides cues (and metrics) to its variance: this website has a median response time of 150ms but also a std deviation of 100ms. It is easy to show and compare the effect of caching and load balancing with this insight. 

But there is a more basic domain of networking where I see engineers oblivious to variability, link throughput. 

More often than not, the references are 5min averages. We saw a large company accepted for budget reason to replace its 1Gbps MAN access by 100Mbps MPLS WAN connexions because of the average load was around 60-70 Mbps.  The users reactions were quick to come!

That's why I was wondering if a Smokeping SNMP probe was (or could) be diverted to make several measures of throughput during one step. For example, 10 measures - 15s each apart - fit largely in the std step of 300s. 

In Smokeping source code, I see the use of SNMP-session module, but I am no Perl Expert. And I didn't find reference to something as I imagined in the doc or mail list archives. 

Feasible? Already done? 

As a recent user of Smokeping, I look forward your feedback. 

Best regards. 

-jpp