Table of Contents
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The LANforge-GUI is a Graphical management interface to the LANforge system. The GUI connects to the LANforge manager process, which automatically discovers the LANforge Data Generators (also called 'Resources') on its management network. Because the connection to the server is a standard TCP/IP interface, the GUI can access the server remotely, even over a low bandwidth connection. The GUI has extensive 'tooltip' support, so if you are unsure of what a particular field or option box does, momentarily hold the mouse cursor over the field of interest and you should see a small description.
Clicking the 'HELP' button will pop up a window using your default browser displaying the specific section of the LANforge GUI User Guide relating to the selected tab on the GUI display. Note for Windows Vista users: Clicking 'HELP' will not direct the browser to the specific section of the User Guide, but will default to the Table of Contents.
After installing the LANforge-GUI, you are ready to begin. First, start up the LANforge-GUI. Two windows should pop up, one of which is a login window that looks something like this:
Enter the name or IP address of the LANforge server that you wish to connect to. If you are running the GUI on the same machine as the LANforge server, then you can enter 'localhost' here. Note that the default server port is 4002, but this could be different depending on how the LANforge server was installed. You can also click the 'Discover' button to have the GUI discover other LANforge systems on the local subnet. Newly discovered systems are added to the drop-down menu and can then be selected. After entering the correct information or selecting the server from the drop-down menu, click the 'Connect' button, and the GUI will attempt to connect to the server. If the server is re-started, or if the connection from the GUI to the server is lost for any other reason, the GUI will attempt to reconnect to the server every 5 seconds.
The last 20 servers that you logged into will be added to the drop-down menu for ease of use when re-connecting. If you ever want to re-initialize the list, remove the lfcnf.txt file that is in the LANforge-GUI installation directory and re-start the GUI. A new file will be created the next time you connect to the server.
For Windows Vista users, note that the lfcnf.txt file will be in the following
location:
C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Local/VirtualStore/Program Files/LANforge-GUI
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After you have connected to the server, the splash screen will disappear and the LANforge Manager window will appear with the Status tab displayed:
The Status Tab contains the following management panels:
Each Resource will have a certain number of 'ports' displayed. The Management port for each Resource is blue. Data-generating ports are green. Ports configured in the database but non-existent (or not yet discovered) on the real hardware are yellow. Ports configured to be ignored by the client are red. The port layout is specified in a config file for each Resource and should have been configured correctly during installation. The tool-tip for each port indicates the interface identification, alias, and port status. Clicking on a port displays the Port Mgr tab with the specified port selected (highlighted) to provide detailed information.
The color of the two small squares to the left of each 'port' indicate the current Link Rate and Link Status for that port. The leftmost square displays orange for 1Gbps, green for 100Mbps, yellow for 10Mbps, and red for No Link. The middle square displays green for Full-Duplex, yellow for Half-Duplex, and red for No Link. The tool-tip for each port also indicates the current Link Rate and Link Status.
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LANforge includes the Netsmith graphical configurator for virtual routers, LANforge-FIRE, and LANforge-ICE testing scenarios. Please be aware that the Virtual Router functionality only works when the LANforge resource servers are running on Linux. The updated iputils program and the Candela kernel (or a kernel with the Candela patch applied) is also required. If you purchase a LANforge system (as opposed to software-only), this will all come pre-installed. If you are installing the software on your own system, please read the install guide(s) carefully.
Open Netsmith by clicking the 'Netsmith' button located below one of the the resources on the Virtual Shelf display. When the Netsmith tool is first opened, it will auto-create as much as possible based on the current system configuration and resources. The positioning of the objects will most likely need to be changed. For most objects, just click-and-drag them to the new location using the mouse. Some objects, such as FIRE cross-connect (CX) representations are not independently draggable, but you can drag the port endpoints to reposition the FIRE CXs.
You can left-click and drag to create a selection box, and then drag or modify all of the objects inside or intersecting the box at once.
In general, you can click-and drag to move, double-click to modify, and right-click on objects to get a menu of specific tasks for each object or group of objects.
Here is an example of how to create a simple routed network emulation using
three physical ports and one virtual router. This will emulate a central
location with a 10Mbps network connection, and 2 remote sites with 1.54Mbps
T1 connections, all connected through a routed network.
