Intelligent work station simulation—generalized LAN frame generation simulation structure

• US 6,832,184 B1
• Filed: 03/02/2000
• Issued: 12/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Blue, Dale E., Maurer, Max M., Bleier, William H. Jr., Jones, Jeff R., Brady, Kevin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMSON, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US09/517,534
• Time in Patent Office: 1,748 Days
• Field of Search: 702/186, 702/182, 702/183, 702/185, 702/187, 703/13, 703/23, 703/21, 703/22, 703/20, 703/24, 703/26, 703/27, 709/223, 709/222, 709/224, 709/220, 709/221, 714/38, 714/4, 714/32, 714/33, 714/37, 714/39, 714/47
• US Class Current: 703/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A simulator of intelligent workstations at level 2 the OSI model for generating complete LAN frames for testing a system under test. The simulator includes a scripting facility that represents the actions of the human end-user at the client workstation. By providing a scripting facility, different complexions of a workload can be impressed upon the system under test without the need for human end-users nor the need for rebuilding the simulation tool. The simulator includes embedded protocol stacks allowing manipulation of the simulated LAN frames. The simulator also includes one or more embedded protocol application modules for emulating actions of an application, e.g., web browser, and enabling the handling of dynamic, application-related events. In the present invention, one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) are provided between the simulation tool and the PAM and between the PAM and the protocol stack to allow multiple applications to be concurrently simulated and to provide extensibility of the simulation tool by providing the ability to support new applications and protocol stacks.

Claims

1. A simulator of client workstations, comprising:

at least one protocol application module for generating data streams that emulate client requests from at least one application running at the client workstations;

at least one protocol stack component associated with the at least one protocol application module for encapsulating the data streams according to at least one protocol stack by providing the data streams with header data according to the at least one protocol stack, thereby providing encapsulated data streams; and

a data delivery module associated with the at least one protocol stack component for inserting a unique hardware address identifier into each of the encapsulated data streams to generate network data frames for delivery to a system under test;

wherein, each of the unique hardware address identifiers identifies an associated one of client workstations.

2. The simulator of claim 1, further comprising:

a scripting interface module associated with the at least one protocol application module, the scripting interface module receiving emulated user actions to interpret, and passing the emulated user actions to the at least one protocol application module for use in generating the data streams thereof.

3. The simulator of claim 2, wherein the scripting interface module comprises

at least script having instructions for emulating the emulated user actions.

4. The simulator of claim 2, wherein the scripting interface module further comprises:

a service module that interprets the instructions for emulating the emulated user actions.

5. The simulator of claim 2, further comprising:

a command and control service module associated with the scripting interface module for enabling dynamic loading and execution of the instructions emulating the user actions.

6. The simulator of claim 1, further comprising:

a command and control service module associated with the at least one protocol stack component for enabling dynamic loading of the at least one more protocol stack.

7. The simulator of claim 1, the simulator further comprising:

an application programming interface for enabling the at least one protocol stack component to communicate with the data delivery module.

8. The simulator of claim 1, further comprising:

an application programming interface for enabling the at least one more protocol application module to communicate with the at least one protocol stack component.

9. The simulator of claim 2, the simulator further comprising:

an application programming interface for enabling the scripting interface module to communicate with the at least one protocol application module.

10. The simulator of claim 1, wherein the at least one protocol stack associated with at least one of:

a TCP/IP protocol;

a UDP/IP protocol; and

an SSL protocol.

11. The simulator in claim 1, further comprising:

means for receiving and checking responses to the client requests from the system under test to ensure correct operation of the system under test.

12. The simulator of claim 1, further comprising:

means for capturing and maintaining client state data from the system under test.

21. The simulator of claim 1, wherein:

the unique hardware address identifiers comprise media access control (MAC) identifiers.

22. The simulator of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one protocol application module generates the data streams that emulate the client requests from a plurality of applications running at the client workstations.

23. The simulator of claim 22, wherein:

the at least one protocol stack component encapsulates the data streams thereof according to different protocol stacks by providing different ones of the data streams with header data according to different ones of the different protocol stacks, thereby providing the encapsulated data streams.

24. The simulator of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one protocol stack component encapsulates the data streams thereof according to different protocol stacks by providing different ones of the data streams with header data according to different ones of the different protocol stacks, thereby providing the encapsulated data streams.

13. A method for simulating client workstations, comprising:

generating data streams representing emulated client requests from at least one application running on the client workstations;

inserting header data associated with at least one protocol stack into the data streams to generate protocol encapsulated data frames; and

adding unique hardware address identifiers to the protocol encapsulated data frames to generate network data frames for transmission to a system under test;

wherein each of the unique hardware address identifiers identifies an associated one of the client workstations.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving user actions for initiating emulation of the emulated client requests.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

dynamically loading the at least one protocol stack for generating the protocol encapsulated data frames.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving and checking responses associated with the emulated client requests from the system under test to ensure correct operation of the system under test.

17. The method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

capturing and maintaining client state data from the system under test.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

formulating the user actions into transactions for communication to and from the system under test, wherein the data streams are generated based on the transactions.

25. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the unique hardware address identifiers comprise media access control (MAC) identifiers.

19. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for simulating client workstations, the method comprising:

generating data streams representing emulated client requests from at least one application running on the client workstations;

inserting header data associated with at least one protocol stack into the data streams to generate protocol encapsulated data frames; and

adding unique hardware address identifiers to the protocol encapsulated data frames to generate network data frames for transmission to a system under test;

wherein each of the unique hardware address identifiers identifies an associated one of the client workstations.

20. The program storage device as claimed in claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving user actions for initiating emulation of the emulated client requests.

26. The program storage device of claim 19, wherein:

the unique hardware address identifiers comprise media access control (MAC) identifiers.