Patent ID: 7639627

Claim:
A method for generating realistic network traffic, the method comprising: providing a captured trace of network traffic from a network link, the captured trace comprising a duplicate record of the network traffic, wherein the captured trace is provided in an environment separate from a network in which it was captured; splitting the captured trace into a plurality of subtraces in the environment separate from the network in which it was captured, wherein splitting the captured trace into a plurality of subtraces includes: (1) selecting a number of subtraces, (2) splitting the captured trace into the number of subtraces, (3) selecting a threshold packet displacement, wherein a packet displacement represents a measure of distortion of the timing of packets in the recombined trace with respect to the timing of packets in the captured trace, (4) determining an actual packet displacement for the number of subtraces, and (5) if the actual packet displacement is greater than the selected threshold packet displacement, repeating the number of subtraces selecting step, splitting step, and determining step until the actual packet displacement is less than the selected threshold packet displacement; replaying the plurality of subtraces in the environment separate from the network in which the captured trace was captured; recombining the plurality of subtraces into a recombined trace that reproduces the network traffic in the environment separate from the network in which the captured trace was captured, wherein timing of packets in the recombined trace approximates the timing of packets in the captured trace; and testing a network element using the recombined trace in the environment separate from the network in which the captured trace was captured.