Installing Flent

Installing Flent can be done in several ways, depending on your operating system:

Quick start

You must run netperf on two computers - a server and a client.

  1. Server (Computer 1): Netperf needs to be started in “server mode” to listen for commands from the Client. To do this, install netperf on the Server computer, then enter:

    netserver &

    Note: Instead of installing netperf on a local server, you may substitute the netserver that is running on netperf.bufferbloat.net by using -H netperf.bufferbloat.net in the commands below.

    List of public hosts you can test against:

    • netperf.bufferbloat.net (also called netperf-east.bufferbloat.net)

    • netperf-west.bufferbloat.net

    • netperf-eu.bufferbloat.net

  2. Client (Computer 2): Install netperf, then install flent on your Client computer. When you invoke flent on the Client, it will connect to the specified netserver (-H) and carry out the measurements. Here are some useful commands:

    • RRUL: Create the standard graphic image used by the Bufferbloat project to show the down/upload speeds plus latency in three separate charts:

      flent rrul -p all_scaled -l 60 -H address-of-netserver -t text-to-be-included-in-plot -o filename.png
      
    • CDF: A Cumulative Distribution Function plot showing the probability that ping times will be below a bound:

      flent rrul -p ping_cdf -l 60 -H address-of-netserver -t text-to-be-included-in-plot -o filename.png
      
    • TCP Upload: Displays TCP upload speed and latency in two charts:

      flent tcp_upload -p totals -l 60 -H address-of-netserver -t text-to-be-included-in-plot -o filename.png
      
    • TCP Download: Displays TCP download speeds and latency in two charts:

      flent tcp_download -p totals -l 60 -H address-of-netserver -t text-to-be-included-in-plot -o filename.png
      

The output of each of these commands is a graphic (PNG) image along with a data file in the current working directory that can be used to re-create the plot, either from the command line (see Running Flent), or by loading them into the GUI. Run flent-gui to start the GUI.