byteblower-test-framework

ByteBlower Test Framework

An easy accessible library of basic test flows and reporting engines.

.. footer:: Copyright |copy| |year| - Excentis N.V.

.. |registered| unicode:: U+00AE .. registered sign .. |copy| unicode:: U+00A9 .. copyright sign .. |year| date:: %Y

ByteBlower |registered| is a traffic generator/analyzer system for TCP/IP networks.

This library provides you with the building blocks for:

#. Generating test traffic #. Collect statistics #. Analyze traffic statistics #. Generate reports

Quick start guide

Get started right away? Have a look at our Installation & Quick start_ guide.

.. _Installation & Quick start: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/byteblower-test-framework/quick_start.html

Release notes

What can this version bring to you? See our exciting new and existing features below!

.. _Command-line interface: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/byteblower-test-framework/cli/index.html .. _Versioning: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/byteblower-test-framework/versioning.html .. _ByteBlower Endpoint: https://www.excentis.com/products/byteblower-endpoint/

Note: Have a look at our Versioning_ for more information about how releases are handled for the ByteBlower Test Framework.

✨ Test Cases ✨

The ByteBlower Test Framework serves as the base for many of our customer's test cases.

At Excentis, we also develop common test cases and love to share them with the community.

• Test Case: TR-398_

  • Guided TR-398_ Wi-Fi 802.11n/ac/ax performance validation tests

• Test Case: RFC 2544 Throughput_

  • Run an RFC 2544_ network performance test with ease!

• Test Case: Low Latency_

  • Run low latency validation tests on your network.

.. _Test Case: TR-398: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/test-cases/tr-398/overview.html .. _TR-398: https://www.broadband-forum.org/pdfs/tr-398-3-0-0.pdf .. _Test Case: RFC 2544 Throughput: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/test-cases/rfc-2544/overview.html .. _Test Case: Low Latency: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/test-cases/low-latency/overview.html .. _RFC 2544: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2544 .. _Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9330

📢 New since v1.3.0! 📢

It is with great pleasure that we announce our new features of the ByteBlower Test Framework!

• Support for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)_ on TCP

  • Run traffic tests on your L4S-enabled network!

• HTTP Flows: Including TCP results over time in the reports

  • Transmitted and received number of bytes
  • Average throughput over time
  • Round Trip Time (RTT)
  • Number of TCP retransmissions
  • ECN Congestion Experienced (CE) notification (for L4S-enabled TCP flows)

Features

• Quick and easy automation of traffic tests using ByteBlower

• Straightforward building blocks for your own test scripts

  • Grouped in self-explaining categories
  • Designed with a small 😉 to the workflow you are used to from the GUI

• Command-line interface_

  • Run traffic tests with nothing more than a JSON configuration file!

• Supported ByteBlower endpoint types

  • ByteBlower Port (on a physical interface of a ByteBlower server)
  • ByteBlower Endpoint_ (mobile testing via app on your device)

• Endpoint configuration

  • IPv4

    • DHCP and manual address configuration (ByteBlower Port only)
    • Automatic handling of endpoints located behind a NAT/NAPT gateway!

  • IPv6

    • DHCPv6 and SLAAC address configuration (ByteBlower Port only)
    • ByteBlower Endpoint: Automatic resolving of Endpoint host's IPv6 address for each traffic flow.

• Traffic types

  • Stateless: frame blasting (UDP-based)

  • Stateful: HTTP (TCP-based)

  • Define IP Traffic class: DSCP & ECN

    • TCP Prague for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)_

• Application simulations

  • Voice over IP (VoIP) using the G.711 codec
  • Traditional gaming (ByteBlower Endpoint only as destination)
  • Video streaming (Netflix, YouTube, ...) (ByteBlower Port only)

• Standard analysis

  • Frame count: transmitted and received over time, frame loss and byte loss

  • Latency: Minimum, maximum, average and jitter over time

  • TCP

    • Average goodput on HTTP (layer 5)
    • Transmitted and received Bytes over time
    • TCP average throughput over time
    • Minimum, maximum and average Round Trip Time (RTT)
    • TCP Retransmission counts
    • ECN Congestion Experienced (CE) markings (for L4S-enabled TCP flows)

  • Aggregation of results over multiple flows (frame blasting only)

  • PASS/FAIL criteria can be provided to match your KPIs

• Application-specific analysis

  • Mean Opinion Score (MOS): Specific for Voice flows
  • Video buffer analysis: Specific for Video flows (ByteBlower Port only)

• Reporting

  • Summary and realtime results

  • HTML: Neat to share with your chief, customers, vendors, ...

