Provided by: netperfmeter_1.2.3-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
netperfmeter — Network Performance Meter
SYNOPSIS
netperfmeter [Port]
netperfmeter [Destination:Port] -local=Address[,Address,...] -runtime=Seconds -config=Name -scalar=Name
-vector=Name -activenodename=Description -passivenodename=Description -quiet -verbose
-verbosity=Level -tcp -mptcp -sctp -udp -dccp [FLOWSPEC] [...]
DESCRIPTION
netperfmeter is a network performance meter for the UDP, TCP, MPTCP, SCTP and DCCP transport protocols. It
simultaneously transmits bidirectional flows to an endpoint and measures the resulting flow bandwidths. The
results are written as vector and scalar files.
ARGUMENTS
The following arguments have to be provided:
Port The port number for the passive side's data socket. The port number of the control socket will be
port+1. Specifying a port number turns netperfmeter in passive mode, i.e. it will wait for incoming
connections.
Destination:Port
Specifies the destination endpoint to connect to. This will turn netperfmeter in active mode, i.e.
it will connect to the specified remote endpoint.
local=Address[,Address,...]
Specifies address(es) of the local endpoint. For TCP, UDP and DCCP, only the first address is used!
runtime
Specifies the measurement runtime in seconds. After the given time span, netperfmeter will finish
the measurement.
config=Name
Specifies the name of the configuration file to write. Default is output.config.
vector=Name
Specifies the name pattern of the vector files to write. If the suffix of this name is .bz2, the
file will be BZip2-compressed on the fly. The vector name is automatically extended to name the
flow vector files by adding -<active|passive>-<flow_id>-<stream_id> before the suffix. Default is
vector.vec.bz2, hence the name of the vector file for flow 5, stream 2 on the passive node will be
vector-passive-00000005-0002.vec.bz2.
scalar=Name
Specifies the name pattern of the scalar files to write. If the suffix of this name is .bz2, the
file will be BZip2-compressed on the fly. The scalar name is automatically extended to name the
flow scalar files by adding -<active|passive>-<flow_id>-<stream_id> before the suffix. Default is
scalar.vec.bz2, hence the name of the scalar file for flow 5, stream 2 on the passive node will be
scalar-passive-00000005-0002.vec.bz2.
activenodename=Description
Sets a textual description of the active node (e.g. Client).
passivenodename=Description
Sets a textual description of the passive node (e.g. Server).
quiet Reduces verbosity of log output. May be specified multiple times.
verbose
Increases verbosity of log output. May be specified multiple times.
verbosity=Level
Sets the verbosity of the log output to a given level, from 0 (lowest) to 6 (highest).
sctp Establish a new SCTP association. The streams of this association must be specified by one or more
FLOWSPEC specifications as following parameters.
tcp Establish a new TCP or MPTCP connection. The flow of this connection must be specified by a
FLOWSPEC specification as following parameter. MPTCP support in NetPerfMeter is realized as
additional "MPTCP" socket (i.e. another TCP socket, but bound to another port number and with CMT
enabled). That is, for MPTCP usage, it must contain the option cmt=mptcp (see below) to usage the
MPTCP socket instead of the TCP socket.
udp Establish a new UDP connection. The flow of this connection must be specified by a FLOWSPEC
specification as following parameter.
dccp Establish a new DCCP connection. The flow of this connection must be specified by a FLOWSPEC
specification as following parameter. Note, that DCCP is not available on all platforms yet.
Currently, only Linux provides DCCP in its official kernel.
FLOWSPEC
Specifies a new flow. The format is:
outgoing_frame_rate:outgoing_frame_size:incoming_frame_size:incoming_frame_rate:option:... The
first four parameters
(outgoing_frame_rate:outgoing_frame_size:incoming_frame_size:incoming_frame_rate:option) may be
substituted by the option "default", creating a flow with some more or less useful default
parameters.
outgoing_frame_rate
The frame rate of the outgoing transfer (i.e. active node to passive node). If set to
const0, the sender will be saturarted, i.e. it will try to send as much as possible.
outgoing_frame_size
The frame size of the outgoing transfer (i.e. active node to passive node). If set to
const0, there will be *no* data transmission in this direction.
incoming_frame_rate
The frame rate of the incoming transfer (i.e. passive node to active node). See
outgoing_frame_rate for details.
incoming_frame_size
The frame size of the incoming transfer (i.e. active node to passive node). See
outgoing_frame_size for details.
