We have developed a new kind of monitor for the Linux networking community. Our Monitor for Application-Generated Network Traffic (MAGNeT) collects run-time data about the network protocol stack as well as application traffic demands before modulation by any protocol stack. In addition, MAGNeT collects this data while maintaining user and application transparency. Thus, MAGNeT may be used in live systems to obtain real-world, application-traffic traces and protocol-state information in production environments.
The resulting data may be used, among other things, for debugging existing protocol implementations, understanding possible performance degradation seen under various network architectures, designing new networking protocols that specifically take advantage of true application-traffic patterns, and developing more realistic models of network traffic. The data-collection capabilities of MAGNeT also have potential use in fields such as network security which rely on a comprehensive understanding of the traffic existing in an institutional network.
The combination of capabilities offered by MAGNeT make it a valuable tool to network designers, implementors, researchers, and administrators. We intend for MAGNeT development to continue and lead to further advances in high-performance networking.