For more examples,
please see the LANforge-GUI FIRE Cookbook
and LANforge-GUI ICE Cookbook.
| Step | Screenshot |
|---|---|
| 1. Open the Netsmith tool by clicking the 'Netsmith' button located on the bottom panel of the Status tab display. |
|
| 2. Three ethernet interfaces will be used in this example: eth0, eth1, and eth2. Ethernet interfaces can be clicked and dragged from their default location at the bottom-left corner of the display to the center for clarity. Clicking the 'Apply' button at the bottom-right of the Netsmith window will save their locations on the display. Double-click eth0 to display the Create/Modify Connection window and modify its connection. |
|
| 3. Deselect the 'Skip' checkbox to the right of 'WanLink:', 'Port 2-B:' and 'Port 2-A' to "un-skip" these connections in the Create/Modify Connection window. This will automatically create new entities as needed. Click 'OK' to save the changes. |
|
| 4. Double-click eth1 and eth2 and follow the same steps as above. When completed, right-click in a blank area within the window and select 'New Router.' This will display the Create/Modify Virtual Router window. |
|
| 5. A router name will be automatically assigned (e.g., R0) or a different name can be typed in the 'Name:' field if desired. Click 'OK' when complete. |
|
| 6. Drag the rddVRXX sides of the connections into the newly created virtual router. Click the 'Apply' button to create the new ports and WanLinks. |
|
| 7. You should see the newly created objects go from red squares to green and black boxes. The WanLinks (red rectangles) will turn green when started. |
|
| 8. Right-click on each rddVRXX interface in the virtual router and select 'Modify Port' to add the appropriate IP Address, IP MASK, and Gateway IP. The default gateway for each port will be the IP address of the corresponding rddVRXX port in the virtual router. Selecting the 'IPv4s' or 'IPv6s' checkboxes on the bottom panel will display IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, respectively, on the Netsmith display. |
|
| 9. If this is to be part of a larger routed network, then you can double-click the port(s) in the virtual router and set the 'Next-Hop' and up to eight subnets that will be using this next hop. Please note that 0.0.0.0/0 is a valid subnet, and simply means 'ANY.' This is one way to set the default gateway for all unknown traffic. Click 'OK' when done modifying the Virtual Router. |
|
| 10. When all of the ports in the Virtual Router have appropriate IPs, and the connection has the proper next-hops and subnets, click 'Apply' to flush the changes to the LANforge server and create the proper routing tables. | |
| 11. Modify the WanLinks by right-clicking the green (running) or red (stopped) rectangles and selecting 'Modify WanLink.' Set the transfer rate to 10Mbps on one, and 1.54Mbps on the other two. Set latency and other changes as required and click 'OK.' |
|
| 12. Start each WanLink by right-clicking its colored rectangle and selecting 'Toggle WanLink.' After completing changes in Netsmith, click the 'Apply' button to flush the changes to the LANforge server. |
|
| 13. Connect your network equipment to ports eth0, eth1, and eth2. Your network equipment should now be able to ping through LANforge and you should see the latency that was configured in the WanLinks. |
Virtual Routers
To create a new Virtual Router, right-click in a blank area within the Netsmith window and select 'New Router.' This will bring up the Create/Modify Virtual Router window:
LANforge will generate a name automatically unless one is entered. The name, graphical size, notes field and other router configuration flags can all be modified when created or at a later time. The virtual router will use simple subnet routing rules unless otherwise directed. Xorp must be installed before using the OSPF, Multicast, or Xorp SHA routing features.
After creating a virtual router, existing interfaces can be dragged into it or new virtual devices can be created and associated to it. In order to be accessible to outside objects, however, the Virtual Router must either contain an interface (Port) that connects to the outside world or be connected to another Virtual Router that eventually connects to the outside world.
Netsmith Connections
Netsmith Connections are used to connect routers to each other and to connect
routers to the outside world. To create a new Netsmith Connection, right-click
in a blank area within the Netsmith window and select 'New Connection.' This will bring
up the Create/Modify Connection window:
Right-Click Menus
Most objects have right-click menus associated with them to perform various actions. You cannot click on the connecting lines or the 'B' ports at this time.
