This code builds on Stanislav Datskovskiy's minimal UDP lib to provide a convenient way of gathering data to evaluate UDP communications between any desired two nodes. The initial specification was to provide a reliable way to "send a soup of all packets lengths from 1 to 65536 bytes each hour back and forth" but this was refined further down the line1 to reduce the maximum length of the payload to 2048 and to include a Mersenne-Twister (MT) pseudorandom number generator (prng) for scrambling the various message sizes. To accomplish that, there are two main parts that I'm adding to the original UDP library:
- The MT lib that is simply an Ada implementation of the MT prng algorithm.
- The UDP_Tester package that uses a slightly adapted UDP lib and the MT lib above to provide a UDP sender and a corresponding UDP receiver that implement the testing specification and log the relevant data.
MT lib
The MT lib is a standalone Ada library implementing the well-known Mersenne Twister algorithm for pseudorandom number generation2. I am not aware of any other Ada implementation of MT and since I really don't want to add C code to my plate unless I absolutely have to, I simply ported to Ada the reference C implementation provided by the original authors of MT. As such, there isn't much to discuss about the implementation itself - I'll point however the changes I made with respect to the original implementation, namely:
- In my Ada version of MT, there is no default seeding of the MT generator. The C version allows the caller to ask the generator for numbers without having seeded it - in this case, the C implementation seeds itself with a magic default value that is hardcoded at the checking spot and then just proceeds as if nothing was wrong. I find this approach abhorent because it effectively hides an error (calling the generator without seeding it first) rather than complaining about it and forcing its correction. Consequently, my MT lib will simply abort if the generator is asked for numbers without having been seeded first.3
- Because Ada is most pointedly not a sort of C, there was no need for the various types of hacks added to the C version to ensure that it still worked correctly on 64-bit machines and not only on the 32-bit machines for which the code was initially written. In Ada it's enough to specify one's types correctly to be exactly and guaranteed 32-bits and then proceed to work with them as such, regardless of whether the processor running the code has 32-bit or 64-bit or x-bit registers.
- My MT lib provides just one type of pseudorandom numbers, namely unsigned integers on 32 bits. The original C implementation had several wrappers around this main function to map the 32 bits pseudorandom numbers to the interval (0,1) for instance and similar. All the mappings were trivial and they can be easily done by any caller that requires them - precisely in the way they require them. At this stage at least I don't quite see the need for those as part of MT lib and so I left them out - there is only the core offering of 32 pseudorandom bits as it were and the caller can then use or interpret them as they see fit.
- To check that my implementation results in precisely the same sequence of numbers as the original C MT, I added an automated test (still in Ada) that uses the reference seed and checks the output of MT lib (number by number) against the reference output from the original C MT, reporting any mismatches.
The code of MT lib is self-contained with declarations in mt.ads:
-- Ada implementation of the Mersenne Twister Pseudo-Random number generator
-- S.MG, 2018
with Interfaces; use Interfaces;
package MT is
-- Interfaces.Unsigned_32 in GNAT is mod 2**32 and has bitwise shifts defined
subtype U32 is Interfaces.Unsigned_32;
-- period parameters
N : constant := 624;
M : constant := 397;
MATRIX_MASK: constant U32 := 16#9908_b0df#;
UPPER_MASK : constant U32 := 16#8000_0000#;
LOWER_MASK : constant U32 := 16#7fff_ffff#;
-- array type for storing the state vector of the generator
type State_Type is Array( 0 .. N-1 ) of U32;
-- array type for initialization by array - change key len here if needed
KEY_LEN : constant := 4;
type Init_Array_Type is Array( 0 .. KEY_LEN - 1 ) of U32;
-- exception raised by a call to generator before initializing it
No_Init_Exception : exception;
-- initialize the generator with a seed (number)
procedure Init_Genrand(Seed : in U32);
-- initialize the generator with array of 8-octets elements
procedure Init_Genrand(Seed : in Init_Array_Type);
-- generate the next pseudo-random 32 bits number in the sequence
function Gen_U32 return U32;
-- for testing
function Get_State return State_Type;
-- internals of the generator, NOT for direct access
private
-- actual state of the generator
State : State_Type;
-- flag for generator routine
Mti_Flag : U32 := N + 1; -- default value -> state(N) is not initialised
end MT;
And implementation in mt.adb:
-- Ada implementation of the Mersenne Twister Pseudo-Random number generator
-- S.MG, 2018
package body MT is
procedure Init_Genrand(Seed : in U32) is
begin
State(0) := Seed;
for I in State'First + 1 .. State'Last loop
State(I) := U32(1812433253) *
( State(I - 1) xor
( Shift_Right(State(I - 1), 30) )
) + U32(I) ;
end loop;
Mti_Flag := N;
end Init_Genrand;
procedure Init_Genrand(Seed : in Init_Array_Type) is
Default_Seed: constant U32 := U32(19650218); -- magic value!