    • Incorporating our brand new style!
    • Interactive charts
    • Includes overview of all latency CCDF results

  • JSON: Allows for machine post-processing

  • XML JUnit: Useful for integration in automation tools

• Helpers

  • Ease-of-use for configuration and/or post-processing of the analyzed results

• Example scripts_

.. _Example scripts: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/index.html#examples

Changelog

For all details, please have a look at our Changelog_.

.. _Changelog: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/changelog.html

Requirements

• byteblowerll_ (ByteBlower API): Our lower layer API for client-server communication (API documentation <https://api.byteblower.com/python>)
• scapy_: Used for frame generation and parsing
• junit-xml_: Used for Unit test report generation
• pandas_: Used for data collection
• highcharts-excentis_: Used for generating graphs
• jinja2_: User for HTML report templating

.. _ByteBlower API: https://setup.byteblower.com/ .. _byteblowerll: https://pypi.org/project/byteblowerll/ .. _scapy: https://pypi.org/project/scapy/ .. _junit-xml: https://pypi.org/project/junit-xml/ .. _pandas: https://pypi.org/project/pandas/ .. _highcharts-excentis: https://pypi.org/project/highcharts-excentis/ .. _jinja2: https://pypi.org/project/Jinja2/

Supported platforms

The ByteBlower Test Framework in general supports Python version 3.7 to 3.11.

.. note:: NOTE: Python >= 3.12 is not yet supported because the ByteBlower API libraries are not yet available for Python 3.12 (byteblowerll_).

The framework has been tested for the following operating system platforms and Python versions:

+------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | OS platform | Distribution | Python version | source | +==================+============================+================+========================+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.10 | Official Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.9 | Official Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.8 | Official Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.7 | Official Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.9 | Windows Apps_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.8 | Windows Apps_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Windows 10 | up to feature release 21H2 | Python 3.7 | Windows Apps_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | macOS | up to Monterey | Python 3.9 | Official Python_ | | | | | (Intel-only!) | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | macOS | up to Monterey | Python 3.8 | Official Python_ | | | | | (Intel-only!) | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Linux | Debian 11 (bullseye) | Python 3.9.2 | Debian packages_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Linux | Debian 10 (buster) | Python 3.7.3 | Debian packages_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Linux | Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) | Python 3.8.2 | Ubuntu packages_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Linux | Ubuntu 22.04 (Focal Fossa) | Python 3.10.4 | Ubuntu packages_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Docker | python:3.10-slim-buster | Python 3.10.11 | Docker Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Docker | python:3.9-slim-buster | Python 3.9.16 | Docker Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Docker | python:3.8-slim-buster | Python 3.8.16 | Docker Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+ | Docker | python:3.7-slim-buster | Python 3.7.13 | Docker Python_ | +------------------+----------------------------+----------------+------------------------+

.. _Official Python: https://www.python.org .. _Windows Apps: https://apps.microsoft.com/ .. _Debian packages: https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=all&exact=1&searchon=names&keywords=python3 .. _Ubuntu packages: https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=python3&searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all .. _Docker Python: https://hub.docker.com/_/python

Installation

Prepare runtime environment

We recommend managing the runtime environment in a Python virtual environment. This guarantees proper separation of the system-wide installed Python and pip packages.

Python virtual environment ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Make sure to use the right Python version (>= 3.7, <= 3.11), list all Python versions installed in your machine by running:

#. On Windows systems using PowerShell:

.. code-block:: shell

  py --list

If no Python version is in the required range, you can download and install Python 3.7 or above using your system package manager or from https://www.python.org/ftp/python.

Prepare Python virtual environment: Create the virtual environment and install/update pip and build.

#. On Unix-based systems (Linux, WSL, macOS):

Note: Mind the leading . which means sourcing ./.venv/bin/activate.

.. code-block:: shell

  python3 -m venv --clear .venv
  . ./.venv/bin/activate
  pip install -U pip build

#. On Windows systems using PowerShell:

  **Note**: On Microsoft Windows, it may be required to enable the
  Activate.ps1 script by setting the execution policy for the user.
  You can do this by issuing the following PowerShell command:

  .. code-block:: shell

     PS C:> Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

  See `About Execution Policies`_ for more information.

