In order to make things simple, I have enhanced the PF_RING-libpcap and the DNA driver so that in order to use ostinato with DNA you just have to link the drone application with the PF_RING-libpcap. The nice thing about ostinato is that is a client/server application, so you can run the server (named drone) onto your Linux box running PF_RING DNA, and the GUI on your Mac or Windows box. I recently came across the Ostinato project aimed at creating an open-source traffic generator “inspired” to the IXIA user interface.

The tool is great but you need a pcap file to reproduce, so I needed a flexible traffic generator. PF_RING (and in particular DNA) users know that PF_RING comes with an utility named pfsend that is able to reproduce a pcap file at wire rate (e.g. I missed so much my IXIA traffic generator that after developing DNA I have said to myself: it’s time to create one.

Unfortunately I could not afford the price of those useful yet costly devices, and I have spent over 10K $ for a 10 Gbit FPGA-based NIC (manufactured by one of the leading companies, guess who, that on my PC can’t now keep up with the 10g PF_RING DNA) able to generate synthetic packets after coding an application. Years ago I have purchased my 1 Gbit IXIA 400T on ebay for 2500$, and I wanted to buy a 10 Gbit traffic generator when I started to develop DNA. Whoever has developed network applications, soon or later had to buy or rent a traffic generator.

Ostinato network traffic generator