Patent ID: 8717925

Claim:
A method to test connection rate of a network device, comprising: defining T connections between a test system and the network device, where T is a positive integer, each connection associated with a connection identifier; storing connection identifiers associated with active connection in a first-in first-out (FIFO) active queue; storing connection identifiers associated with inactive connections in a FIFO idle queue; and initiating C connections with the network device in each of a plurality of sequential time intervals, where C is a positive integer less than T, wherein initiating C connections further comprises: when a number NI of connection identifiers in the idle queue at the start of a time interval is less than C, aborting C−NI connections associated with connection identifiers at the head of the active queue and moving the connection identifiers associated with the C−NI aborted connection to the tail of the idle queue, and reading C connection identifiers from the head of the idle queue, scheduling the associated connections to be opened, and storing the C connection identifiers at the tail of the active queue.