I, J, K : Integer;
begin
Init_Genrand(Default_Seed);
I := 1;
J := 0;
if N > Seed'Length then
K := N;
else
K := Seed'Length;
end if;
while K > 0 loop
State(I) := (State(I) xor
( (State(I-1) xor
Shift_Right(State(I-1), 30)
) * U32(1664525)
)) + Seed(J) + U32(J);
I := I + 1;
J := J + 1;
if I >= N then
State(0) := State(N-1);
I := 1;
end if;
if J >= Seed'Length then
J := 0;
end if;
K := K - 1;
end loop;
K := N -1;
while K > 0 loop
State(I) := (State(I) xor
( (State(I-1) xor
Shift_Right(State(I-1), 30)
) * U32(1566083941)
)) - U32(I);
I := I + 1;
if I >= N then
State(0) := State(N-1);
I := 1;
end if;
K := K - 1;
end loop;
State(0) := 16#8000_0000#; -- MSB is 1 to ensure non-zero initial state
end Init_Genrand;
function Gen_U32 return U32 is
Y : U32;
MASK1 : constant U32 := U32(1);
Mag01 : Array ( 0 .. 1 ) of U32;
begin
-- Mag01[x] is x * Matrix_A of the algorithm for x 0 or 1
Mag01(0) := U32(0);
Mag01(1) := MATRIX_MASK;
-- if no numbers available, generate another set of N words
if Mti_Flag >= N then
-- check it's not a non-initialised generator
if Mti_Flag = (N + 1) then
-- Generator was NOT initialised!
-- Original C code initialises with default seed 5489
-- This code will simply raise exception and abort
raise No_Init_Exception;
end if;
for K in 0 .. N - M - 1 loop
Y := ( State(K) and UPPER_MASK ) or
( State(K+1) and LOWER_MASK );
State(K) := State(K+M) xor
Shift_Right(Y, 1) xor
Mag01(Integer(Y and MASK1));
end loop;
for K in N-M .. N - 2 loop
Y := ( State(K) and UPPER_MASK ) or
( State(K+1) and LOWER_MASK);
State(K) := State(K + M - N) xor
Shift_Right(Y, 1) xor
Mag01(Integer(Y and MASK1));
end loop;
Y := (State(N-1) and UPPER_MASK ) or
(State(0) and LOWER_MASK );
State(N - 1) := State(M-1) xor
Shift_Right(Y, 1) xor
Mag01(Integer(Y and MASK1));
Mti_Flag := 0;
end if;
-- retrieve next available number
Y := State(Integer(Mti_Flag));
Mti_Flag := Mti_Flag + 1;
-- tempering
Y := Y xor Shift_Right(Y, 11);
Y := Y xor (Shift_Left(Y, 7) and 16#9d2c_5680#);
Y := Y xor (Shift_Left(Y, 15) and 16#efc6_0000#);
Y := Y xor Shift_Right(Y, 18);
-- return tempered number
return Y;
end Gen_U32;
function Get_State return State_Type is
begin
return State;
end Get_State;
end MT;
The test for the above MT lib is in its own testmt/test_mt.adb, including the reference output (that really is the largest part of the whole file):
--S.MG, 2018
with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
with Interfaces; use Interfaces;
with MT;
procedure Tests_MT is
Seeds : MT.Init_Array_Type;
X : MT.U32;
No : constant Integer := 1000;
Result: Array(0..No-1) of MT.U32 := (
1067595299, 955945823, 477289528, 4107218783, 4228976476,
3344332714, 3355579695, 227628506, 810200273, 2591290167,
2560260675, 3242736208, 646746669, 1479517882, 4245472273,
1143372638, 3863670494, 3221021970, 1773610557, 1138697238,
1421897700, 1269916527, 2859934041, 1764463362, 3874892047,
3965319921, 72549643, 2383988930, 2600218693, 3237492380,
2792901476, 725331109, 605841842, 271258942, 715137098,
3297999536, 1322965544, 4229579109, 1395091102, 3735697720,
