Traffic generator with priority flow control
AssigneeIxia
InventorsSushil S. Kamerkar, Limin Liu, Anup Jethra, Gerald Pepper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Port units, methods, and computer readable storage media for testing a network are disclosed. A traffic generator may generate and transmit test traffic over a network under test, the test traffic including a plurality of interleaved packet streams, each traffic stream associated with one of a plurality of flow control groups. A traffic receiver may receive flow control packets from the network under test. The traffic generator may be configured to stop transmission of all packet streams associated with one or more paused flow control groups when the traffic receiver receives a flow control packet identifying the one or more paused flow control groups.
Claims26
A port unit, comprising:
- a traffic receiver to receive flow control packets from a network under test;
- and
- a traffic generator pipeline to generate and transmit test traffic over the network under test, the test traffic including a plurality of interleaved packet streams, each packet stream associated with one of a plurality of flow control groups, the traffic generator pipeline comprising:
- a scheduler to determine a sequence in which packets belonging to the plurality of packet streams are generated, and
- two or more processing engines, including a first processing engine and a last processing engine, to perform sequential stages of a packet generation process, wherein
- the first processing engine inputs data indicative of the packet sequence from the scheduler and outputs flow control data to the scheduler,
- the last processing engine outputs competed packets ready for transmission, selectively pausing packet streams associated with one or more paused flow control groups in accordance with the received flow control packets,
- each processing engine except the last processing engine outputs packet forming data to a subsequent processing engine in the pipeline, and
- each processing engine except the first processing engine outputs flow control data to a previous processing engine in the pipeline.
A method for testing a network, comprising:
- receiving flow control packets from a network under test;
- and
- generating test traffic and transmitting the test traffic over the network under test, the test traffic including a plurality of interleaved packet streams, each packet stream associated with one of a plurality of flow control groups,
- wherein generating test traffic further comprises:
- generating packets using a traffic generator pipeline comprising a scheduler and two or more processing engines including a first processing engine and a last processing engine,
- the first processing engine inputting data indicative of the packet sequence from the scheduler and outputting flow control data to the scheduler,
- the last processing engine outputting competed packets ready for transmission, selectively pausing packet streams associated with one or more paused flow control groups in accordance with the received flow control packets,
- each processing engine except the last processing engine outputting packet forming data to a subsequent processing engine in the pipeline, and
- each processing engine except the first processing engine outputting flow control data to a previous processing engine in the pipeline.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing configuration data which, when used to program a programmable device, configures the programmable device to include a traffic generator pipeline to generate and transmit test traffic over a network under test, the test traffic including a plurality of interleaved packet streams, each packet stream associate with one of a plurality of flow control groups, the traffic generator pipeline comprising:
- a scheduler to determine a sequence in which packets belonging to the plurality of packet stream are generated;
- and
- two or more processing engines, including a first processing engine and a last processing engine, to perform sequential stages of a packet generation process, wherein
- the first processing engine inputs data indicative of the packet sequence from the scheduler and outputs flow control data to the scheduler,
- the last processing engine outputs competed packets ready for transmission, selectively pausing packet streams associated with one or more paused flow control groups in accordance with the received flow control packets,
- each processing engine except the last processing engine outputs packet forming data to a subsequent processing engine in the pipeline, and
- each processing engine except the first processing engine outputs flow control data to a previous processing engine in the pipeline.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.