Napatech provides a choice of two Application Programming Interfaces (APIs):
- Napatech Common Interface (NTCI) API
-
Packet Capture (PCAP) API
The NTCI API provides a high-performance interface optimized for speed. It supports the full range of Napatech Network Adapter features via Napatech Linux, FreeBSD and Windows drivers.
Some of the advanced functionality of the Napatech Network Adapters such as Extended Descriptors with packet header offset, hash keys etc. can only be accessed using the NTCI API. For in-line applications the NTCI API is also the optimal choice.
The PCAP API provides a standard interface supported by many third-party applications, such as Snort, Tcpdump/Windump, Tcpreplay and Wireshark. The PCAP API is based on Napatech's extended LibPCAP/WinPCAP library implementation, which provides access to many of the available Napatech Network Adapter features.
The PCAP API uses the NTCI API for access to Napatech Network Adapters. The advantage of using the PCAP API is the ability to reuse existing application software based on LibPCAP/WinPCAP. However, to take full advantage of all of the features available in Napatech Network Adapters, it is recommended that the NTCI API is used directly.
If there is a desire to use the PCAP API, but also to have access to the NTCI features not provided via the PCAP API, it is possible to use Napatech’s command line tools to configure the network adapters. For example, Ntpltool can be used to configure filtering of packets in the network adapter, while PCAP API is used for capturing to a standard Tcpdump/Windump application.