Flent : The FLExible Network Tester

• 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 comparing different test runs from an experiment 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.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Network experimentation

Network performance analysis

Network measurement

Measurement tools

Computer Science

Datavetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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