Methods, systems, and computer readable media for capturing dropped packets at a switching fabric emulator

A system for capturing dropped packets at a switching fabric emulator, the system comprising:

• an analyzer;
• and
• the switching fabric emulator providing an emulated switching fabric comprising emulated switching elements and associated packet queues comprising:
• at least one switching application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or programmable switching chip;
• and
• a memory, wherein the switching fabric emulator is configured for:
• during a test session:
• receiving, via at least a first physical port of the switching fabric emulator, packets from or to a system under test (SUT);
• detecting an occurrence of a dropped packet in the emulated switching fabric;
• encapsulating dropped packet data associated with the dropped packet, wherein the encapsulated dropped packet data indicates an emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the occurrence of the dropped packet;
• and
• providing the encapsulated dropped packet data to the analyzer, and wherein the analyzer is configured for:
• receiving the encapsulated dropped packet data;
• determining, using the encapsulated dropped packet data, a first encapsulated data field value indicating the emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the dropped packet;
• determining, using the first encapsulated data field value and mappings between encapsulated data field values and emulated switching element identifiers, the emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the dropped packet, wherein the mappings between encapsulated data field values and emulated switching element identifiers are provisioned prior to executing the test session;
• and
• generating a report or other output indicating that a drop occurred at the emulated switching element or packet queue.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions embodied in the non-transitory computer readable medium that when executed by at least one processor of at least one computing device cause the at least one computing device to perform steps comprising:

• at a switching fabric emulator providing an emulated switching fabric comprising emulated switching elements and associated packet queues, wherein the switching fabric emulator comprises at least one switching application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or programmable switching chip:
• during a test session:
• receiving, via at least a first physical port of the switching fabric emulator, packets from or to a system under test (SUT);
• detecting an occurrence of a dropped packet in the emulated switching fabric;
• encapsulating dropped packet data associated with the dropped packet, wherein the encapsulated dropped packet data indicates an emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the occurrence of the dropped packet;
• and
• providing the encapsulated dropped packet data to an analyzer;
• and
• at the analyzer:
• receiving the encapsulated dropped packet data;
• determining, using the encapsulated dropped packet data, a first encapsulated data field value indicating the emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the dropped packet;
• determining, using the first encapsulated data field value and mappings between encapsulated data field values and emulated switching element identifiers, the emulated switching element or packet queue contributing to the dropped packet, wherein the mappings between encapsulated data field values and emulated switching element identifiers are provisioned prior to executing the test session;
• and
• generating a report or other output indicating that a drop occurred at the emulated switching element or packet queue.