Visual Display
The Netsmith window provides a real-time view of WanLinks and other LANforge entities. A legend for each type of entity is shown in the upper-left portion of the Netsmith window. Any objects drawn as a red square are not currently found in the LANforge system, even though the Netsmith has been configured such that they (should) exist. This can happen if interfaces or WanLinks were removed after Netsmith had discovered them, or if new WanLinks or connections have been created in Netsmith, but the changes have not been Applied yet. If these should really be deleted, just right-click and delete the offending objects and Apply the changes.
Display Options
The checkboxes at the bottom of the Netsmith window can be used to display or hide various details to suit the user's preference. Selecting or deselecting these flags will not affect the actual configuration of LANforge in any way.
Netsmith Buttons
There are several buttons at the bottom-right of the Netsmith window.
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The LANforge security and administration framework has a concept of Users (clients), Test Managers, and Cross-Connects. Test Managers are a grouping of one or more clients and 0 or more Cross-Connects. Any user belonging to a Test Manager can manage any of the Cross-Connects belonging to that Test Manager. As a special case, WanPaths can also be assigned to a Test Manager.
When you first log into the LANforge system through the GUI, you will be logged in as the user 'default'. The GUI will then try to log you in as user 'Admin'. If a password has been set for Admin and if the user 'default' does NOT have Administrator privileges, that login will fail and the login window will pop up to allow the user to change users and/or enter the correct password. If there will only be a few different testers using the LANforge system at any given time, you may never need to create a new user, and if you are not worried about who uses LANforge, there is no need to set an Admin password. However, it may be useful to do so if you have a larger group of users, or if communication between the users is not easy.
To log in as a particular user, select 'Client Admin or Login' from the Control pull-down menu. You will get a screen that looks like this:
The existing clients are shown to the left, with the details of a particular client, including name, Admin status and some other flags. To select a client for modification, double-click it, make your changes and click 'Set'. To log in as a client, double-click it, enter a password if one is set, and click 'Login As'. To create a new account, enter the client name, set appropriate flags, enter password if desired, and click 'Set'. To delete an existing client, double-click it, and click 'Delete'.
Flags
Creating a client for use by the CLI interface can be done through the GUI too. Unless you are using some sort of scripting program to control the CLI, it is advised that you turn off the Send Updates flags, or the CLI will be so noisy that you will not be able to see what you are doing!
Securing LANforge
By default, LANforge requires no password, and the GUI will log in as the super-user. The default user will also have super-user priviledges. To make LANforge more secure, remove the Administrator flag from the default user, and set a password on the Admin user. You cannot set a password on the default user, and a 'default_tm' Test Manager will always exist with the 'default' user associated. To restrict the default user's access, create a new Test Manager that does not include the default user, and add Cross-Connects to it.
Passwords may be reset by any user with Admin status. Passwords are stored in a plain text file on the LANforge server at [LANforge-Home]/DB/passwd. If this file is deleted, all users will be able to log in without a password. This password protection will help keep user's from accidentally interfering with configurations that they should not have access to, but should NOT be considered a serious means of securing the LANforge machine.
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A Test Manager is a construct that represents a particular view into the LANforge system. In most cases, the default Test Manager can satisfy routine uses and the creation of addtional Test Managers is not required. Each Test Manager can have a selection of cross-connects and a list of users who are authorized to use the test manager. This allows one to set up multiple different tests on a LANforge system and quickly change between the test sets.
To create a new Test Manager, select the Test Mgr tab and click 'Create.' This will bring up the Create/Modify Test Manager window:
After creating the Test Manager, the Test Mgr tab will display a summary all existing Test Managers, including the one just created. To modify a test manager, select it and click the 'Modify' button. This will bring up the Create/Modify Test Manager window described above.
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Layer-3 Cross-Connects represent a stream of data flowing through the system under test. Each Cross-Connect (CX) is composed of two Endpoints, and each Endpoint is associated with a particular Port (physical or virtual interface). The Layer-3 tab displays all connections by default, but can display ranges of connections by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Connection numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first connection name.
