Reproducible network benchmarks

I just found out about  coNCePTuaL, a project that promotes reproducible research in the context of performance measurements for high-speed computer networks.  (The capitalized letters in the name stand for Network Correctness and Performance Testing Language.)

The project is located at  http://conceptual.sourceforge.net/ and is described in the paper Reproducible network benchmarks with coNCePTuaL by Scott Pakin of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Some of the highlights of coNCePTuaL:

  • Performance tests (timed network-communication patterns) are described in a precise but English-like “executable pseudocode” designed for basic readability, even by someone not familiar with coNCePTuaL.
  • Output files produced by coNCePTuaL-based performance tests include not only the measurements but the code describing the  test itself and a detailed description of the experimental platform on which the code ran.  This enables a third party to see exactly what was run, how it was run, and what the results were, all in one file.
  • coNCePTuaL can automatically produce space-time diagrams of the communication pattern for additional clarity of presentation.

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