Etherate

========

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What is it

Etherate is a Linux CLI application for testing layer 2 Ethernet and MPLS

connectivity. It can generate various Ethernet and MPLS frames for testing

different devices such as switches/routers/firewalls etc, to test

traffic parsing/matching/filtering/forwarding.

Why was it made

Programs such as iPerf/jPerf/Ostinato/PathEth/Scapy/PtkGen/MoonGen (to name

just a few) are excellent! They can saturate a link to measure throughput,

or simulate congestion, or allow the user to set custom DSCP values to test

QoS, etc. They usually operate at layer 3 or 4 of the OSI model using either

TCP or UDP for data transport. Some of them use sockets defined by the OS

that rely on a convoluted OS TCP/IP stack, others use 3rd party libraries

(such as libpcap, NetMap etc).

These programs are great for testing over a layer 3 boundary such as across

the Internet, home broadband, client to server diagnostics etc. Etherate

uses raw sockets within Linux operating directly over layer 2 to provide

low level network analysis for Ethernet and MPLS connections without using

any 3rd party libraries or kernel bypass techniques.

The aim is free Ethernet and MPLS testing program that allows for advanced

network analysis. With any modern day CPU and off the shelf NIC it should

saturate up to a 10GigE link using 1500 byte frames and allow for the

testing of various metro and carrier Ethernet features (such tag swapping,

802.1p QoS, ethertype parsing, and so on). This should all be achievable

without the need to install any 3rd party libraries (see INSTALL for

details). Etherate can simply be compiled and executed from the folder it

was downloaded to and provide "quick and dirty" tests or advanced bespoke

testing using custom frame files.

Current version

1.18 (2018-06)

Current features

Having moved from alpha, to beta, and now to production version 1.x the

focus now is to finish the remaining features of Etherate, then provide bug

fixes only. This is to support the development of EtherateMT instead.

Currently working features which all operate directly over layer 2:

- Any EtherType

- Any Source MAC and/or Destination MAC

- Any VLAN ID

- Any priority (PCP) value

- Supports double tagging (any inner and outer VLAN ID, any PCP)

- Toggle DEI bit

- Toggle frame acknowledgement

- Optional speed limit in Mbps, MBps or Frames/p/s

- Optional frame payload size

- Optional transfer limit in MBs/GBs

- Optional test duration

- L2 storm (BUM) testing

- One way delay measurement (at layer 2!)

- Perform sweeping MTU test

- Perform link quality tests (RTT & jitter, at layer 2!)

- Simulate MPLS label stacks

- Insert MPLS pseudowire control word

- Load a custom frame from file for transmission

- Some examples are provided to simulate BPDUs, ARP, ICMP, TCP

Development plan

Etherate is developed primarily for use on Ubuntu and CentOS as these are

the authors day to day platforms. If it doesn't work on your bedroom Linux

based OS, it's unlikely I'll have time help you. If it doesn't work on some

other major Linux based OS I'll try and find the time to spin up a VM and

replicate your issues. Ubuntu and CentOS are the main focus though.

The features currently being worked upon can be seen in the issues section:

https://github.com/jwbensley/Etherate/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Aenhancement

The Etherate code is partially object orientated, single threaded and only

uni-directionl so once the outstanding features are completed development will

cease (except for bug fixes), a new multi-threaded version is currently

being developed called EtherateMT: https://github.com/jwbensley/EtherateMT

EtherateMT aimes to be a simple high performance traffic generator with less

features than Etherate, aimed at testing network and device load rather

than specific traffic properties like Etherate.

Contributing

There is a Code of Conduct for contributing to the project in any way,

but no specific guidlines about how to contribute.

Ultimately, just be friendly and I'll do my best to accept patches and

accept bug fixes etc:

https://github.com/jwbensley/Etherate/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

https://github.com/jwbensley/Etherate/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Technical details

Etherate is a single threaded application, despite which 10G throughput

can be achieved on a 2.4Ghz Intel CPU with 10G Intel NIC using 1500 byte

frames. Etherate is not currently using NetMap, DPDK, VPP or other similar

frameworks as it is intended to test the OS's native capabilities and be

easily usable without any 3rd party requirements (apart from a recent

Kernel!). If you want 64 byte packet line rate performance on Nx10G or

Nx100G etc then Etherate is not for you. There are some great projects such

as MoonGen and PtkGen which Etherate cannot compete with for performance.

DPDK and PktGen or MoonGen require additional setup time and complexity

which is the trade-off with Etherate. Etherate can load a custom frame from

a file to transmit and test a traffic parsing graph or fill a specific ASIC

queue with minimal effort.

Documentation (usage info, examples, FAQs etc.):

http://null.53bits.co.uk/index.php?page=etherate

Who made it (where to send your hate mail or nude pics)

James Bensley [jwbensley at gmail dot com]

Major credit is due for their code review and bug fixing efforts, to;

- Bradley Kite

- Bruno de Montis

- Christophe Lucas