.. code-block:: shell

  py -3.8 -m venv --clear .venv
  & ".\.venv\Scripts\activate.ps1"
  python -m pip install -U pip build

.. _About Execution Policies: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170

Install the ByteBlower Test Framework from PyPI

First make sure that your activated your virtual environment:

#. On Unix-based systems (Linux, WSL, macOS):

.. code-block:: shell

  . ./.venv/bin/activate

#. On Windows systems using PowerShell:

.. code-block:: shell

  & ".\.venv\Scripts\activate.ps1"

Now install (or update) the ByteBlower Test Framework:

.. code-block:: shell

pip install -U byteblower-test-framework

Documentation

Online usage documentation: ByteBlower Test Framework documentation_

.. _ByteBlower Test Framework documentation: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/

The API documentation is also always available in the API:

.. code-block:: python

help(any_api_object)

Some examples:

For classes (and their members):

.. code-block:: python

from byteblower_test_framework.host import Server from byteblower_test_framework.endpoint import IPv4Port from byteblower_test_framework.traffic import FrameBlastingFlow

help(Server) help(Server.start) help(Server.info) help(IPv4Port) help(FrameBlastingFlow)

from byteblower_test_framework.report import ByteBlowerHtmlReport

help(ByteBlowerHtmlReport)

For objects (and their members):

.. code-block:: python

from byteblower_test_framework.host import Server

my_server = Server('byteblower-39.lab.excentis.com.')

help(my_server) help(my_server.start)

Usage

First make sure that your activated your virtual environment:

#. On Unix-based systems (Linux, WSL, macOS):

.. code-block:: shell

  . ./.venv/bin/activate

#. On Windows systems using PowerShell:

.. code-block:: shell

  & ".\.venv\Scripts\activate.ps1"

Let's give it a test run: Import the test framework and show its documentation:

.. code-block:: shell

python

.. code-block:: python

import byteblower_test_framework help(byteblower_test_framework)

This shows you the ByteBlower Test Framework module documentation.

Command-line interface

To get help for command line arguments:

#. As a command-line script:

.. code-block:: shell

  byteblower-test-framework --help

#. As a python module:

.. code-block:: shell

  python -m byteblower_test_framework --help

For a quick start, you can run a simple test using the JSON configuration of one of the example files below:

• Test scenario for ByteBlower Ports <https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/json/byteblower-test-framework/port/byteblower_test_framework.json>_
• Test scenario for ByteBlower Endpoint <https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/json/byteblower-test-framework/endpoint/byteblower_test_framework.json>_

Save you configuration in your working directory as byteblower_test_framework.json. Please make sure you change the server and ports configuration according to the setup you want to run your test on.

The byteblower_test_framework.json can be used then to run the test in the command line interface using:

.. code-block:: shell

byteblower-test-framework

The resulting reports will be saved into the current directory.

To specify a different config file name and report path using:

.. code-block:: shell

byteblower-test-framework --config-file path/to/my_test_config.json --report-path path/to/my_test_reports_directory

You can find more details on how to customize your own configuration file in Configuration file_.

.. _Configuration file: https://api.byteblower.com/test-framework/latest/byteblower-test-framework/config/index.html

.. note:: To-do: We will provide a quick start guide in the future.

Development

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/pre--commit-enabled-brightgreen?logo=pre-commit :target: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit :alt: pre-commit

Would you like to contribute to this project? You're very welcome! 😊

Please contact us at ByteBlower Support_ and we'll be there to guide you.

Support

.. See http://docutils.sourceforge.net/0.4/docs/ref/rst/directives.html#image

If you have any questions or feature request you can contact the ByteBlower support team using:

|globe|: Excentis Support Portal_

|e-mail|: ByteBlower Support_

|telephone|: [phone]

.. e-mail icon: .. |e-mail| unicode:: U+1F582

.. globe icon: .. |globe| unicode:: U+1F30D .. .. |globe| unicode:: U+1F310

.. telephone icon: .. |telephone| unicode:: U+1F57D

.. ByteBlower logo .. ! NOTE: :height: is not required, but added as workaround .. * for https://github.com/pypa/readme_renderer/issues/304 .. image:: http://static.excentis.com/byteblower_blue_transparent_background.png :width: 400 :height: 131 :scale: 60 :align: right :alt: ByteBlower :target: byteblower_

.. "A product by Excentis" logo .. ! NOTE: :height: is not required, but added as workaround .. * for https://github.com/pypa/readme_renderer/issues/304 .. image:: http://static.excentis.com/Aproductby.png :width: 320 :height: 17 :scale: 60 :align: right :alt: A product by Excentis :target: excentis_

.. _byteblower: https://byteblower.com .. _excentis: https://www.excentis.com .. _Excentis Support Portal: https://support.excentis.com .. _ByteBlower Support: mailto:[e-mail]