34 lines
2.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
34 lines
2.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
==============================
|
|
Test Network Links with iperf3
|
|
==============================
|
|
|
|
`iperf3 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iperf>`_ is a network bandwidth testing tool which is available as an AREDN |trade| package for use on mesh nodes. It is a client-server utility, so it must be available on each node that will participate in the network test scenario. The iperf3 client node generates traffic which is sent to the server node. TCP bandwidth is measured and an estimate of the network speeds between that client and server is displayed.
|
|
|
|
Understand the impact to your network before using iperf3. During the test period iperf3 will generate a significant amount of traffic in order to determine the capacity of the link between the client and server nodes. Try to run your iperf3 testing during times when you know that there will be minimal impact to users and routine traffic on your network.
|
|
|
|
Installing iperf3 and IperfSpeed
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Two packages should be installed on each AREDN |trade| node in order to facilitate testing between nodes. The **iperf3** package allows the nodes to function either as an iperf3 client or server during the test, and it can be found in the *base* package download section.
|
|
|
|
The **IperfSpeed** package provides a web-based control interface for running network tests between nodes, and it was written by Trevor Paskett K7FPV using the Perl programming language. With the project to retire Perl on AREDN |trade| nodes, there is now an alternative *IperfSpeed* package which uses the Lua programming language. The original Perl and new Lua packages are available at the following links:
|
|
|
|
* `Original Perl version of IperfSpeed <https://aredn.s3.amazonaws.com/iperfspeed_0.5.1_all.ipk>`_
|
|
* `New Lua version of IperfSpeed <https://github.com/kn6plv/iperfspeed/raw/master/iperfspeed_0.6-lua_all.ipk>`_
|
|
|
|
|
|
Using IperfSpeed
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
After iperf3 and IperfSpeed are installed on your nodes, you can select the *IperfSpeed* service on one of the nodes to open its web interface in a new browser tab. From the dropdown lists, select a node as the iperf3 server and also one as the iperf3 client. Click the *Run Test* button to begin the network bandwidth test.
|
|
|
|
.. image:: _images/iperfspeed-display.png
|
|
:alt: iperfSpeed Display
|
|
:align: center
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once the test has completed you will see the collected data summarized by time interval, and at the bottom of the display is the overall average of the results from the perspective of the sender (client) and the receiver (server). IperfSpeed also tracks previous tests that have been run, and it allows you to rerun any of the previous tests by clicking the *Re-Test* button.
|
|
|
|
One of the many uses for IperfSpeed is to validate and optimize your node's *Distance* setting on the **Basic Setup** page. Try different *Distance* settings and note the network bandwidth using iperf3, with the goal of choosing the *Distance* setting which yields the best network performance.
|