
Ostinato – A Network Traffic Generator and Analyzer - rishabhd
http://ostinato.org/
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mino
Ostinato has been there for a while. I think it is the best you can get as
opensource traffic generator, if you don't have access to commercial hardware
(Ixia, Spirent, etc.).

Also, there's this project based on the VPP dataplane technology, which could
help you achieve higher bitrates. Personally I haven't managed to play with it
yet: [https://trex-tgn.cisco.com/](https://trex-tgn.cisco.com/)

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signa11
> Also, there's this project based on the VPP dataplane technology...

vpp is primarily based on dpdk, specifically, it utilizes their pmd etc.
implementation for fast packet-io in userland. ostinato too has this feature
i.e. line-rate packet generation using dpdk.

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bogomipz
Do you have good links you can share in regards to vpp and leveraging of dpdk?

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signa11
> Do you have good links you can share in regards to vpp and leveraging of
> dpdk?

sorry for the late reply. here are a few presentations:

1\.
[https://dpdksummit.com/Archive/pdf/2016USA/Day02-Session04-T...](https://dpdksummit.com/Archive/pdf/2016USA/Day02-Session04-ThomasHerbert-
DPDKUSASummit2016.pdf)

2\.
[https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/96/slides/slides-96-bmwg-10...](https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/96/slides/slides-96-bmwg-10.pdf)

you might be able to find videos on youtube as well. lemme know if you need
some more info, and i can dig some more.

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DoofusOfDeath
Kind of off-topic, but I learned the musical term "ostinato" just a few days
ago, here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IX1jSVmaAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IX1jSVmaAs)

I just discovered that guy's (Rick Beato's) channel the other day. I normally
find music theory very dry, but even my kids found that video interesting.

~~~
tgragnato
Etimologically "ostinato" is Italian and literally means stubborn.

As the other musical terms it's pristinely copied.

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ausjke
Linux kernel has a built-in traffic generator, can rarely find documents on
how to use them, but I heard Spirent etc is using that to test their
generators in the making

~~~
shakna
pktgen [0, PDF]? This was the first I'd heard of it. Sounds interesting.

[0]
[https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols/2005/ols2005v2-pages-19-32.pd...](https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols/2005/ols2005v2-pages-19-32.pdf)

~~~
ausjke
yes it's the one

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MichailP
Can someone recommend good lectures/book for full stack network programming
focused on concepts but with enough detail? Something similar to The Elements
of Computing Systems by Nisan & Schocken, but for networks?

~~~
Kaizyn
[https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Modern-Networking-SDN-
Clo...](https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Modern-Networking-SDN-
Cloud/dp/0134175395) [https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Networking-Understanding-
Cloud-...](https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Networking-Understanding-Cloud-based-
Networks/dp/0128007281/) [https://www.amazon.com/Interconnections-Bridges-
Switches-Int...](https://www.amazon.com/Interconnections-Bridges-Switches-
Internetworking-Protocols/dp/0201634481/) [https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Guide-
Comprehensive-Illustrated-P...](https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Guide-
Comprehensive-Illustrated-Protocols/dp/159327047X/)

After spending a lot of time trying to find resources to get up to speed on
this networks domain for work, those are the best resources I've found.

~~~
fapjacks
I have the TCP/IP Guide you mention and I'd recommend it, also. I'd also
suggest if the asker buys the Interconnections book, that they also go ahead
and buy the TCP/IP Illustrated (volumes I-III) as well. They are textbooks, to
be sure, but if you find this stuff interesting, you'll be happy to have them.
Very high knowledge density, though a bit outdated. And while we're talking
about some of those old textbooks, I'd recommend the newest editions of the
Unix Network Programming books [0], the earlier editions of which were really
helpful to me when I was learning this stuff way back in the day. I'm a huge
fan of textbooks, so maybe I'm going a bit overboard, but I did really enjoy
them.

[0]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013490012X/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/013490012X/)

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jaimex2
Its got a pretty quirky UI but it works. I've used it when load testing some
packet processing apps.

Why was this posted, It's a generic packet generator?

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pmontra
Ostinato == stubborn in Italian but I wonder if it is named after the ostinato
music pattern [1], also of Italian origin but different context.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostinato](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostinato)

~~~
pstavirs
Yes, it is based after the musical term! I explained a bit about the naming in
the Packet Pushers Podcast[1] (around the 6:40 mark)

Disclosure: I'm the creator of Ostinato

[1] [http://packetpushers.net/podcast/podcasts/pq-
show-52-using-o...](http://packetpushers.net/podcast/podcasts/pq-
show-52-using-ostinato-to-craft-your-own-packets/)

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ldzcoder
There is also Scapy [0], fully operable from the Python shell. [0]
[http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/](http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/)

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kkielhofner
A few years back I was debugging a strange issue with an ethernet controller
and Ostinato was absolutely crucial. Even with access to Ixia hardware I can't
recommend it enough for packet generation work!

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supahfly_remix
How is the packet checking on this? What exactly does it check?

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kkirsche
I've usually used hping3 but ostinato is good

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bogomipz
Those have slightly different use cases packet crafting vs load testing.

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randomsofr
So there is people still using Windows XP. I like it better than the newer
versions.