2101727825, 3730287744, 2950434330, 1661921839, 2895579582,
2370511479, 1004092106, 2247096681, 2111242379, 3237345263,
4082424759, 219785033, 2454039889, 3709582971, 835606218,
2411949883, 2735205030, 756421180, 2175209704, 1873865952,
2762534237, 4161807854, 3351099340, 181129879, 3269891896,
776029799, 2218161979, 3001745796, 1866825872, 2133627728,
34862734, 1191934573, 3102311354, 2916517763, 1012402762,
2184831317, 4257399449, 2899497138, 3818095062, 3030756734,
1282161629, 420003642, 2326421477, 2741455717, 1278020671,
3744179621, 271777016, 2626330018, 2560563991, 3055977700,
4233527566, 1228397661, 3595579322, 1077915006, 2395931898,
1851927286, 3013683506, 1999971931, 3006888962, 1049781534,
1488758959, 3491776230, 104418065, 2448267297, 3075614115,
3872332600, 891912190, 3936547759, 2269180963, 2633455084,
1047636807, 2604612377, 2709305729, 1952216715, 207593580,
2849898034, 670771757, 2210471108, 467711165, 263046873,
3569667915, 1042291111, 3863517079, 1464270005, 2758321352,
3790799816, 2301278724, 3106281430, 7974801, 2792461636,
555991332, 621766759, 1322453093, 853629228, 686962251,
1455120532, 957753161, 1802033300, 1021534190, 3486047311,
1902128914, 3701138056, 4176424663, 1795608698, 560858864,
3737752754, 3141170998, 1553553385, 3367807274, 711546358,
2475125503, 262969859, 251416325, 2980076994, 1806565895,
969527843, 3529327173, 2736343040, 2987196734, 1649016367,
2206175811, 3048174801, 3662503553, 3138851612, 2660143804,
1663017612, 1816683231, 411916003, 3887461314, 2347044079,
1015311755, 1203592432, 2170947766, 2569420716, 813872093,
1105387678, 1431142475, 220570551, 4243632715, 4179591855,
2607469131, 3090613241, 282341803, 1734241730, 1391822177,
1001254810, 827927915, 1886687171, 3935097347, 2631788714,
3905163266, 110554195, 2447955646, 3717202975, 3304793075,
3739614479, 3059127468, 953919171, 2590123714, 1132511021,
3795593679, 2788030429, 982155079, 3472349556, 859942552,
2681007391, 2299624053, 647443547, 233600422, 608168955,
3689327453, 1849778220, 1608438222, 3968158357, 2692977776,
2851872572, 246750393, 3582818628, 3329652309, 4036366910,
1012970930, 950780808, 3959768744, 2538550045, 191422718,
2658142375, 3276369011, 2927737484, 1234200027, 1920815603,
3536074689, 1535612501, 2184142071, 3276955054, 428488088,
2378411984, 4059769550, 3913744741, 2732139246, 64369859,
3755670074, 842839565, 2819894466, 2414718973, 1010060670,
1839715346, 2410311136, 152774329, 3485009480, 4102101512,
2852724304, 879944024, 1785007662, 2748284463, 1354768064,
3267784736, 2269127717, 3001240761, 3179796763, 895723219,
865924942, 4291570937, 89355264, 1471026971, 4114180745,
3201939751, 2867476999, 2460866060, 3603874571, 2238880432,
3308416168, 2072246611, 2755653839, 3773737248, 1709066580,
4282731467, 2746170170, 2832568330, 433439009, 3175778732,
26248366, 2551382801, 183214346, 3893339516, 1928168445,
1337157619, 3429096554, 3275170900, 1782047316, 4264403756,
1876594403, 4289659572, 3223834894, 1728705513, 4068244734,
2867840287, 1147798696, 302879820, 1730407747, 1923824407,