Creating & Modifying Cross-Connects
When creating a Cross-Connect (CX), the details of each Endpoint including the Shelf, Resource, and Port that the Endpoint resides on need to be specifed. In this way, you determine which data-generating port (which is connected to some port on the system under test) the CX's traffic will flow over. In order to create a CX, click the 'Create' button on the Layer-3 tab which will bring up the Create/Modify Cross Connect window:
The top panel of the Create/Modify Cross Connect window contains information relating to the entire CX, including the name, CX Type, Report Timer, and the Test Manager. The CX name must be unique in the LANforge system and should have no spaces and be no more than 15 characters in length. The CX Type determines the protocol that the CX will use. The current supported types are:
This connection type also activates a GUI feature that allows you to build your own custom TCP/IP packets. Because LANforge has almost no control over what you send, it cannot detect received packets on the other end of the connection. You can use traffic sniffers or look at the port counters to get ideas of how many packets were actually received. See Configuring Payloads.
The Report Timer specifies how often the LANforge data generators send updates to the LANforge server, and how often the LANforge server pushes endpoint information up to the clients (GUIs) that have requested the automatic updates. If you are running the GUI over a slow link, or have a slower machine, it is recommended to increase the report timer to 5000ms (5 seconds) or higher.
The Test Manager specifies which test manager this CX should be added to.
The lower two panels in the window are used to define endpoints A and B. Endpoints are generally symmetric for UDP and Ethernet. For TCP/IP, the TX endpoint acts as a client, and the RX endpoint acts as a server (it waits for connections). Selecting different options may enable/disable certain fields.
Increasing: A pattern of bytes repeatedly incrementing from 0x00 to 0xFF.
Decreasing: A pattern of bytes repeatedly decreasing from 0xFF to 0x00.
Random: A pattern of random bytes from 0x00 to 0xFF. This pattern
is generated for every packet sent and hence is CPU intensive.
Random-Fixed: A pattern of random bytes from 0x00 to 0xFF is created for
the first packet and then duplicated for subsequent packets.
Zeros (0x00): A payload of only zeros.
Ones (0xFF): A payload of all 0xFF.
CUSTOM: A user-specified payload pattern.
PRBS-4-0-3: A payload pattern from a 4-bit linear shift register.
PRBS-7-0-6: A payload pattern from a 7-bit linear shift register.
PRBS-11-8-10: A payload pattern from a 11-bit linear shift register.
PRBS-15-0-14: A payload pattern from a 15-bit linear shift register.
NOTE: When running LANforge in Windows, QoS must first be setup by following the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 248611: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q248611
Received bit-errors will be calculated in the LANforge payload portion starting 28 bytes into the UDP or TCP payload. In addition, the bit-errors are only checked when LANforge CRC is enabled and detected to be invalid. If the 28-byte header is corrupted, LANforge will not detect it, and may also give false positives for other packet errors. Bit-Errors are only calculated for certain payload patterns: Increasing, Decreasing, Zeros, Ones, and the PRBS patterns.
Bit-error results will be displayed on the L3 Endps tab under the RX BER column for each endpoint.
Clicking the 'Payload' button on either the TX or RX Endpoint panels allows for the configuration of custom payloads on custom endpoints. You can copy/paste the payload hex from a previous packet capture or build a payload by clicking the 'Defaults' button at the bottom of the window, selecting a protocol, then clicking 'Defaults' again. If you are configuring a Custom Ethernet Endpoint, the resulting screen will look something like this:
As you fill in the lower protocol layers (for instance, the Ethernet header), other protocol builders will be added to the GUI display as selected. For example, if you choose the IP protocol in the Ethernet header, the IP builder will appear. It will parse the top HEX window if possible and initialize its fields appropriately. From the IP protocol builder, you can choose TCP as the next layer, and the TCP builder will appear...
Protocol Builders
LANforge supports three protocol builders at this time. More will be added as time permits, but please let us know if there are any in particular that you would like to see implemented first. If you wish to transmit protocols we do not have builders for, you can always paste a captured packet, or hand build one in HEX and transfer it to the text editor at the top of the Payload panel.
You can also initialize most protocols to defaults, and the resulting values will correspond to live packets gathered from our network. The ethernet protocol is slightly different, see the notes below. Make sure you initialize from the lower layers up to the higher layers.
Advanced Configuration
Clicking the 'Advanced' button on either the TX or RX Endpoint panels allows for the configuration of send and receive buffer sizes. For TCP connections, this correlates to sending and receiving window sizes. For layer-2 ethernet protocols one can also specify the number of frames to be generated with purposefully bad ethernet CRCs. This 'bad CRC' feature is only supported by certain ethernet adapters and drivers. Please contact Candela if you wish to use this feature.
