





Network Working Group                                          S. Parker
Request for Comments: 2398                                  C. Schmechel
FYI: 33                                           Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Category: Informational                                      August 1998


                Some Testing Tools for TCP Implementors

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

1. Introduction

   Available tools for testing TCP implementations are catalogued by
   this memo.  Hopefully disseminating this information will encourage
   those responsible for building and maintaining TCP to make the best
   use of available tests.  The type of testing the tool provides, the
   type of tests it is capable of doing, and its availability is
   enumerated.  This document lists only tools which can evaluate one or
   more TCP implementations, or which can privde some specific results
   which describe or evaluate the TCP being tested. A number of these
   tools produce time-sequence plots, see

   Tim Shepard's thesis [She91] for a general discussion of these plots.

   Each tools is defined as follows:

 Name

   The name associated with the testing tool.

 Category

   One or more categories of tests which the tools are capable of
   providing.  Categories used are: functional correctness, performance,
   stress.  Functional correctness tests how stringent a TCP
   implementation is to the RFC specifications.  Performance tests how







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   quickly a TCP implementation can send and receive data, etc.  Stress
   tests how a TCP implementation is effected under high load
   conditions.

 Description

   A description of the tools construction, and the implementation
   methodology of the tests.

 Automation

   What steps are required to complete the test?  What human
   intervention is required?

 Availability

   How do you retrieve this tool and get more information about it?

 Required Environment

   Compilers, OS version, etc. required to build and/or run the
   associated tool.

 References

   A list of publications relating to the tool, if any.

2. Tools

2.1.  Dbs

 Author
   Yukio Murayama

 Category
   Performance / Stress

 Description
   Dbs is a tool which allows multiple data transfers to be coordinated,
   and the resulting TCP behavior to be reviewed.  Results are presented
   as ASCII log files.

 Automation
   Command of execution is driven by a script file.







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 Availability
   See http://www.ai3.net/products/dbs for details of precise OS
   versions supported, and for download of the source code.  Current
   implementation supports BSDI BSD/OS, Linux, mkLinux, SunOS, IRIX,
   Ultrix, NEWS OS, HP-UX. Other environments are likely easy to add.

 Required Environment
   C language compiler, UNIX-style socket API support.

2.2.  Dummynet

 Author
   Luigi Rizzo

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   Dummynet is a tool which simulates the presence of finite size
   queues, bandwidth limitations, and communication delays.  Dummynet
   inserts between two layers of the protocol stack (in the current
   implementation between TCP and IP), simulating the above effects in
   an operational system.  This way experiments can be done using real
   protocol implementations and real applications, even running on the
   same host (dummynet also intercepts communications on the loopback
   interface).  Reconfiguration of dummynet parameters (delay, queue
   size, bandwidth) can be done on the fly by using a sysctl call. The
   overhead of dummynet is extremely low.

 Automation
   Requires merging diff files with kernel source code.  Command-line
   driven through the sysctl command to modify kernel variables.

 Availability
   See http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/research.html or e-mail Luigi
   Rizzo (l.rizzo@iet.unipi.it).  Source code is available for FreeBSD
   2.1 and FreeBSD 2.2 (easily adaptable to other BSD-derived systems).

 Required Environment
   C language compiler, BSD-derived system, kernel source code.

 References
   [Riz97]








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2.3.  Netperf

 Author
   Rick Jones

 Category
   Performance

 Description
   Single connection bandwidth or latency tests for TCP, UDP, and DLPI.
   Includes provisions for CPU utilization measurement.

 Automation
   Requires compilation (K&R C sufficient for all but-DHISTOGRAM, may
   require ANSI C in the future) if starting from source. Execution as
   child of inetd requires editing of /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf.
   Scripts are provided for a quick look (snapshot_script), bulk
   throughput of TCP and UDP, and latency for TCP and UDP.  It is
   command-line driven.

 Availability
   See http://www.cup.hp.com/netperf/NetperfPage.html or e-mail Rick
   Jones (raj@cup.hp.com). Binaries are available here for HP/UX Irix,
   Solaris, and Win32.

 Required Environment
   C language compiler, POSIX.1, sockets.

2.4.  NIST Net

 Author
   Mark Carson

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   NIST Net is a network emulator. The tool is packaged as a Linux
   kernel patch, a kernel module, a set of programming APIs, and
   command-line and X-based user interfaces.

