TestPipe

Description:

TestPipe is a pair of bandwidth measuring binaries that are client (ssend) and server (srecv). They pipe data across a connection without reading or writing it to disk. Because the systems are not reading/writing to disk they are only bound by CPU and network bandwidth, and therefore represent a more accurate measurement of network performance.

TestPipe was designed and intended for measuring high bandwidth (TCP/IP) interconnects where filling bandwidth with a file as a source or destination tends to interfere with the measurement when the disk transfer speed is less than the interconnect.

Here is the help output from the commands:

$ ssend -h
ssend - A network stream writer used with srecv.
  Version: 0.11.0

  Usage: ssend [options] <address>

  Options:
   -d <size>  Set the packet send size to <size> bytes.
   -p <port>  Set the port number to <port>.
   -s <size>  Send a total of <size> Meg of data.
   -t <time>  Send data for <time> seconds.

$ srecv -h
srecv - A network stream reader used with ssend.
  Version: 0.11.0

  Usage: srecv [options] <address>

  Options:
   -p <port>  Set the port number to <port>.

The Distribution:

The distribution is C source and a number of pre-compiled binaries.

Latest Source:

   testpipe-0_11_0.tar.gz

Binaries:

This code is released under the GNU license.

Application Notes:

• Maintaing multiple ports is a real pain. I used gcc/make for all ports except the OS X port where I used the Xcode IDE. (I prefer gcc/make).
• If you do not see the port you like, compile it yourself, or send me an e-mail request for one.
• NONE of the binaries are statically linked. I tried (briefly and unsuccessfully) with the Solaris port.