Possible options:
id=Flow Identifier
Sets an ID number for the flow. The IDs within a measurement must be unique!
description=Description
Sets a textual description of the flow (e.g. HTTP-Flow). Do not use spaces in the
description!
maxmsgsize=Bytes
Splits frames into messages of at most the given number of bytes. Messages may not
exceed 65535 bytes.
defragtimeout=Milliseconds
Messages not received within this timeout after the last successfully received
message are accounted as lost. NOTE: this also happens if the transport protocol is
reliable and the message is actually received later!
unordered=Fraction
Specifies the fraction of the messages that will be sent in unordered mode (SCTP
only).
ordered=Fraction
Specifies the fraction of the messages that will be sent in ordered mode (SCTP
only).
reliable=Fraction
Specifies the fraction of the messages that will be sent in reliable mode (SCTP
only).
unreliable=Fraction
Specifies the fraction of the messages that will be sent in unreliable mode (SCTP
only).
rtx_timeout=Milliseconds
Sets the retransmission timeout for unreliable messages (SCTP only; not available
on all platforms!)
rtx_trials=Trials
Sets the retransmission trials for unreliable messages (SCTP only; not available on
all platforms!)
rcvbuf=Bytes
Sets the receiver buffer size to the given number of bytes.
sndbuf=Bytes
Sets the sender buffer size to the given number of bytes.
onoff=t1,t2,...
A list of time stamps when the flow should be activated or deactivated. If onoff is
given, the flow is off at startup. At t1, it will be turned on; at t2, it will be
turned off, etc.. Time stamps can be given as absolute values (e.g. onoff=0,10,30 -
to turn on at t=0, turn off at t=10 and turn on again at t=30 until end of
measurement) or relative values (e.g. on=10,+30,+60 - to turn on at t=10, turn off
at t=40 and turn on again at t=100 until end of measurement).
error_on_abort=on|off
By default, the active side stops with an error when a transmission tails (e.g. on
connection abort). This parameter turns this behaviour on or off.
cmt=off|cmt|cmtrpv1|cmtrpv2|like-mptcp|mptcp-like|mptcp
Configures usage of Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT): off (turned off; default),
cmt (independent paths), cmtrpv1 (CMT/RPv1), cmtrpv1 (CMT/RPv2), mptcp/like-
mptcp/mptcp-like (MPTCP), 0-255 (custom value). Currently only supported by CMT-
SCTP on FreeBSD systems and MPTCP on Linux systems. Note: CMT for MPTCP always uses
MPTCP congestion control.
EXAMPLES
Some netperfmeter usage examples:
netperfmeter 9000
Start in passive mode, i.e. accepting connections, on port 9000.
netperfmeter 172.16.255.254:9000 -vector=output.vec.bz2 -scalar=output.sca.bz2 -sctp
const5:exp1000:const3:exp500:description="Alpha":onoff=+10
const5:exp1000:const3:exp500:description="Beta":onoff=+30 -tcp
const5:exp1000:const3:exp500:description="Gamma":onoff=+60 -runtime=300
Start in active mode, i.e. establish connection to 172.16.255.254, port 9000. Frames will be
segmented into messages of up to 4096 bytes. Write vectors to output.vec.bz2 (BZip2-compressed).
Write scalars to output.sca.bz2 (BZip2-compressed). Establish SCTP association. At t=10s, start
flow "Alpha" as first stream of this association, using a frame rate of 5 (constant) and average
frame size of 1000 bytes (negative exponential distribution) for the outgoing data and a frame rate
of 3 (constant) and average frame size of 500 bytes (negative exponential distribution) for the
incoming data. At t=30s, start flow "Beta" as second stream on the SCTP association (same
parameters as flow "Alpha"). Start TCP connection. At t=60s, start flow "Gamma" over the TCP
connection (same parameters as flow "Alpha"). At t=300s, stop the measurement.
AUTHORS
Thomas Dreibholz
http://www.iem.uni-due.de/~dreibh/netperfmeter
mailto://dreibh@iem.uni-due.de