Using Iperf

What is Iperf?

• iperf is freeware, which supports many types of operating systems (Windows, Solaris, Irix, Linux, and MAC OS). The iperf is simple to use, and can be tested in several ways (MTU, window size, protocol change, etc.).

Iperf Usage

 brian11hwang@jooyoung iperf -h
Usage: iperf [-s|-c host] [options]
       iperf [-h|--help] [-v|--version]

Client/Server:
  -b, --bandwidth #[kmgKMG | pps]  bandwidth to send at in bits/sec or packets per second
  -e, --enhancedreports    use enhanced reporting giving more tcp/udp and traffic information
  -f, --format    [kmgKMG]   format to report: Kbits, Mbits, KBytes, MBytes
  -i, --interval  #        seconds between periodic bandwidth reports
  -l, --len       #[kmKM]    length of buffer in bytes to read or write (Defaults: TCP=128K, v4 UDP=1470, v6 UDP=1450)
  -m, --print_mss          print TCP maximum segment size (MTU - TCP/IP header)
  -o, --output    <filename> output the report or error message to this specified file
  -p, --port      #        server port to listen on/connect to
  -u, --udp                use UDP rather than TCP
      --udp-counters-64bit use 64 bit sequence numbers with UDP
  -w, --window    #[KM]    TCP window size (socket buffer size)
  -z, --realtime           request realtime scheduler
  -B, --bind <host>[:<port>][%<dev>] bind to <host>, ip addr (including multicast address) and optional port and device
  -C, --compatibility      for use with older versions does not sent extra msgs
  -M, --mss       #        set TCP maximum segment size (MTU - 40 bytes)
  -N, --nodelay            set TCP no delay, disabling Nagle's Algorithm
  -S, --tos       #        set the socket's IP_TOS (byte) field

Server specific:
  -s, --server             run in server mode
  -t, --time      #        time in seconds to listen for new connections as well as to receive traffic (default not set)
      --udp-histogram #,#  enable UDP latency histogram(s) with bin width and count, e.g. 1,1000=1(ms),1000(bins)
  -B, --bind <ip>[%<dev>]  bind to multicast address and optional device
  -H, --ssm-host <ip>      set the SSM source, use with -B for (S,G)
  -U, --single_udp         run in single threaded UDP mode
  -D, --daemon             run the server as a daemon
  -V, --ipv6_domain        Enable IPv6 reception by setting the domain and socket to AF_INET6 (Can receive on both IPv4 and IPv6)

Client specific:
  -c, --client    <host>   run in client mode, connecting to <host>
  -d, --dualtest           Do a bidirectional test simultaneously
      --ipg                set the the interpacket gap (milliseconds) for packets within an isochronous frame
      --isochronous <frames-per-second>:<mean>,<stddev> send traffic in bursts (frames - emulate video traffic)
  -n, --num       #[kmgKMG]    number of bytes to transmit (instead of -t)
  -r, --tradeoff           Do a bidirectional test individually
  -t, --time      #        time in seconds to transmit for (default 10 secs)
  -B, --bind [<ip> | <ip:port>] bind ip (and optional port) from which to source traffic
  -F, --fileinput <name>   input the data to be transmitted from a file
  -I, --stdin              input the data to be transmitted from stdin
  -L, --listenport #       port to receive bidirectional tests back on
  -P, --parallel  #        number of parallel client threads to run
  -R, --reverse            reverse the test (client receives, server sends)
  -T, --ttl       #        time-to-live, for multicast (default 1)
  -V, --ipv6_domain        Set the domain to IPv6 (send packets over IPv6)
  -X, --peer-detect        perform server version detection and version exchange
  -Z, --linux-congestion <algo>  set TCP congestion control algorithm (Linux only)

Miscellaneous:
  -x, --reportexclude [CDMSV]   exclude C(connection) D(data) M(multicast) S(settings) V(server) reports
  -y, --reportstyle C      report as a Comma-Separated Values
  -h, --help               print this message and quit
  -v, --version            print version information and quit

[kmgKMG] Indicates options that support a k,m,g,K,M or G suffix
Lowercase format characters are 10^3 based and uppercase are 2^n based
(e.g. 1k = 1000, 1K = 1024, 1m = 1,000,000 and 1M = 1,048,576)

The TCP window size option can be set by the environment variable
TCP_WINDOW_SIZE. Most other options can be set by an environment variable
IPERF_<long option name>, such as IPERF_BANDWIDTH.

Source at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf2/>
Report bugs to <iperf-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

Iperf Server && Client

Server Side:

brian11hwang@jooyoung iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size:  128 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 10.0.1.4 port 5001 connected with 10.0.1.3 port 54558
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  11.0 GBytes  9.40 Gbits/sec

Client Side:

brian11hwang@b1 sudo iperf -c 10.0.1.4
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.0.1.4, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 2.52 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 10.0.1.3 port 54558 connected with 10.0.1.4 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  11.0 GBytes  9.42 Gbits/sec

Using UDP
It is important for the Server side to also listen in UDP Mode!

Server Side:

brian11hwang@b1 iperf -s -u
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on UDP port 5001
Receiving 1470 byte datagrams
UDP buffer size:  208 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 10.0.1.3 port 5001 connected with 10.0.1.4 port 50905
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth        Jitter   Lost/Total Datagrams
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.25 MBytes  1.05 Mbits/sec   0.006 ms    0/  892 (0%)
[  4] local 10.0.1.3 port 5001 connected with 10.0.1.4 port 57524
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.25 MBytes  1.05 Mbits/sec   0.003 ms    0/  892 (0%)

Client Side:

brian11hwang@jooyoung sudo iperf -c 10.0.1.3 -B 10.0.1.4 -u
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.0.1.3, UDP port 5001
Binding to local address 10.0.1.4
Sending 1470 byte datagrams, IPG target: 11215.21 us (kalman adjust)
UDP buffer size:  208 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 10.0.1.4 port 57524 connected with 10.0.1.3 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.25 MBytes  1.05 Mbits/sec
[  3] Sent 892 datagrams
[  3] Server Report:
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.25 MBytes  1.05 Mbits/sec   0.002 ms    0/  892 (0%)