Enhancement Request: Ability to see detailed differences between sent & received packets

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The current version of Ostinato (0.5.1) uses simple packet counters to display 
how many packets were sent and received on each port.  This type of counter is 
well suited to scenarios where the number of sent/received packets are a match, 
and more detail isn't needed.

I'm requesting an additional packet display tool that is well suited to 
scenarios where the sent/received packets don't match.  This new tool's focus 
would be displaying the discrepancies between what Ostinato sent and received.  
Maybe the output could be dumped to  .pcap file(s); for example, one file for 
packets that were sent by Ostinato, but not received on the monitoring port; 
and another file for packets that were received by the monitoring port, but not 
sent by Ostinato.

One Example of envisioned usage:
A PC running Ostinato has 2 Ethernet ports connected to a switch: eth0 and 
eth1.  Ostinato sends packets out eth0 and listens to eth1.  The switch is the 
device under test.  Ostinato is configured send 1,000,000 packets, and 
increment the destination MAC address by 1 for each packet sent.  The switch is 
known to consistently drop 3 packets out of the million packets that were sent.
The 999,997 packets that were forwarded by the switch won't be displayed by the 
tool, only details of the 3 dropped packets would be displayed.  The details of 
the packets would have to be high, just like in Wireshark.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ccpi...@gmail.com on 31 Aug 2012 at 10:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

IMHO such a 'diff' functionality should possibly be external to Ostinato as it 
has use cases beyond just Ostinato. A google search on pcap diff does reveal 
some programs and project that do this although I have never used any of them. 

On the Ostinato side, it can provide a way to save the transmitted packets as a 
pcap file. Capture for received packets is already supported and can be saved 
to pcap.

Original comment by pstav...@gmail.com on 15 Sep 2012 at 4:48

• Changed state: Reviewed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by pstav...@gmail.com on 15 Sep 2012 at 4:54

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is wonderful input. Thank you.  If I could run 2 instances of
Wireshark simultaneously (one to capture the transmitting interface, and
the other to capture the receiving interface) I could compare the captures
using the cap diff tool you found.

Original comment by ccpi...@gmail.com on 15 Sep 2012 at 5:19