- Bwping
bwping is a tool to measure bandwidth and response times between two hosts using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request/echo reply mechanism. It does not require any special software on remote host. The only requirement is the ability to respond on ICMP echo request messages.
Command syntax
bwping [-t timeout] [-u bufsize] [-r reporting_period] [-T tos] -b kbps -s pktsize -v volume targetAvailable options are:
* -t - Sets the response timeout in seconds. Default value is one second.
* -u - Sets the send/receive buffer size in bytes. Default value will be automatically calculated based on transfer speed, packet size and host timer accuracy.
* -r - Sets the interval time in seconds between periodic bandwidth, RTT, and loss reports. If zero, there will be no periodic reports (default).
* -T - Sets the TOS value of outgoing ip packet. Default value is zero.
* -b - Sets the transfer speed in kilobits per second.
* -s - Sets the packet size in bytes.
* -v - Sets the volume to transfer in bytes.Availability
This utility is a part of TclMon distribution. Utility sources are also available [http://tclmon.vsi.ru/files/bwping-latest.tar.gz as separate archive] .
License
This utility is available under
BSD License .Problems and issues
Although bwping does not require any special software on remote host (only the ability to respond on ICMP echo request messages), there are some special requirements to network infrastructure, local and remote host performance:
* There should be no ICMP echo request/reply filtering on the network; this includes
QoS mechanisms (which often affects ICMP) at any point in the testing path.
* Local host should have enough CPU resources to send ICMP echo request messages with given rate, and remote host should quickly respond on these messages and should have no ICMP bandwidth limiting turned on.If some of these requirements are not satisfied, then measurement results will be inadequate, or even utility will not work at all. In general, for testing bandwidth where
QoS is implemented, always test with traffic that matches theQoS class to be tested.See also
*
Iperf : A tool for TCP/UDP bandwidth measurement.
*TTCP : Another tool for network bandwidth measurement.
*Measuring network throughput Links
* [http://tclmon.vsi.ru/ TclMon NMS Web site (Russian)]
* [http://tclmon.vsi.ru/utils.php Utility web page (Russian)]
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