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Performance Evaluation of the Nanosecond Resolution Timestamping Feature of the Enhanced Libpcap

Authors:
Peter Orosz
Tamas Skopko
Jozsef Imrek

Keywords: libpcap; timestamp precision; inter-arrival time; Linux kernel; high speed network; hardware timestamping

Abstract:
In a previous work we modified the libpcap library in order to feature nanosecond resolution timestamping. However the precision and the accuracy of this high resolution software based solution has not been investigated so far. Since very short inter-arrival times are present on Gigabit Ethernet links, the precision of the software based timestamps generated for each incoming packet should be analyzed and validated. In this paper, the performance metrics of the nanosecond resolution software timestamping is compared to a hardware-based solution (Endace DAG3.7GP measurement card) and to a reference source. The factors that determine and limit the precision and accuracy of the nanosecond resolution software timestamping will be investigated. We present how the operation mode of the network device driver affects the timestamping behavior.

Pages: 220 to 225

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2011

Publication date: October 23, 2011

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2163-9027

ISBN: 978-1-61208-166-3

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from October 23, 2011 to October 29, 2011