GL's PacketCheck™ is a PC based Ethernet test tool that is designed to check frame transport ability, and throughput parameters of Ethernet and IP networks.  It can be used as a general purpose Ethernet performance analysis for 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1Gbps Ethernet local area networks. The PacketCheck™ makes use of the network interface card (NIC) in the PC to transmit and receive Ethernet packets over the network. Throughput up to 500 Mbps can be easily tested. The PacketCheck™ allows generating full duplex (transmit and receive) IP, UDP, or Ethernet frame traffic with on-demand bandwidth (up to 500Mbps).  Also included is BER testing capability with provision for user–defined test patterns.  Users can control the duration of traffic, and specify the format length, type, source IP and MAC address and destination IP and MAC address.  The application allows monitoring end to end performance statistics such as total packets, packet loss, out of sequence packets, error packets, correct pattern frames, pattern sync status, and protocol statistics (Broadcast / Unicast frames, IP/Non IP frames etc).  The Ethernet tester can operate on any of the three layers - Layer 2 (Data Link), Layer 3 (Network), and Layer 4 (Transport) of the OSI reference model.

Capabilities

• Test Ethernet traffic of up to 500 Mbps bandwidth.
• Bit-error-rate testing (BERT) on layer 2, layer 3, and layer 4 with detailed runtime statistics for both Tx and Rx.
• Customizable 2 bytes test patterns.
• Customizable protocol headers like MAC Source/Destination address, Length/Type field, IP Source/destination addresses and DP Source/Destination Port.
• 64 bytes to 1518 byte frame lengths supported.
• Supports end-to-end (Tx and Rx) performance statistics monitoring.
• Ethernet Level BERT, Tx and Rx frame statistics
• IP level BERT, Tx and Rx packet statistics
• UDP level BERT, Tx and Rx packet statistics

Tests Performed

A general purpose Ethernet performance analysis tool for 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1Gbps (bandwidth up to 500Mbps) Ethernet local area networks, PacketCheck can test the basic packet flow over the network layer and report back measurable metrics.

Summary

GL Communications' PacketCheck provides quality assessment for Ethernet local area networks.  Whether you need bandwidth testing, to check your network under load PacketCheck provides a simple tool on your laptop.