iperf examples | PowerCram Network

Use Iperf to Measure Network Throughput (Bandwidth) on Windows or Linux

Iperf was developed by NLANR/DAST as a modern alternative for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Iperf allows the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter, datagram loss.

Install iperf on Windows – just download, unzip and run iperf.exe.
Install iperf on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install iperf

Iperf supports several options, but generally you would run it on one device as a “server” and another as a “client.”

To launch iperf in server mode just enter iperf -s at the terminal. It will report, “Server listening on TCP port 5001. . .”

From another system launch iperf in client mode with iperf -c <server IP>. By default Iperf will run a 10 second test and report amount of data transferred and bandwidth speed.

Note: Iperf can be used to test LAN speeds as well as over the Internet.

Download Iperf and get more information from SourceForge.

Measure Network Throughput (Bandwidth) with Iperf

Iperf is a tool for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter, datagram loss.

Iperf allows the user to set various parameters that can be used for testing a network, or alternately for optimizing or tuning a network. Iperf has a client and server functionality, and can measure the throughput between the two ends, either unidirectonally or bi-directionally. It is open source software and runs on various platforms including Linux, Unix and Windows. It is supported by the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research.

When used for testing UDP capacity, Iperf allows the user to specify the datagram size and provides results for the datagram throughput and the packet loss.

When used for testing TCP capacity, Iperf measures the throughput of the payload. One thing to note is that Iperf uses 1024*1024 for megabytes and 1000*1000 for megabits. There is a Graphical user interface (GUI) front end available called jperf.

Typical Iperf output contains a timestamped report of the amount of data transferred and the throughput measured.

Iperf is significant as it is a standardized tool that can be run over any network and output standardized performance measurements. Thus it can be used for comparison of wired and wireless networking equipment and technologies in an unbiased way. As it is open source, the measurement methodology can be scrutinized by users.

See also Use Iperf to Measure Network Throughput (Bandwidth) for examples and details on using Iperf.

Download Iperf and get more information from SourceForge.