US 2006/0140128 A1 · Traffic generator and monitor

Abstract

A switch in a data communications network for performing traffic generation in addition to standard switching and routing operations is disclosed. The switch uses a fixed number of test packets retained in a conventional switch buffer to produce one or more infinite packet streams transmitted to a router under test (RUT). The switching device enqueues packets in the priority queues, dequeues the packets from the priority queues, transmits the dequeued packets to the RUT, and re-enqueues a copy of the dequeued packets into the priority queues from which they were dequeued. The enqueued packets and associated pointers to packets are organized into linked lists. By re-writing a copy of each dequeued packet to the tail of a linked list and updating the pointers, the switch produces repeatable streams of test packets. The priority buffers, without the re-write operation, may also be used for conventional egress traffic.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A data communications switching device for performing traffic generation in a data communications network comprising equipment under test (EUT), the switching device comprising:

at least one port adapted to receive a first plurality of protocol data units (PDUs);
a routing engine adapted to execute forwarding operations on the first plurality of PDUs;
a traffic generator adapted to produce a second plurality of PDUs;
and
a plurality of priority queues;
wherein the switching device is adapted to:
enqueue the first plurality of PDUs and second plurality of PDUs in the plurality of priority queues,
selectively associate the second plurality of PDUs using at least one linked list;
and
repeatedly dequeue the second plurality of PDUs from the plurality of priority queues using the at least one linked list.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Traffic generator and monitor

Life of this patent

Traffic generator and monitor

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21