Patent ID: 7826381

Claim:
A method of automatically constructing test frames to test a switching, bridging or routing device (referred to as the “device or system under test” or “DUT”), the test frames generated by a test device that has at least first and second ports that are coupled to ports on the DUT, the method including: eliciting and receiving from a user descriptions of at least one virtual ingress device emulated on the first port and least one virtual egress device emulated on the second port (referred to collectively as “emulated devices”), including interface types and interface configurations on the emulated devices, further including any interface address configurations that are dynamically learnt using interface setup protocols; further receiving any device configuration required for the test device and DUT to set up network connectivity; automatically building prototype test packets to transmit between the emulated devices through the DUT, using the received descriptions of the emulated devices; starting one or more network emulation sessions to establish network connectivity between the emulated devices and the DUT and learning at the emulated devices at least some dynamically generated address information automatically combining the prototype test packets and the dynamically generated address information to be used when producing test packets; and transmitting a multiplicity of test packets between the emulated devices through the DUT.