A new TCP and UDP network benchmark suite

Field tests that require accurate network performance measurement often use some well known benchmark programs like TTCP. However, those well known benchmark programs are either outdated or are not able to display real-time network throughput. In addition, many of the existing benchmark programs do not provide a mechanism for measuring channel noise in field tests like those needed for evaluating powerline and wireless channels. In wireless and powerline field tests, measuring short term packet drop rates is often painful and tools lack visualization aids to help network developers to see the network status in real time. To address these needs, we developed a new network benchmark suite that is not only able to provide real time data visualization, but also proved to be much more accurate than TTCP. The design of the software allows it to measure over a very long period of time without human interaction. We have placed the program in the public domain and it is freely available to the research community.