PeerUnit: a framework for testing peer-to-peer systems

Abstract

Testing distributed systems is challenging. Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are composed of a high number of concurrent nodes distributed across the network. The nodes are also highly volatile (i.e., free to join and leave the system at any time). In this kind of system, a great deal of control should be carried out by the test harness, including: volatility of nodes, test case deployment and coordination. In this demonstration we present the PeerUnit framework for testing P2P systems. The original characteristic of this framework is the individual control of nodes, allowing test cases to precisely control their volatility during execution. We validated this framework through implementation and experimentation on two popular open-source P2P systems.