In this study, a traffic generator software package namely MTGawn was developed to run packet generation and evaluation on a mobile device. The call generating software system is able to: simulate voice over Internet protocol calls as well as user datagram protocol and transmission control protocol between mobile phones over a wireless network and analyse network data similar to computer-based network monitoring tools such as Iperf and D-ITG but is self-contained on a mobile device. This entailed porting a ‘stripped down’ version of a packet generation and monitoring system with functionality as found in open source tools for a mobile platform. This mobile system is able to generate and monitor traffic over any network interface on a mobile device, and calculate the standard quality of service metrics. The tool was compared to a computer–based tool namely distributed Internet traffic generator (D-ITG) in the same environment and, in most cases, MTGawn reported comparable results to D-ITG. The important motivation for this software was to ease feasibility testing and monitoring in the field by using an affordable and rechargeable technology such as a mobile device. The system was tested in a testbed and can be used in rural areas where a mobile device is more suitable than a PC or laptop. The main challenge was to port and adapt an open source packet generator to an Android platform and to provide a suitable touchscreen interface for the tool. / >Magister Scientiae - MSc

Masters of Science / In this study, a traffic generator software package namely MTGawn was developed to run packet generation and evaluation on a mobile device. The call generating software system is able to: simulate voice over Internet protocol calls as well as user datagram protocol and transmission control protocol between mobile phones over a wireless network and analyse network data similar to computer-based network monitoring tools such as Iperf and D-ITG but is self-contained on a mobile device. This entailed porting a ‘stripped down’ version of a packet generation and monitoring system with functionality as found in open source tools for a mobile platform. This mobile system is able to generate and monitor traffic over any network interface on a mobile device, and calculate the standard quality of service metrics. The tool was compared to a computer–based tool namely distributed Internet traffic generator (D-ITG) in the same environment and, in most cases, MTGawn reported comparable results to D-ITG. The important motivation for this software was to ease feasibility testing and monitoring in the field by using an affordable and rechargeable technology such as a mobile device. The system was tested in a testbed and can be used in rural areas where a mobile device is more suitable than a PC or laptop. The main challenge was to port and adapt an open source packet generator to an Android platform and to provide a suitable touchscreen interface for the tool. ACM Categories and Subject Descriptors B.8 [PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY] B.8.2 [Performance Analysis and Design Aids] C.4 [PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS] Measurement techniques, Performance attributes

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This thesis validates that packet aggregation is a viable technique to increase call ca-pacity for Voice over Internet Protocol over wireless mesh networks. Wireless mesh networks are attractive ways to provide voice services to rural communities. Due to the ad-hoc routing nature of mesh networks, packet loss and delay can reduce voice quality.Even on non-mesh networks, voice quality is reduced by high overhead, associated with the transmission of multiple small packets. Packet aggregation techniques are proven to increase VoIP performance and thus can be deployed in wireless mesh networks. Kernel level packet aggregation was initially implemented and tested on a small mesh network of PCs running Linux, and standard baseline vs. aggregation tests were conducted with a realistic voice tra c pro le in hop-to-hop mode. Modi cations of the kernel were then transferred to either end of a nine node 'mesh potato' network and those tests were conducted with only the end nodes modi ed to perform aggregation duties. Packet ag- gregation increased call capacity expectedly, while quality of service was maintained in both instances, and hop-to-hop aggregation outperformed the end-to-end con guration. However, implementing hop-to-hop in a scalable fashion is prohibitive, due to the extensive kernel level debugging that must be done to achieve the call capacity increase.Therefore, end-to-end call capacity increase is an acceptable compromise for eventual scalable deployment of voice over wireless mesh networks.