PSPacer version 1.2

Precise Software Pacer (PSPacer) version 1.2 is released on April 17, 2006.

Key Points:

• Precise network bandwidth control and traffic smoothing by use of software alone without requiring special hardware.
• High efficiency long-distance wide-bandwidth communications and high quality streaming.
• Released as an open source software for Linux platform.

Major Functions

With the PSPacer, it is possible to provide bandwidth control and smoothing for each of 100 or more connections by use of commodity PC. In the case of gigabit Ethernet, the transmission bandwidth can be set for a range from 8 Kbps to 930 Mbps for each of IP communication connections, and the packet transmission interval can be controlled at an accuracy of time for 1-byte data transmission (8ns) in accordance with the bandwidth.

The PSPacer is installed as a loadable kernel module for the Linux platform, to be ready for being introduced independent of the device driver. Applications to use the network are not required to be changed. The software also supports IPv6 and jumbo frame.

Documents

README includes a step-by-step installation direction and a simple test run guide.

For further information, PSPacer Usage Guide and FAQ include typical usages and tips.

Man page: tc-psp (8).

Tested Environment

We have tested this package in the following environments:

• Linux distribution:
  • RedHat Linux 9 (kernel 2.4.26 + iproute ss010824)
  • FedoraCore 1 (kernel 2.4.30 + iproute ss040831)
  • FedoraCore 3 (kernel 2.6.9 + iproute ss040831)
  • FedoraCore 3 (kernel 2.6.11 + iproute ss050330)
  • FedoraCore 4 (kernel 2.6.11 + iproute ss050314)
  • SUSE SLES 8.1 AMD64 (kernel 2.4.21 + iproute ss020116)
  • Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (kernel 2.6.8 + iproute ss041019)
  • Debian GNU/Linux sid (kernel 2.6.12.2 + iproute ss041019)
• Network interface card:
  • Intel PRO/1000 (PCI-X, CSA)
  • Intel PRO/100
  • Broadcom BCM5704 (PCI-X)

TODO

Dynamic target rate mode

This release does not provide the dynamic target rate estimation.

TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO)

TSO is not supported. You must disable TSO by using the ethtool(8) command:

  # /sbin/ethtool -K eth0 tso off

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