Patent ID: 8797880

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a network device and from a remote user device, a requested test that includes test Internet protocol (IP) packets, the requested test being to test the network device; identifying, by the network device, a component of a network device card associated with the network device, the requested test being performed on the component of the network device card; determining, by the network device, a type of packet format that is understood by the component of the network device card; determining, by the network device, that a format of the test IP packets is not associated with the type of packet format that is understood by the component of the network device card; converting, by the network device and based on determining that the format of the test IP packets is not associated with the type of packet format that is understood by the component of the network device card, the test IP packets into hardware test commands, the hardware test commands being associated with the type of packet format that is understood by the component of the network device card; performing, by the network device and based on the hardware test commands, the requested test on the component of the network device card to produce hardware test results; converting, by the network device, the hardware test results into test results in an IP packet format; and providing, by the network device, the tests results in the IP packet format to the remote user device.