You can use the 'Socket Priority' field to set a particular priority for the generated packets. When used in conjunction with the priority -> .1q priority mapping supported in the 802.1Q VLAN stack on Linux, you can have packets created with particular 802.1Q priorities. You can also use other Linux tools external to LANforge to modify behavior of the packets based on the priority.
Selecting the 'TCP_NODELAY' checkbox will decrease latencies in many cases and aid generation of small TCP frames by disabling the connection's Nagle algorithm. Selecting 'TCP_NODELAY' may decrease total bandwidth.
Individual Cross-Connects can be selected for display from the Layer-3 tab. Select a Cross-Connect and click the 'Display' button to bring up a summary window for that cross-connect.
The Cross Connect display is divided into three panels. The left and right panels describe information for endpoints A and B, respectively. The center panel describes the number of confirmed packets flowing and dropped from left-to-right and right-to-left, respectively.
The busy graphs on the right of each panel display the latency distributions for each endpoint. LANforge detects latency with a timestamp in each LANforge protocol packet (LANforge-ETH, LANforge-UDP, and LANforge-TCP endpoint types ONLY). The precision is to 1 millisecond. If the two endpoints are using NTP protocol to keep themselves in sync, then they are usually within 0-3 milliseconds apart. Because of this, latencies may be negative at times. This just shows the difference in the clocks, and by looking at both sides of the connection, you can deduce the true latencies. For the best latency measurements, have both the sending and receiving port on the same machine. For even higher precision, consider an Armageddon endpoint, which has microsecond latency reporting.
LANforge only counts the latencies when it receives the packet. This is not exactly the time that the packet was received by the LANforge hardware because the packet must flow through the protocol stacks up to the LANforge server. This is the primary cause of the range of latencies you will see reported even on a simple and fast LAN. The average is usually very close though: It is a running average of the last 100 packets received.
The average is displayed on the top-right side of the individual latency display widgets. Min/max values are displayed below the average.
There are two latency graphs for each endpoint. The top one is for the last 30 seconds, and the bottom is for the last 5 minutes.
The numbers on the top-left of the widget are the counters for each latency 'bucket'. The vertical graphs correspond to those numbers.
The units for the size of the buckets are milliseconds, and are exponential (2^X) in scale. The exponential values (1, 2, 4, 8, etc.) will be multiplied by the bucket 'width', which is always 1 currently, and added to the minimum latency. For instance, if the minimum latency is 0 millisecond, then the buckets will be:
1
2
4
8
16
...
If the bucket "1" has 2000 beside it, then that means that 2000 packets have been received in the last time-period that had less than 1 milliseconds in latency. If the bucket "2" has 30 beside it, then that means 30 packets had latency between 1 and 2 milliseconds.
The minimum latency can change over time, which will cause the buckets to shift their values. Although this may be confusing at first, it allows LANforge to report high-precision data regardless of the latency of the system under test.
When viewing the Spread-Sheet output, the lat_0, lat_1, etc columns show the number of packets received in the last 30 seconds that fall into the buckets.
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You will use the Cross Connect screen to stop/start/modify your (non-IGMP) CXs, but to see the fine details of each cross-connect, you will want to look at the endpoint screen. If you select a particular CX by single-clicking on its row, then you can move to the L3-Endps screen and see the Endpoints for that CX highlighted as well. The L3 Endps tab displays all endpoints by default, but can display ranges of endpoints by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Endpoint numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first endpoint name.
From the L3-Endp Panel you can do bulk changes to packet sizes and packet rates. For example, if you want several of your Endpoints running at 56000bps then you can select them, and use the 'MIN Tx Rate' combo-box to set the desired value. For more specific modifications, select the endpoint in question and click the 'Modify' button. You can also modify Endpoints through their Cross-Connect on the Cross Connect Information panel at the top of the window.
If you wish to see graphs for the received packets for a particular endpoint, you can select one or more endpoints and click on the 'Display' button. The display of a sample endpoint is shown here:
Creating & Modifying Multicast Endpoints
LANforge supports the IGMP UDP Multicast protocol. Because there is a one to many relationship, these endpoints are not handled by the standard cross-connect paradigm. Instead, you can create multiple endpoints, specifying one generator and zero or more receivers for a particular IGMP address/port pair. To create an IGMP endpoint, click the 'Create' button on the L3 Endps tab. This will bring up the Create/Modify Endpoint window. To modify an existing IGMP endpoint, select it and click the 'Modify' button.
