Patent ID: 6314531
Filing Date: 2001-11-06
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A system for testing and debugging software by emulating communications networks, said system comprising:two or more test computers connected by said communications network each of said test computers having a corresponding medium access control (MAC) address and IP address, said test computers capable of sending and receiving packets, at least two of said test computers containing software to be tested;an emulation computer having a corresponding MAC address and one or more corresponding IP addresses, said emulation computer further comprising:a promiscuous reader for receiving packets from at least one computer in said communications network over a communications medium;a simulation model representing the condition of the network to be emulated;a simulator which receives input from said promiscuous reader and said model and assigns delay and deliberate faults to said packets based on information contained in said model; andan emulation component which writes the packets onto the communications medium at the time corresponding to the delay associated with the respective packet wherein the MAC address of each of said test computers is replaced by the MAC address corresponding to said emulation computer in all packets sent from each of said test computers onto said communications network.