Network Flow Generation

The Napatech Network Adapters can be used for Network Flow Generation. Flow Generation Systems providing high-level protocol flows (e.g. VoIP or HTTP) are often used for validation or performance testing of systems handling session-oriented traffic. Flow Generation Systems combined with Network Monitoring Systems can be used for network testing, e.g. latency through a network and time fluctuations of the frames through a network.

The Napatech Network Adapters support generation of frames at line speed for all frame sizes. Large host buffers with frame flows can be generated by the host either in advance or on the fly.

Network Flow Generation is supported by the Napatech adapters via functionality, such as:

• Host-based Transmit: Enables frames to be transmitted to the network with a minimum of host CPU processing. The Napatech host-based transmit functionality enables line speed transmit on any network connection up to 4 x 1 Gbps.
• Zero-copy Host Interface: Transfer of frames to the host CPU system bypasses the operating system (adapter DMA) resulting in extremely low CPU load.
• Generation of MAC CRC: The adapter can be configured to generate the Ethernet MAC CRC reducing CPU cycles dramatically. It can also be configured to use a user-generated Ethernet MAC CRC enabling the application to generate frames with a bad Ethernet MAC CRC.
• Programmable IFG: The Inter Frame Gap (the time delay between Ethernet frames) can be configured, either as a global parameter used by all transmitted frames or individually for each transmitted frame with a typical precision below 40 us.