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After adding a Test Manager, you may create Voice over IP (VoIP) calls between LANforge interfaces. You may also set up third-party phones to call LANforge or be called by LANforge.
VoIP consists of several protocols. LANforge currently supports H.323 and SIP (Session Initiated Protocol). The voice payload is transmitted with the Real Time Protocol (RTP) which runs over UDP. The Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP) is used for latency and other accounting, and runs over UDP with the same priority as the RTP traffic. The VoIP/RTP tab displays all connections by default, but can display ranges of connections by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Connection numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first connection name.
Creating & Modifying VoIP Cross-Connects
When creating a VoIP Cross-Connect (CX), you specify the details of each Endpoint, including the Shelf, Resource, and Port that the Endpoint resides on. In this way, you determine which data-generating port (which is connected to some port on the system under test) the call's traffic will flow over. In order to create a CX, click the 'Create' button on the VoIP/RTP tab. This will bring up the Create/Modify VoIP Cross Connect window:
The top panel of the Create/Modify Cross Connect window contains information relating to the entire CX, including the name, CX Type, report timer, and the test manager this CX should belong to. The name must be unique in the LANforge system.
Each Endpoint can be configured independently of the other. The default is to have the 'A' endpoint call the 'B' endpoint. The 'B' endpoint can be un-managed, which means LANforge assumes that it is a third-party endpoint, such as a Cisco or Grandstream SIP phone.
The 'UnManaged' flag tells LANforge that this particular Endpoint is not a LANforge endpoint. Use this when configuring LANforge to call third-party SIP phones, for example.
Selecting 'Don't Answer' will make LANforge decline to 'pick up' the phone when called.
If 'Rcv Call' is selected, then this endpoint will wait for calls to be made to it, but will not originate any calls.
Selecting 'No Tunneling' or 'No Fast Start' checkboxes will prevent LANforge from using the tunneling or fast connect features of the H.323 protocol, respectively.
If 'Single Codec' is selected, LANforge will only use the codec specified in the top panel of this window. With this function disabled, the specified codec will be preferred, but any supported codec will be accepted.
Select 'Bind SIP' if the gateway is connected to the same (ethernet) interface as the VoIP endpoint. This is usually required for Directed calls. If you are using the management network for the gateway, then deselect this checkbox.
If 'Record' is selected, LANforge will record the received audio stream to the specified wav file. This must be selected if you want to enable PESQ reporting.
LANforge VoIP now supports PESQ automated voice quality reporting. You must purchase a separate PESQ license for your LANforge system in order to enable this feature. To configure the VoIP endpoint for PESQ, select the 'Enable PESQ' checkbox. You must also configure the PESQ server. The PESQ server is the LANforge machine on which you install the PESQ license. PESQ can run along side other LANforge processes, so everything can be installed on a single machine if desired. For optimal results, select the 'Multi-Call' call mode and 'File' for the call duration. You also have to enable the 'Record' feature so that the received audio is saved to the local file system for processing by PESQ.
Selecting 'Play to speaker' will play received audio on the LANforge server's speaker, providing a sound system exists and is configured correctly. The default sound device for Linux is /dev/audio.
SIP supports Voice Activity Detection (VAD). Selecting 'VAD' will suppress RTP packets if silence is detected more than the specified 'VAD Delay' in milliseconds.
# muzak.ogg == input file, can be almost any type of sound file.
# -U == ulaw encoding
# -c 1 == one channel
# -b == 1-byte encoding (8-bit)
# -v 1.1 == increase volume by 1.1/1.0 percent, optional
# -r 8000 == 8000 samples per second.
# /tmp/muzak.wav == output file, has to be a .wav extension.
# resample -q1 == makes it sound better, evidently, I can't tell.
Individual VoIP cross-connects can be selected for display from the VoIP/RTB tab. Select a cross-connect and click the 'Display' button to bring up a summary window for that cross-connect.
The VoIP Cross Connect display is divided into three panels. The left and right panels describe information for endpoints A and B, respectively. The center panel describes the number of confirmed packets flowing and dropped from left-to-right and right-to-left, respectively.
