A comparative analysis of WAN emulators

Abstract

Testing network applications and protocols in a real WAN environment can be difficult and complex due to costs and distances. Therefore, many researchers and developers use network simulation or controlled testbeds where the WAN is emulated over cheap and widely spread LAN technologies such as Ethernet. In this paper, we present an up-to-date survey of WAN emulation tools. We discuss their main characteristics and the network parameters they allow to setup and modify. We also present the results of some experiments we conducted with the tools, using both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic, in order to verify their accuracy and analyze the results obtained.