Network Tester: A Generation and Evaluation of Diagnostic Communication in IP Networks

There are many active intermediary devices in computer networks. The network has to be verified whether it functions as it should - i.e. whether some intermediary device in not misconfigured. It is a difficult task, because various scenarios must be tested, which takes time. Fortunately, there are tools that help to automate this process. However, the existing tools are mostly oriented towards generation of specific periodic traffic for network performance analysis, and it is difficult to use them for functional verification of the network. Therefore, we propose in this paper a new method, along with the corresponding tool, which is targeted towards generation of certain traffic and analysis of the network response to verify its function. The primary focus of the method is for testing of local area networks, which usually consists of switch devices. The experimental results proved that the proposed tool is usable to verify specific functional aspects of the switched networks. The tool can be used in education to verify students-configured local networks or to test software switches implemented by students.