   NIST Net works by turning the system into a "selectively bad" router
   - incoming packets may be delayed, dropped, duplicated, bandwidth-
   constrained, etc.  Packet delays may be fixed or randomly
   distributed, with loadable probability distributions.  Packet loss
   may be uniformly distributed (constant loss probability) or
   congestion-dependent (probability of loss increases with packet queue
   lengths).  Explicit congestion notifications may optionally be sent



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   in place of congestion-dependent loss.

 Automation
   To control the operation of the emulator, there is an interactive
   user interface, a non-interactive command-line interface, and a set
   of APIs.  Any or all of these may be used in concert.  The
   interactive interface is suitable for simple, spur-of-the-moment
   testing, while the command-line or APIs may be used to create
   scripted, non-interactive tests.

 Availability
   NIST Net is available for public download from the NIST Net web site,
   http://www.antd.nist.gov/itg/nistnet/.  The web site also has
   installation instructions and documentation.

 Required Environment
   NIST Net requires a Linux installtion, with kernel version 2.0.27 -
   2.0.33.  A kernel source tree and build tools are required to build
   and install the NIST Net components.  Building the X interface
   requires a version of XFree86 (Current Version is 3.3.2).  An
   Athena-replacement widget set such as neXtaw
   (http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~kojima/nextaw/) is also desirable for an
   improved user interface.

   NIST Net should run on any i386-compatible machine capable of running
   Linux, with one or more interfaces.

2.5.  Orchestra

 Author
   Scott Dawson, Farnam Jahanian, and Todd Mitton

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   This tool is a library which provides the user with an ability to
   build a protocol layer capable of performing fault injection on
   protocols.  Several fault injection layers have been built using this
   library, one of which has been used to test different vendor
   implementations of TCP. This is accomplished by probing the vendor
   implementation from one machine containing a protocol stack that has
   been instrumented with Orchestra.  A connection is opened from the
   vendor TCP implementation to the machine which has been instrumented.
   Faults may then be injected at the Orchestra side of the connection
   and the vendor TCP's response may be monitored.  The most recent
   version of Orchestra runs inside the X-kernel protocol stack on the
   OSF MK operating system.



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   When using Orchestra to test a protocol, the fault injection layer is
   placed below the target protocol in the protocol stack.  This can
   either be done on one machine on the network, if protocol stacks on
   the other machines cannot be modified (as in the case of testing
   TCP), or can be done on all machines on the network (as in the case
   of testing a protocol under development).  Once the fault injection
   layer is in the protocol stack, all messages sent by and destined for
   the target protocol pass through it on their way to/from the network.
   The Orchestra fault injection layer can manipulate these messages.
   In particular, it can drop, delay, re-order, duplicate, or modify
   messages.  It can also introduce new messages into the system if
   desired.

   The actions of the Orchestra fault injection layer on each message
   are determined by a script, written in Tcl.  This script is
   interpreted by the fault injection layer when the message enters the
   layer.  The script has access to the header information about the
   message, and can make decisions based on header values.  It can also
   keep information about previous messages, counters, or any other data
   which the script writer deems useful.  Users of Orchestra may also
   define their own actions to be taken on messages, written in C, that
   may be called from the fault injection scripts.

 Automation
   Scripts can be specified either using a graphical user interface
   which generates Tcl, or by writing Tcl directly.  At this time,
   post-analysis of the results of the test must also be performed by
   the user.  Essentially this consists of looking at a packet trace
   that Orchestra generates for (in)correct behavior.  Must compile and
   link fault generated layer with the protocol stack.

 Availability
   See http://www.eecs.umich.edu/RTCL/projects/orchestra/ or e-mail
   Scott Dawson (sdawson@eecs.umich.edu).

 Required Environment OSF MK operating system, or X-kernel like network
   architecture, or adapted to network stack.

 References
   [DJ94], [DJM96a], [DJM96b]











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2.6.  Packet Shell

 Author
   Steve Parker and Chris Schmechel

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   An extensible Tcl/Tk based software toolset for protocol development
   and testing. Tcl (Tool Command Language) is an embeddable scripting
   language and Tk is a graphical user interface toolkit based on Tcl.
   The Packet Shell creates Tcl commands that allow you to create,
   modify, send, and receive packets on networks.  The operations for
   each protocol are supplied by a dynamic linked library called a
   protocol library.  These libraries are silently linked in from a
   special directory when the Packet Shell begins execution. The current
   protocol libraries are: IP, IPv6, IPv6 extensions, ICMP, ICMPv6,
   Ethernet layer, data layer, file layer (snoop and tcpdump support),
   socket layer, TCP, TLI.

