Octopus system1 Moshe Tocker Avihai Mejer

Octopus system2 The Octopus system Goal The system’s primary goal is to Measure performance parameters in real time on an Ethernet LAN. The parameters that the system will measure, will help analyze the load and utilization of the LAN.

Octopus system3 Octopus basic approach The main method the system uses in order to gather information and parameters about the LAN is through executing experiments. Examples of possible experiments: –round trip time – measuring latency –Multiple packet sending – measuring Error rate of frames.

Octopus system4 The elements in the system Manager – An application that runs on any station in the LAN. It’s functionality: –It will let the user choose what tests to run on the Ethernet LAN. –Passes commands to Agents instructing them what tests to perform. The manager will expect back the tests results for allowing the user further analysis.

Octopus system5 The elements in the system (Cont.) Agents – Combined of two parts: –Agent application –Miniport driver Agent application – Communicates with the Manager application & the minioprt driver, passing information between the two. Miniport driver –Kernel mode SW component, operates the Network Adapter. –Carrys out the tests.

Octopus system6 The Agents Agent Application Miniport Driver Command/Result Other Agents Manager TCP/IP Other Agents Other Agents HOST

Octopus system7 The Octopus system Layout Manager Agent A Agent B Ethernet LAN NT stations

Octopus system8 Project Implementation Part I - Communication & Interaction between different system components. This will be the infrastructure of the system. Part II - Executing the experiment at the mininport level, for actual measurement of the LAN’s performance.

Octopus system9 Communication & Interaction The communication & Interaction includes: –User to Manager interface –Manager to Agent communication –Agent to miniport communication –Agent to Agent Communication

Octopus system10 User to Manager interface The interface is a Windows dialog box which allows the user to choose: –the type of experiment to be done –Relevant parameters such as: number of tests to run, time interval between consecutive tests. –The Agents addresses and ports. Results are returned to the user for further analysis through a log file created by the Manager.

Octopus system11 Manager to Agent communication Manager & Agent are both user level applications that communicate using standard TCP/IP. The Manager & Agent Pass among themselves: –Commands from Manager to Agent to perform an experiment, or –Results and data back from Agent To Manager.

Octopus system12 AgentManager TCP/IP WinSock Commands Results

Octopus system13 Agent to miniport communication Agents application order the miniport of what tests to do and what parameters to use Miniport performs the test and sends test results back to Agent application Communication between Agent application and the miniport is by using Files performing a buffer role.

Octopus system14 The Agents Agent Application Miniport Driver “CommFile” HOST “ResFile”

Octopus system15 The miniport implementation We used an open-source driver for our Network Adapter. The driver was converted to our needs: –It creates a new thread running in kernel mode, dedicated to the Octopus system, always listening for commands from the Agent Application, and ready to perform the requested test. –Because of the multithreaded implementation, the driver’s performance and functionality remains unharmed. –Host can be used normally, even when used as Agent.

Octopus system16 Difficulties encountered Originally for the miniport-Agent communication we planned to use NamedPipes. But Win2K drivers do not support this mechanism natively. So we implemented a similar mechanism by using ordinary files. The driver had to be transformed into a multi- function driver, without harming its original goal. Multi-threaded programming was the solution.

Octopus system17 Future Plans In the coming semester we will implement part II of our project: –Detailed design of the experiments to be held, i.e. how exactly to perform a test, what do we measure and the results report format. –Defining and Implementing the miniport to miniport level communication. –Implementing the miniport level experiment.

Octopus system18 Demonstration of Octopus system infrastructure What you are about to see…

Octopus system19 MANAGER User chooses The Agents to work with AGENT TCP/IP Connection established Miniport driver installed NT Station

Octopus system20 MANAGER AGENT User chooses Tests to run + parameters TCP/IP connection Manager creates commands and passes to Agent Miniport driver installed NT Station

Octopus system21 AGENT Miniport driver installed NT Station Command File created By the Agent Read by the miniport And then deleted Manager’s Commands Agent parses the Manager’s commands

Octopus system22 AGENT Miniport driver installed NT Station Results File created By the miniport Read by the Agent And then deleted Miniport “simulates” Performing tests And fakes results Agent Parses Results file

Octopus system23 MANAGER AGENT TCP/IP connection Agent passes Results back To Manager Miniport driver installed NT Station Manager creates Log File containing the results

Octopus system24 User uses the Results Log File For further analysis System is ready for Another test…

Octopus system25