FlueNT10G: A programmable FPGA-based network tester for multi-10-gigabit ethernet

We present FlueNT10G, an open-source FPGA-based network tester for precise replay of network traces, as well as for accurate packet capture and round-trip latency measurements. FlueNT10G streams replay and capture data between the host system and the FPGA board during active tests. It enables continuous measurements without being constrained by the memory capacity of the FPGA board. FlueNT10G is able to concurrently replay and capture traffic on three 10 Gbit/s network interfaces for all packet sizes. When operated exclusively in replay or capture mode, throughput increases to 4x 10 Gbit/s. Our design yields a temporal resolution of 6.4 ns for precise traffic pattern generation, as well as for accurate arrival timestamping and latency measurements. On the software-side, FlueNT10G is complemented by an API enabling the programmable execution of reproducible network measurements. Targeting the automated performance evaluation of different virtualized network function configurations, the API further integrates access to a bidirectional side-band channel for device-under-test reconfiguration and status feedback. FlueNT10G has been implemented on the NetFPGA-SUME platform (Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX690T) with an FPGA resource utilization of no more than 25%, which leaves sufficient capacity available for future design extensions.