   It includes harness, which is a Tk based graphical user interface for
   creating test scripts within the Packet Shell.  It includes tests for
   no initial slow start, and retain out of sequence data as TCP test
   cases mentioned in [PADHV98].

   It includes tcpgraph, which is used with a snoop or tcpdump capture
   file to produce a TCP time-sequence plot using xplot.

 Automation
   Command-line driven through Tcl commands, or graphical user interface
   models are available through the harness format.

 Availability
   See http://playground.sun.com/psh/ or e-mail owner-packet-
   shell@sunroof.eng.sun.com.

 Required Environment

   Solaris 2.4 or higher.  Porting required for other operating systems.











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2.7.  Tcpanaly

 Author
   Vern Paxson

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   This is a tool for automatically analyzing a TCP implementation's
   behavior by inspecting packet traces of the TCP's activity. It does
   so through packet filter traces produced by tcpdump.  It has coded
   within it knowledge of a large number of TCP implementations.  Using
   this, it can determine whether a given trace appears consistent with
   a given implementation, and, if so, exactly why the TCP chose to
   transmit each packet at the time it did.  If a trace is found
   inconsistent with a TCP, tcpanaly either diagnoses a likely
   measurement error present in the trace, or indicates exactly whether
   the activity in the trace deviates from that of the TCP, which can
   greatly aid in determining how the traced implementation behaves.

   Tcpanaly's category is somewhat difficult to classify, since it
   attempts to profile the behavior of an implementation, rather than to
   explicitly test specific correctness or performance issues. However,
   this profile identifies correctness and performance problems.

   Adding new implementations of TCP behavior is possible with tcpanaly
   through the use of C++ classes.

 Automation
   Command-line driven and only the traces of the TCP sending and
   receiving bulk data transfers are needed as input.

 Availability
   Contact Vern Paxson (vern@ee.lbl.gov).

 Required Environment
   C++ compiler.

 References
   [Pax97a]










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2.8.  Tcptrace

 Author
   Shawn Ostermann

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   This is a TCP trace file analysis tool. It reads output trace files
   in the formats of : tcpdump, snoop, etherpeek, and netm.

   For each connection, it keeps track of elapsed time, bytes/segments
   sent and received, retransmissions, round trip times, window
   advertisements, throughput, etc from simple to very detailed output.

   It can also produce three different types of graphs:

   Time Sequence Graph (shows the segments sent and ACKs returned as a
   function of time)

   Instantaneous Throughput (shows the instantaneous, averaged over a
   few segments, throughput of the connection as a function of time).

   Round Trip Times (shows the round trip times for the ACKs as a
   function of time)

 Automation
   Command-line driven, and uses the xplot program to view the graphs.

 Availability
   Source code is available, and Solaris binary along with sample
   traces. See http://jarok.cs.ohiou.edu/software/tcptrace/tcptrace.html
   or e-mail Shawn Ostermann (ostermann@cs.ohiou.edu).

 Required Environment
   C compiler, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, HPUX, Linux.














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2.9.  Tracelook

 Author
   Greg Minshall

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   This is a Tcl/Tk program for graphically viewing the contents of
   tcpdump trace files.  When plotting a connection, a user can select
   various variables to be plotted. In each direction of the connection,
   the user can plot the advertised window in each packet, the highest
   sequence number in each packet, the lowest sequence number in each
   packet, and the acknowledgement number in each packet.

 Automation
   Command-line driven with a graphical user interface for the graph.

 Availability
   See http://www.ipsilon.com/~minshall/sw/tracelook/tracelook.html or
   e-mail Greg Minshall (minshall@ipsilon.com).

 Required Environment
   A modern version of awk, and Tcl/Tk (Tk version 3.6 or higher).  The
   program xgraph is required to view the graphs under X11.

2.10.  TReno

 Author
   Matt Mathis and Jamshid Mahdavi

 Category
   Performance

 Description
   This is a TCP throughput measurement tool based on sending UDP or
   ICMP packets in patterns that are controlled at the user-level so
   that their timing reflects what would be sent by a TCP that observes
   proper congestion control (and implements SACK).  This allows it to
   measure throughput independent of the TCP implementation of end hosts
   and serve as a useful platform for prototyping TCP changes.