1180597908, 1569786639, 198796327, 560793173, 2107345620,
2705990316, 3448772106, 3678374155, 758635715, 884524671,
486356516, 1774865603, 3881226226, 2635213607, 1181121587,
1508809820, 3178988241, 1594193633, 1235154121, 326117244,
2304031425, 937054774, 2687415945, 3192389340, 2003740439,
1823766188, 2759543402, 10067710, 1533252662, 4132494984,
82378136, 420615890, 3467563163, 541562091, 3535949864,
2277319197, 3330822853, 3215654174, 4113831979, 4204996991,
2162248333, 3255093522, 2219088909, 2978279037, 255818579,
2859348628, 3097280311, 2569721123, 1861951120, 2907080079,
2719467166, 998319094, 2521935127, 2404125338, 259456032,
2086860995, 1839848496, 1893547357, 2527997525, 1489393124,
2860855349, 76448234, 2264934035, 744914583, 2586791259,
1385380501, 66529922, 1819103258, 1899300332, 2098173828,
1793831094, 276463159, 360132945, 4178212058, 595015228,
177071838, 2800080290, 1573557746, 1548998935, 378454223,
1460534296, 1116274283, 3112385063, 3709761796, 827999348,
3580042847, 1913901014, 614021289, 4278528023, 1905177404,
45407939, 3298183234, 1184848810, 3644926330, 3923635459,
1627046213, 3677876759, 969772772, 1160524753, 1522441192,
452369933, 1527502551, 832490847, 1003299676, 1071381111,
2891255476, 973747308, 4086897108, 1847554542, 3895651598,
2227820339, 1621250941, 2881344691, 3583565821, 3510404498,
849362119, 862871471, 797858058, 2867774932, 2821282612,
3272403146, 3997979905, 209178708, 1805135652, 6783381,
2823361423, 792580494, 4263749770, 776439581, 3798193823,
2853444094, 2729507474, 1071873341, 1329010206, 1289336450,
3327680758, 2011491779, 80157208, 922428856, 1158943220,
1667230961, 2461022820, 2608845159, 387516115, 3345351910,
1495629111, 4098154157, 3156649613, 3525698599, 4134908037,
446713264, 2137537399, 3617403512, 813966752, 1157943946,
3734692965, 1680301658, 3180398473, 3509854711, 2228114612,
1008102291, 486805123, 863791847, 3189125290, 1050308116,
3777341526, 4291726501, 844061465, 1347461791, 2826481581,
745465012, 2055805750, 4260209475, 2386693097, 2980646741,
447229436, 2077782664, 1232942813, 4023002732, 1399011509,
3140569849, 2579909222, 3794857471, 900758066, 2887199683,
1720257997, 3367494931, 2668921229, 955539029, 3818726432,
1105704962, 3889207255, 2277369307, 2746484505, 1761846513,
2413916784, 2685127085, 4240257943, 1166726899, 4215215715,
3082092067, 3960461946, 1663304043, 2087473241, 4162589986,
2507310778, 1579665506, 767234210, 970676017, 492207530,
1441679602, 1314785090, 3262202570, 3417091742, 1561989210,
3011406780, 1146609202, 3262321040, 1374872171, 1634688712,
1280458888, 2230023982, 419323804, 3262899800, 39783310,
1641619040, 1700368658, 2207946628, 2571300939, 2424079766,
780290914, 2715195096, 3390957695, 163151474, 2309534542,
1860018424, 555755123, 280320104, 1604831083, 2713022383,
1728987441, 3639955502, 623065489, 3828630947, 4275479050,
3516347383, 2343951195, 2430677756, 635534992, 3868699749,
808442435, 3070644069, 4282166003, 2093181383, 2023555632,
1568662086, 3422372620, 4134522350, 3016979543, 3259320234,
