Patent ID: 8694626

Claim:
A system to automatically generate outgoing network traffic based on observed production network traffic, the system comprising at least one network card, the network card including at least one processor and memory, the system further comprising multiple specialized software components, including the following: a data collector to automatically capture production network traffic and to compile network traffic data based on the captured production network traffic, wherein the data collector includes at least one data collection unit for each of a plurality of communications protocols supported by the system, wherein the network traffic data includes at least two of distribution data comprising at least one of protocol distribution data, length distribution data, and transaction distribution data header information comprising at least one of a group of most common addresses, a group of most common ports, and most common header data payload data a characterization engine to receive the production network traffic and the network traffic data from the data collector and to automatically prepare network traffic characterization data based on the production network traffic and the network traffic data, the network traffic characterization data including at least two of statistical indicators, a traffic model and traffic profile data a feedback unit included in the characterization engine, the feedback unit to communicate with the data collector to automatically adjust the network traffic data compiled based on earlier captured production network traffic including successively refining the network traffic data compiled, wherein the successively refining includes increasing the granularity of network traffic data compiled in successive capture groups of network traffic a script generator to receive the network traffic characterization data from the characterization engine and to automatically prepare scripts based on the network traffic characterization data, wherein the script generator includes at least one script generation unit for each of the plurality of communications protocols supported by the system a traffic generator to automatically generate outgoing test network traffic based on the scripts, wherein the traffic generator includes at least one traffic generation unit for each of the plurality of communications protocols supported by the system.