How to use iperf
This is a general guideline of using iperf freeware.
iperf
Quality of the link can be tested with Iperf.
The quality of a link can be tested as follows:
- Latency (response time or RTT): can be measured with the ping command.
- Jitter (latency variation): can be measured with an Iperf UDP test.
- Datagram loss: can be measured with an Iperf UDP
Download and install as follows
download from http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5Server/x86_64/iperf-2.0.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
rpm -i iperf-2.0.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
Here is a diagram where Iperf is installed on a Linux machines. One server is used as the Iperf client and another server as the Iperf server.
Simulate test as follows.
As mentioned in the diagram, run Iperf server from one machine and Iperf client from another machine.
on the server side
iperf -s
and on the client side
iperf -fM -c <ip address of the other node on the network of interest>
This will transfer 1 gigabyte of information over the selected network and provide a throughput output in Megabytes/second.