2888030729, 3185253876, 4258779643, 1267304371, 1022517473,
815943045, 929020012, 2995251018, 3371283296, 3608029049,
2018485115, 122123397, 2810669150, 1411365618, 1238391329,
1186786476, 3155969091, 2242941310, 1765554882, 279121160,
4279838515, 1641578514, 3796324015, 13351065, 103516986,
1609694427, 551411743, 2493771609, 1316337047, 3932650856,
4189700203, 463397996, 2937735066, 1855616529, 2626847990,
55091862, 3823351211, 753448970, 4045045500, 1274127772,
1124182256, 92039808, 2126345552, 425973257, 386287896,
2589870191, 1987762798, 4084826973, 2172456685, 3366583455,
3602966653, 2378803535, 2901764433, 3716929006, 3710159000,
2653449155, 3469742630, 3096444476, 3932564653, 2595257433,
318974657, 3146202484, 853571438, 144400272, 3768408841,
782634401, 2161109003, 570039522, 1886241521, 14249488,
2230804228, 1604941699, 3928713335, 3921942509, 2155806892,
134366254, 430507376, 1924011722, 276713377, 196481886,
3614810992, 1610021185, 1785757066, 851346168, 3761148643,
2918835642, 3364422385, 3012284466, 3735958851, 2643153892,
3778608231, 1164289832, 205853021, 2876112231, 3503398282,
3078397001, 3472037921, 1748894853, 2740861475, 316056182,
1660426908, 168885906, 956005527, 3984354789, 566521563,
1001109523, 1216710575, 2952284757, 3834433081, 3842608301,
2467352408, 3974441264, 3256601745, 1409353924, 1329904859,
2307560293, 3125217879, 3622920184, 3832785684, 3882365951,
2308537115, 2659155028, 1450441945, 3532257603, 3186324194,
1225603425, 1124246549, 175808705, 3009142319, 2796710159,
3651990107, 160762750, 1902254979, 1698648476, 1134980669,
497144426, 3302689335, 4057485630, 3603530763, 4087252587,
427812652, 286876201, 823134128, 1627554964, 3745564327,
2589226092, 4202024494, 62878473, 3275585894, 3987124064,
2791777159, 1916869511, 2585861905, 1375038919, 1403421920,
60249114, 3811870450, 3021498009, 2612993202, 528933105,
2757361321, 3341402964, 2621861700, 273128190, 4015252178,
3094781002, 1621621288, 2337611177, 1796718448, 1258965619,
4241913140, 2138560392, 3022190223, 4174180924, 450094611,
3274724580, 617150026, 2704660665, 1469700689, 1341616587,
356715071, 1188789960, 2278869135, 1766569160, 2795896635,
57824704, 2893496380, 1235723989, 1630694347, 3927960522,
428891364, 1814070806, 2287999787, 4125941184, 3968103889,
3548724050, 1025597707, 1404281500, 2002212197, 92429143,
2313943944, 2403086080, 3006180634, 3561981764, 1671860914,
1768520622, 1803542985, 844848113, 3006139921, 1410888995,
1157749833, 2125704913, 1789979528, 1799263423, 741157179,
2405862309, 767040434, 2655241390, 3663420179, 2172009096,
2511931187, 1680542666, 231857466, 1154981000, 157168255,
1454112128, 3505872099, 1929775046, 2309422350, 2143329496,
2960716902, 407610648, 2938108129, 2581749599, 538837155,
2342628867, 430543915, 740188568, 1937713272, 3315215132,
2085587024, 4030765687, 766054429, 3517641839, 689721775,
1294158986, 1753287754, 4202601348, 1974852792, 33459103,
3568087535, 3144677435, 1686130825, 4134943013, 3005738435,
