



This section concerns tools for measuring Internet workload. A summary is
provided along with web page pointers
to more detailed information. Review comments are also included when available.
This listing has not been actively maintained since 2004. These pages are made available for historical purposes.
Packet Analyzers (Hardware)
Tool | Input | Measurement | Output | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Active / Passive | Functions | |||
HP/Agilent Advisor | LAN or WAN | both | current and peak bandwidth utilization; rtt, pkt loss, traffic generation | raw data for HP/Agilent software |
InMon sFlow Probe | 1000Base-SX | both | flow measurement | Cisco NetFlow v5/ InMon sFlow |
LinkView | 10BaseT, 100BaseTx | both | bandwidth dist, frame dist, err pkt dist, wire-speed traffic generator, graphical topology, protocol dist (350+) | Report Wizard |
Shomiti Explorer | 10/100/Giga Ethernet | passive | pkt capture | raw data flow |
Sniffer Pro | 10/100 Ether LAN; GigaEther; ATM; Packet over SONET | both | pkt capture, bandwidth utilization, protocol utilization, pkt and frame errs, traffic generation, | GUI |
Packet Analyzers (Software)
Tool | Input | Measurement | Output | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Active / Passive | Functions | |||
AppTransaction Xpert | packet traces | passive | hundreds of protocol and transaction level decodes; intuitive, graphical diagrams for visualizing application behavior; application response time predictions in virtual environments; continuous capture capability for analysis of intermittent application problems; powerful .whiteboard. environment for architecting and validating modifications to application-layer logic and behavior | GUI, graphs, charts, web reports |
EtherPeek | Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, or Gigabit Ethernet NIC (Windows 95/98/NT) | both | pkt capture, utilization by node and protocol, pkt filters, pkt generation, event triggers, plug-ins | GUI, HTML for stats |
ettercap | switched LAN | passive with some active commands | sniff traffic on a selected connection; dissect protocols; collect passwords; fingerprint OS; kill a connection | text (black and white) or ncurses (color) |
hping | ICMP echo; TCP, UDP, ICMP and RAW-IP protocols | active | TCP/IP packet assembler/analyzer; firewall testing; advanced port scanning; network testing;using different protocols, TOS, fragmentation; manual path MTU discovery; advanced traceroute, under all the supported protocols; remote OS fingerprinting; remote uptime guessing; TCP/IP stacks auditing | text |
LanExplorer | Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, or Gigabit Ethernet NIC (Windows 95/98/NT) | passive | pkt capture, bandwidth utilization, protocol dist, packet size dist, protocol analysis | GUI |
LANQuest Net/WRx | IP, Ethernet, GigaEther, Token ring, FDDI | both | bandwidth util, latency, pkt resends, data loss | GUI |
LAN traffic monitor - RT | 10/100/1G ethernet packets | passive | MAC/IP/protocol node/conversation matrix tables | realtime telnet terminal output |
Shomiti Surveyor | 10/100/1000 Ethernet; 4/16 Token Ring | both | 7-layer analysis | GUI |
Sniffer Basic | 10/100 Ether LAN; 4/16 token ring | both | pkt capture, bandwidth utilization, protocol utilization, pkt and frame errs, traffic generation, | GUI |
Wireshark | ethernet, FDDI, PPP, token-ring, X.25, IP over ATM, tcpdump (libpcap), various pkt analyzers | passive | protocol distribution | Unix GUI, or TTY-mode |
Traffic Monitors/Analyzers
Tool | Input | Measurement | Output | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Active / Passive | Functions | |||
AppResponse Xpert | packet data, NetFlow | passive | 24x7 appliance-based application performance monitoring; automatic application discovery and classification by user-defined application and business groups; point-and-click guided work flows to diagnose and troubleshoot application performance issues; advanced live and historical analysis; real-time VoIP performance management; NetFlow data collection to extend visibility into network capacity | GUI, graphs, charts, web reports |
argus | pkt capture files, data from a live interface | passive | connectivity, capacity, demand, loss, delay, jitter, performance | text (log files) |
cflowd | flow-export data from one or more Cisco/Juniper routers | passive | flow analysis, performance | tabular summaries |
CoralReef | packet trace files, network interface, or specialized ATM or POS capture device | passive | traffic flow analysis, workload characterization | both static and dynamic reports |
Cricket | time-series data | passive | traffic analyzer | web GUI |
flow-tools | NetFlow | passive | traffic analyzer | command-line tools |
InMon Traffic Server | flow-export data from one or more Cisco routers; sFlow data from probes, switches and routers | passive | flow analysis, performance | web |
ntop | Cisco NetFlow/Juniper sFlow | passive | sorts network traffic by protocol, statistics, host/IP identification, subnets, usage by protocol, flow analysis, performance | stores stats in RRD, HTML reports |
NetFlow | flow-export data from one or more Cisco routers | passive | flow analysis, performance | raw flow data |
pipechar | destination name or IP address | active | Round trip time (RTT) to each measured node. Possible capacity of a node if that node load is low; or congestion degree if that node load is high. | text |
Orca | text files | passive | periodic plots and distributions | HTML, PNG files |
SNMP Network Management Systems
Tool | Input | Measurement | Output | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Active / Passive | Functions | |||
Compaq TeMIP | SNMP, Q3/CMIP, CORBA over leased lines, ATM, Sonet/SDH | passive | traffic monitor; performance mgmt; workflow char; mapping service | GUI or web pages |
NeTraMet | SNMP | passive | traffic flow accounting meter; xfr rate dist; pkt size dist; protocol dist; turnaround time dist | GUI |
RTG | SNMP | passive | high-performance SNMP statistics monitoring | database, text, web pages |