TheaterQ: A Qdisc for Dynamic Network Emulation

TL;DR

TheaterQ is a Linux qdisc that enables high-accuracy, dynamic network emulation using trace files, surpassing traditional static tools by supporting microsecond resolution and multiple network characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Linux qdisc that supports dynamic, high-resolution network emulation based on trace files, improving accuracy and flexibility over existing tools.

Findings

High-accuracy emulation with microsecond resolution

Comparable performance to existing tools

Supports multiple network characteristics simultaneously

Abstract

TheaterQ is a Linux qdisc designed for dynamic network emulation, addressing the limitations of static parameters in traditional tools like NetEm. By utilizing Trace Files containing timelines with network characteristics, TheaterQ achieves high-accuracy emulation of dynamic networks without involving the userspace and allows for resolutions of characteristic updates of up to 1 microsecond. Features include synchronization across mutliple qdisc instances and handling of delays, bandwidth, packet loss, duplication, and reordering. Evaluations show TheaterQ's accuracy and its comparable performance to existing tools, offering a flexible solution for modern communication protocol development. TheaterQ is available as open-source software under the GPLv2 license.