3599293386, 426570142, 754104406, 3660892564, 1964545167,
829466833, 821587464, 1746693036, 1006492428, 1595312919,
1256599985, 1024482560, 1897312280, 2902903201, 691790057,
1037515867, 3176831208, 1968401055, 2173506824, 1089055278,
1748401123, 2941380082, 968412354, 1818753861, 2973200866,
3875951774, 1119354008, 3988604139, 1647155589, 2232450826,
3486058011, 3655784043, 3759258462, 847163678, 1082052057,
989516446, 2871541755, 3196311070, 3929963078, 658187585,
3664944641, 2175149170, 2203709147, 2756014689, 2456473919,
3890267390, 1293787864, 2830347984, 3059280931, 4158802520,
1561677400, 2586570938, 783570352, 1355506163, 31495586,
3789437343, 3340549429, 2092501630, 896419368, 671715824,
3530450081, 3603554138, 1055991716, 3442308219, 1499434728,
3130288473, 3639507000, 17769680, 2259741420, 487032199,
4227143402, 3693771256, 1880482820, 3924810796, 381462353,
4017855991, 2452034943, 2736680833, 2209866385, 2128986379,
437874044, 595759426, 641721026, 1636065708, 3899136933,
629879088, 3591174506, 351984326, 2638783544, 2348444281,
2341604660, 2123933692, 143443325, 1525942256, 364660499,
599149312, 939093251, 1523003209, 106601097, 376589484,
1346282236, 1297387043, 764598052, 3741218111, 933457002,
1886424424, 3219631016, 525405256, 3014235619, 323149677,
2038881721, 4100129043, 2851715101, 2984028078, 1888574695,
2014194741, 3515193880, 4180573530, 3461824363, 2641995497,
3179230245, 2902294983, 2217320456, 4040852155, 1784656905,
3311906931, 87498458, 2752971818, 2635474297, 2831215366,
3682231106, 2920043893, 3772929704, 2816374944, 309949752,
2383758854, 154870719, 385111597, 1191604312, 1840700563,
872191186, 2925548701, 1310412747, 2102066999, 1504727249,
3574298750, 1191230036, 3330575266, 3180292097, 3539347721,
681369118, 3305125752, 3648233597, 950049240, 4173257693,
1760124957, 512151405, 681175196, 580563018, 1169662867,
4015033554, 2687781101, 699691603, 2673494188, 1137221356,
123599888, 472658308, 1053598179, 1012713758, 3481064843,
3759461013, 3981457956, 3830587662, 1877191791, 3650996736,
988064871, 3515461600, 4089077232, 2225147448, 1249609188,
2643151863, 3896204135, 2416995901, 1397735321, 3460025646);
begin
Seeds(0) := MT.U32(16#123#);
Seeds(1) := MT.U32(16#234#);
Seeds(2) := MT.U32(16#345#);
Seeds(3) := MT.U32(16#456#);
MT.Init_Genrand(Seeds);
Put_Line("Generating numbers...");
for I in 0 .. No-1 loop
X := MT.Gen_U32;
Put(".");
if X /= Result(I) then
Put_Line("");
Put_Line("ERROR at position " & Integer'Image(I) &
"; expected " & MT.U32'Image(Result(I)) &
" but result is " & MT.U32'Image(X));
end if;
end loop;
Put_Line("");
end Tests_MT;
UDP_Tester
The UDP_Tester has two main components: the sender and the receiver. For convenience, there are simple wrappers for those components - udp_sender.adb and udp_receiver.adb respectively - so that a build of UDP_Tester will directly provide two executables - sender and receiver. The IP and port numbers are knobs that can be easily changed from those wrappers directly since they are passed as parameters to the UDP_tester methods themselves.
