Runko Works

Case study

Testing the routing side of an accelerated network stack

Bypassing the kernel for TCP and UDP pulled routing out of the kernel too. About 1,000 test cases proved the new routing before release.

Client
Network technology vendor
Role
Team lead, test design and delivery
Period
2015 – 2018
Area
Quality engineering
Stack
C · Linux routing

Why it mattered

The accelerated TCP/UDP stack avoided the kernel’s delays, but a network stack depends on more than TCP and UDP. Other parts of networking, routing among them, had to be implemented outside the kernel as well. If the accelerated path routes traffic differently from the kernel, traffic simply goes missing.

How it works

  • Review of the existing tests, which were obsolete, with proposals for improvement and extension.
  • Around 30 test scripts reworked and 30 new scenarios designed and implemented, about 1,000 test cases in total.
  • The routing implementation was released with that coverage.