Research Article
Flent: The FLExible Network Tester
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.5-12-2017.2274750, author={Toke H\`{u}iland-J\`{u}rgensen and Carlo Augusto Grazia and Per Hurtig and Anna Brunstrom}, title={Flent: The FLExible Network Tester}, proceedings={11th EAI International Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools}, publisher={ACM}, proceedings_a={VALUETOOLS}, year={2018}, month={8}, keywords={network measurement performance measurement testing reproducibility test tools}, doi={10.4108/eai.5-12-2017.2274750} }- Toke Høiland-Jørgensen
Carlo Augusto Grazia
Per Hurtig
Anna Brunstrom
Year: 2018
Flent: The FLExible Network Tester
VALUETOOLS
ACM
DOI: 10.4108/eai.5-12-2017.2274750
Abstract
Running network performance experiments on real systems is essential for a complete understanding of protocols and systems connected to the internet. However, the process of running experiments can be tedious and error-prone. In particular, ensuring reproducibility across different systems is difficult, and analysing data sets from an experiment to compare different test runs can be non-trivial.
In this paper, we present a tool, called Flent, designed to make experimental evaluations of networks more reliable and easier to perform. Flent works by composing well-known benchmarking tools to, e.g., run tests consisting of several bulk data flows combined with simultaneous latency measurements. Tests are specified in source code, and several common tests are included with the tool. In addition, Flent contains features to automate test runs, collect relevant metadata and interactively plot and explore datasets.
We showcase Flent's capabilities by performing a set of experiments evaluating the new BBR congestion control algorithm, using Flent's capabilities to reproduce experiments both in a controlled testbed and across the public internet. Our evaluation reveals several interesting features of BBR's performance.