The busy graphs on the right of each panel display the latency and jitter distribution for each endpoint. LANforge detects latency with the RTCP protocol. Jitter is determined from the timestamp on the received RTP packets. Note that the jitter calculation is made before the packet is processed by the RTP Jitter buffer.
Average values are displayed on the top-right of the individual display widgets. Min/max values are displayed below the average.
The top graph is for RTCP latency over the last 30 seconds, and the bottom graph is jitter derived from the RTP packets over the last 30 seconds.
The numbers on the top-left of the widget are the counters for each latency 'bucket'. The vertical graphs correspond do those numbers.
The units for the size of the buckets are milliseconds, and are logorithmic in scale. For instance, if the average latency is 101 milliseconds, then the buckets will be:
102
103
105
109
117
...
If the bucket "102" has 2000 beside it, then that means that 2000 packets have been received in the last time-period that have less than 102 milliseconds in latency. If the bucket "105" has 30 beside it, then that means 30 packets had latency between 103 and 105 milliseconds.
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You will use the RTP Cross Connect screen to stop/start/modify your RTP Call Cross-Connects, but to see the fine details of each endpoint, you may want to look at the endpoint screen. If you select a particular call by single-clicking on its row, then you can move to the RTP Endpoints screen and see the Endpoints for that call highlighted as well. The VoIP/RTP Endps tab displays all endpoints by default, but can display ranges of endpoints by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Endpoint numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first endpoint name.
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VLC media player (formerly VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. VLC can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. VLC doesn't need any external codec or program to work. The Audio/Visual tab displays all connections by default, but can display ranges of connections by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Connection numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first connection name.
Creating & Modifying VLC Cross-Connects
When creating a VLC Cross-Connect (CX), you specify the details of the transmit Endpoint, including the Shelf, Resource, and Port that the Endpoint resides on. In this way, you determine which data-generating port (which is connected to some port on the system under test) the VLC traffic will flow over. In order to create a CX, click the 'Create' button on the Audio/Visual tab. This will bring up the Create/Modify VLC Cross Connect window:
The top panel of the Create/Modify Cross Connect window contains information relating to the entire CX, including the name, report timer, and the test manager this CX should belong to. The name must be unique in the LANforge system. CX Type is defaulted to 'Video - VLC'. The lower panel in the window is used to define Endpoint A.
The 'UnManaged' flag tells LANforge that this particular Endpoint is not a LANforge endpoint.
If 'Record' is selected, LANforge will record the received audio/video stream to the specified wav file.
Selecting 'Show Video' will display received video via the LANforge server providing a video player is installed and configured correctly.
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You will use the VLC Cross Connect screen to stop/start/modify your VLC media player CXs, but to see the fine details of each cross-connect, you will want to look at the endpoint screen. If you select a particular CX by single-clicking on its row, then you can select the AV Endps tab to see the Endpoints for that CX highlighted as well. The AV Endps tab displays all endpoints by default, but can display ranges of endpoints by selecting from the View field drop-down or typing a range in the View field and pressing the Tab or Enter keys. Endpoint numbering is 0-based where 0 represents the first endpoint name.
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Armageddon Cross-Connects require special Linux kernel features. If you purchased your machine from Candela, then these features will already be included. Otherwise, you should make sure you have installed the kernel patches from Candela.
The Armageddon traffic generator can generate UDP packets with various IP and UDP header fields. More importantly, it can generate packets at line speed on 10/100/1000 Mbps and Multi-Gigabit Ethernet networks. Armageddon can also measure latency with 1 microsecond precision, and the sending and receiving ports can be on the same machine.
NOTE: If you are running Armageddon on a flat (non-routed) network, then LANforge can figure out all the defaults for you. However, if you are running in a routed network, you will need to manually enter the MAC address of your router in the Destination MAC field of the Armageddon configuration panel.
Creating & Modifying Armageddon Cross-Connects
When creating an Armageddon CX, you specify the details of each Endpoint, including the Shelf, Resource, and Port that the Endpoint resides on. In this way, you determine which data-generating port (which is connected to some port on the system under test) the CX's traffic will flow over. In order to create an Armageddon CX, click the 'Create' button on the Armageddon tab. This will bring up the Create/Modify Armageddon Endpoint window:
The top panel of the Create/Modify Armageddon Endpoints window contains information relating to the entire CX, including the name, CX Type, report timer, and the test manager this CX should belong to. The name must be unique in the LANforge system. The CX Type determines the protocol that the CX will use. The current supported types are:
The report timer specifies how often the LANforge data generators send updates to the LANforge server, and how often the LANforge server pushes endpoint information up to the clients (GUIs) that have requested the automatic updates. If you are running the GUI over a slow link, or have a slower machine, it is recommended to increase the report timer to 5000ms (5 seconds) or higher.
