A Methodology for Implementing a Stress Workload Generator for the GTP-U Plane.

We present a framework for developing a traffic generator that produces massive, realistic network payloads. The techniques and methods in this article can be easily applied to any stress workload generator for network traffic simulation. Here, as the system to be tested, we use the UMTS/GPRS backbone including SGSN and GGSN, which utilizes GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP-U) user plane messages to carry user data packets. The proposed workload generator system is characterized by high, real traffic load, economical standard hardware, scalability, and flexible extensibility. A large number of independent participants, such as mobile users and Internet servers, are modelled. The realism of traffic is achieved by using a layered modelling approach starting from the user/application level and ending at the network layer. High system throughput is obtained by exploiting preconstructed packet buffers (templates), packet filters, network interface polling, and an efficient, adjustable time resolution scheduler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]