 Automation
   Command-line driven.  No "server" is required, and it only requires a
   single argument of the machine to run the test to.





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 Availability
   See http://www.psc.edu/networking/treno_info.html or e-mail Matt
   Mathis (mathis@psc.edu) or Jamshid Mahdavi (mahdavi@psc.edu).

 Required Environment
   C compiler, POSIX.1, raw sockets.

2.11.  Ttcp

 Author
   Unknown

 Category
   Performance

 Description
   Originally written to move files around, ttcp became the classic
   throughput benchmark or load generator, with the addition of support
   for sourcing to/from memory. It can also be used as a traffic
   absorber. It has spawned many variants, recent ones include support
   for UDP, data pattern generation, page alignment, and even alignment
   offset control.

 Automation
   Command-line driven.

 Availability
   See ftp://ftp.arl.mil/pub/ttcp/ or e-mail ARL (ftp@arl.mil) which
   includes the most common variants available.

 Required Environment
   C compiler, BSD sockets.

2.12.  Xplot

 Author
   Tim Shepard

 Category
   Functional Correctness / Performance

 Description
   This is a fairly conventional graphing/plotting tool (xplot itself),
   a script to turn tcpdump output into xplot input, and some sample
   code to generate xplot commands to plot the TCP time-sequence graph).

 Automation
   Command-line driven with a graphical user interface for the plot.



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 Availability
   See ftp://mercury.lcs.mit.edu/pub/shep/xplot.tar.gz or e-mail Tim
   Shepard (shep@lcs.mit.edu).

 Required Environment
   C compiler, X11.

 References
   [She91]

3. Summary

   This memo lists all TCP tests and testing tools reported to the
   authors as part of TCP Implementer's working group and is not
   exhaustive.  These tools have been verified as available by the
   authors.

4. Security Considerations

   Network analysis tools are improving at a steady pace.  The
   continuing improvement in these tools such as the ones described make
   security concerns significant.

   Some of the tools could be used to create rogue packets or denial-
   of-service attacks against other hosts.  Also, some of the tools
   require changes to the kernel (foreign code) and might require root
   privileges to execute.  So you are trusting code that you have
   fetched from some perhaps untrustworthy remote site.  This code could
   contain malicious code that could present any kind of attack.

   None of the listed tools evaluate security in any way or form.

   There are privacy concerns when grabbing packets from the network in
   that you are now able to read other people's mail, files, etc.  This
   impacts more than just the host running the tool but all traffic
   crossing the host's physical network.

5. References

   [DJ94]    Scott Dawson and Farnam Jahanian, "Probing and Fault
             Injection of Distributed Protocol Implementations",
             University of Michigan Technical Report CSE-TR-217-94, EECS
             Department.

   [DJM96a]  Scott Dawson, Farnam Jahanian, and Todd Mitton, "ORCHESTRA:
             A Fault Injection Environment for Distributed Systems",
             University of Michigan Technical Report CSE-TR-318-96, EECS
             Department.



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   [DJM96b]  Scott Dawson, Farnam Jahanian, and Todd Mitton,
             "Experiments on Six Commercial TCP Implementations Using a
             Software Fault Injection Tool", University of Michigan
             Technical Report CSE-TR-298-96, EECS Department.

   [Pax97a]  Vern Paxson, "Automated Packet Trace Analysis of TCP
             Implementations", ACM SIGCOMM '97, September 1997, Cannes,
             France.

   [PADHV98] Paxson, V., Allman, M., Dawson, S., Heavens, I., and B.
             Volz, "Known TCP Implementation Problems", Work In
             Progress.

   [Riz97]   Luigi Rizzo, "Dummynet: a simple approach to the evaluation
             of network protocols", ACM Computer Communication Review,
             Vol. 27, N. 1, January 1997, pp.  31-41.

   [She91]   Tim Shepard, "TCP Packet Trace Analysis", MIT Laboratory
             for Computer Science MIT-LCS-TR-494, February, 1991.
































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6. Authors' Addresses

   Steve Parker
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   901 San Antonio Road, UMPK17-202
   Palo Alto, CA 94043
   USA

   Phone: (650) 786-5176
   EMail: sparker@eng.sun.com


   Chris Schmechel
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   901 San Antonio Road, UMPK17-202
   Palo Alto, CA, 94043
   USA

   Phone: (650) 786-4053
   EMail: cschmec@eng.sun.com































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7.  Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
























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