The Test Manager specifies which test manager this CX should be added to.
The endpoint values are defined below.
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WanLinks support the WAN/Network emulation feature (also called LANforge-ICE). In the default configuration, two interfaces will act like a transparent layer-2 ethernet bridge. As traffic flows through this bridge, the WAN emulation is applied. The WanLinks are able to add various characteristics to the traffic flowing through them, including maximum-bandwidth, latency, jitter, jitter-frequency, dropped-packets, duplicated-packets, reordered-packets, bit & byte errors, and more! Each WanLink is composed of two WanLink Endpoints that represent one of the sides of the WAN/Network emulation.
If a network's values for probed latency, packet loss and others were captured using LANforge-ICEcap, the resulting XML file can be replayed using the LANforge-ICEcap Replay (WAN-Playback) feature. This will provide realistic WAN emulations based on real-world networks. LANforge-ICEcap has been benchmarked at 700Mbps bi-directional (1400 Mbps total) on high-end hardware using the kernel-mode capture support.
Overview of WanLink Configuration
A WanLink emulates a bridged Ethernet network with characteristics determined by the user. Packets are received in one Ethernet (or virtual) interface and are transmitted out the other interface. This means that when you add the LANforge machine to an existing network configuration, no routing changes are needed. When designing your network, you can think of a pair of WanLink ports as an ethernet switch or even just a pass-through cable! WanLinks can bridge 802.1Q VLAN interfaces as well.
LANforge-ICE supports multiple virtual routers per system when LANforge is running on Linux. On Windows, only bridge-mode is supported. Use the Netsmith tool described here to configure LANforge-ICE in the routed mode.
LANforge-ICE works best using a minimum of three ethernet ports: two for each WanLink and the third to access the LANforge machine remotely for management purposes. To ensure that there is no interaction with the LANforge machine's protocol stacks, the IP address for each WanLink port is removed.
It is possible to run WanLinks on a machine with only two ports, but you will not have the option to manage LANforge remotely. In this case, your machine will need to be configured for a loopback device to manage LANforge. This configuration can be useful for an interface-limited platform such as a Laptop. Since both ports will be used for the WanLink with an IP address of 0.0.0.0, you will not have network connectivity to this machine when LANforge is running. See the LANforge Server Installation Documentation for how to configure a loopback device on your machine.
NOTE: There are work-arounds for even this restriction if you use a more complex Netsmith setup with bridge devices. Contact support if you have such a need.
When creating a WanLink, the details of each WanLink Endpoint must be specified, including the Port where the WanLink Endpoint resides. In this way the ethernet port which the WanLink is to accept traffic from (which is connected to some port on the system under test) is determined. In order to create a WanLink, click the 'Create' button on the WanLinks tab. WanLinks can be attached to physical ethernet interfaces and 802.1Q VLAN interfaces. WanLinks should NOT be attached to MAC-VLAN, 802.11a/b/g, or PPP interfaces at this time.
The top panel of the Create/Modify WanLink window contains information relating to the entire WanLink, including the name, shelf, resource, report timer, test manager, and presets. Enter a non-numeric name no more than 15 characters in length. Select the Shelf and Resource that the WanLink will reside on. For LANforge ICE systems with only one machine, you do not need to change these values from their default of one (1).
The WanLink Endpoints entries are described in detail below. The settings for each endpoint apply to packets entering the associated Port.
| WanLink Speed | Backlog Buffer Size |
|---|---|
| 56Kbps - 256Kbps | 2-8 |
| 257Kbps - 1.54Mbps | 8-32 |
| 1.5Mbps - 45Mbps | 32-256 |
| 45Mbps - 155Mbps | 256-1024 |
| 155Mbps - 1Gbps | 1024-8192 |
Selecting AUTO will set the backlog such that it can hold 50 ms of data at the configured speed. For instance, if the rate is 10Mbps, AUTO mode will cause the backlog to be set to 62KB.