This report contains information on how to setup the Facebook ATC tool and use it for testing

purposes.

Author: Kalilur Rahman

Aut

FACEBOOK – AUGMENTED

TRAFFIC CONTROLLER TOOL

TOOL SETUP AND USAGE REPORT

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FACEBOOK –

AUGMENTED

TRAFFIC

CONTROLLER

TOOL

TOOL SETUP AND USAGE REPORT

Facebook Augmented Traffic Control

Have you ever felt the need to simulate various network and mobile

performance conditions for testing your new digital/mobile application

or a responsive online system you want to test? Field emulation,

network simulation and special condition testing is a challenging puzzle

to crack. If you have a popular online portal or a mobile application with

a massive reach, you need to ensure that the system behavior is

acceptable across network conditions, across platform and devices.

Digital content verification and validation comes to the foray.

One of the excellent tools available for you to accomplish this task is

available freely from the most popular digital company in the world at

the moment – Facebook. Facebook’s – Augmented Traffic Control

(http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-control/ ) is a brilliant tool to

simulate network conditions, latency, packet loss/corruption/reordering

for simulating testing and running the tests smoothly in a short span of

time.

How it works?

http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-

control/images/atc_overview.png ?

http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-

control/images/atc_overview.png

Links for Facebook ATC

Documentation -

http://facebook.github.

io/augmented-traffic-

control/

https://github.com/fac

ebook/augmented-

traffic-control

FACEBOOK

ATC TOOL

ATC is an excellent

open source tool for

simulating bandwidth

and network

conditions. It is a cost

effective tool if you

want to setup test

infrastructure quickly

for your project

requirement.

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How to Install?

Landing page for wealth of information is available at

http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-control/

User guide and manual for installation is available at

o https://github.com/facebook/augmented-traffic-control

Skills Needed to Install and Test

Good know-how of Linux and basic Linux Admin skills to configure processes/daemons

Basic Python Skills

Basic know-how to understand Django – No coding required

Very good problem solving skills

First Person POV on the experience of a proof-of-concept and usage

Installation was a charm for our installation in a UBUNTU build.

Configurations were followed in a seamless manner.

A wired network with a high-speed DSL was setup.

A wireless router with high-speed internet

Deployment instructions followed as per guides

It would be hard to believe a seamless installation/configuration isn’t it. We encountered issues

while configuring the setup.

o A setup issue was encountered for running of daemon process and GUI invocation

An email was sent to the developers and a query to SME helped resolve the

issue within 9 hours

Post configuration of the daemon process, use of 10 ATC sample profiles were available to test. We

added a few additional configuration parameters to ensure we are able to emulate different

configurations. It worked like a charm.

For ATC profile invocation, you can do the following.

1. Invoke the ATC Daemon GUI

2. Choose the profile you want to setup

3. Turn-on the Profile

4. Once done with testing, Turn-off the profile

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What was the outcome?

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We were able to configure setup for various speeds, throttle network speed, validate with speed

testing tools, and carry on with the testing for expected conditions.

Original network speed in the device

Speed Throttled to 50% with profile activation in ATC

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Speed Throttled to 75% with profile activation in ATC

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Server Logs for invocation and API Calls for profile invocation

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What else can you do?

Given this is delivered under BSD license, within the permissible limits, you can build your own

test infrastructure, extend the interfaces for different purposes (i.e. build a better GUI for configuration,

throttling, monitoring and reporting).

You can also script an automated test execution scripting suite and run various simulation conditions in

a sequential / parallel mode (based on setup and need).

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Conclusion/Summary

We found ATC to be an excellent open source tool for simulating bandwidth and network

conditions. It is a cost effective tool if you want to setup test infrastructure quickly for your project

requirement.

Hope this is useful. Comments are welcome.