udp_sender.adb:
-- S.MG, 2018
with UDP_Tester;
procedure UDP_Sender is
-- Sender and Receiver addresses + ports
Receiver_IP : constant String := "161.0.121.202"; -- smg.test machine
Receiver_Port : constant := 7000;
Sender_Port : constant := 5000;
begin
UDP_Tester.Sender( Receiver_IP, Receiver_Port, Sender_Port) ;
end UDP_Sender;
udp_receiver.adb:
-- S.MG, 2018
with UDP_Tester;
procedure UDP_Receiver is
-- Port to listen on
Receiver_Port : constant := 7000;
begin
UDP_Tester.Receiver( Receiver_Port );
end UDP_Receiver;
The UDP_Tester.Receiver method simply runs an endless loop in which it listens for UDP packages on a given port number and logs basic information about each pacakge it receives. The UDP_Tester.Sender method assembles and sends in a pseudorandom order all packages with length between 6 (size of own header) and maximum length. Note that the sender will send each size of package *only once* and it will simply finish once it sent one package of each size. Consequently, for data collection purposes, the sender will have to be started repeatedly from outside - most conveniently through a cron task4. Because the workings of both sender and receiver are quite basic, I won't cover them here in more detail - the code and comments should make it clear enough and if that's not the case, you can always ask your questions here in the comments. However, it's worth noting instead a few important points about the tester as a whole and the changes it imposes on the UDP lib:
- To enable sending of packets with various sizes, the UDP lib had to be made generic. In Ada, this means that a calling packet can then instantiate the UDP type with its desired parameters (in this case the size of the UDP package). Specifically, from the UDP_Tester.Sender code, this reads:
declare
K : constant Positive := Packet_Size;
-- sender will have *current* size of UDP packet
package UDP_Sdr is new UDP( Payload_Size => K );
Essentially the sender runs a loop and at each iteration it selects one of the remaining packet sizes, it instantiates UDP_Sdr as a parametrized UDP package and only then proceeds to use it to send the actual data.
Note that this change is *not* required in production - it's simply needed for testing purposes. It's for this reason that it's part of the .vpatch for UDP_Tester rather than a .vpatch in itself on the UDP lib directly.
-
The sender will wait 1 second between any 2 packages it sends. This is mainly because a first version without this delay proved to result in significant packet loss that was clearly due to the burst mode (i.e. more than 2000 packages sent in 1 second) rather than anything else. Since the point of the test was to gather some data on UDP communication in relaxed rather than stress conditions, the delay of 1 second was introduced. However, should you wish to stress-test for any reason, you can easily remove this delay - simply comment out the "delay 1.0" line in the sender and that's all.
- The UDP_Tester currently logs some information on both sides. Both sender and receiver will first check for a fixed-name file and if it doesn't exist they will create it, writing the header to it as well. After that, all new data will simply be appended to the file. The sender logs the size, local time, destination IP, destination port and seed used for the MT prng - this seed is the local time (unix style) when the sender is started. The receiver logs the size (both as received and as claimed in the packet's own header), the time (local time when sent and local time when received), the source IP, the source port and the number of octets that are different from expected. In addition, the receiver will further log in a separate file the actual octets that are found to contain errors, if any (together with information to easily link them back to the exact package they were part of).
- There is no attempt to match directlty the times at the sender and at the receiver - any difference between the two local times should be noted when the tests are run and then provided together with the data so that the analysis can be done in a meaningful way. Specifically, the local times used by sender and receiver are simply retrieved with Ada.Calendar.Clock and then converted to unix style by subtracting from them the "epoch" (0 on 1/1/1970).
- The use of generic packages and of Ada.Calendar in UDP_Tester imposed a relaxation of restrictions upstream i.e. in the UDP and MT libs. Since the relaxation of those restrictions is again (just like the generics change) required for testing *only*, they are simply commented out as part of the changes included in the UDP_Tester .vpatch.
To obtain a working UDP_Tester, simply download the relevant set of .vpatch and .sig files and press with your favourite V5. The patches are available as usual on my Reference Shelf and linked from here as well, for your convenience:
At the moment I am running the above tester in both directions between a node in the UK and one in Uruguay so hopefully I'll soon have some data to look at!
