What is it?
Network impairment emulators are hardware and software tools that intentionally degrade or impair the performance of a computer network to realistically simulate the effects of conditions like high latency, packet loss, jitter or bandwidth constraints. By replicating these types of problems that can occur in actual deployment environments, network impairment emulators allow network engineers and product developers to test solutions under stressful conditions before full release.

Simulating Latency
One of the core functions of a Network Impairment Emulation emulator is the ability to introduce artificial latency into a test network. Latency, which refers to transmission delays between devices, is often a challenge in wide-area networks where large physical distances are involved. An emulator can insert delays of varying lengths on packets traveling through an emulated link. This makes it possible to evaluate how applications, services or protocols behave under higher latency typical of intercontinental or satellite connections for example. Issues related to timeouts, delayed acknowledgments or synchronization can be uncovered.

Modeling Limited Bandwidth
Available bandwidth is always finite on real communications infrastructure. Emulators allow network engineers to intentionally restrict bandwidth on testing links. This creates a constrained environment similar to a low-speed WAN link or a network under heavy utilization. Solutions can be evaluated for their tolerance of reduced throughput and any detrimental effects on user experience, functionality or time to completion when bandwidth is scarce. Problems caused by insufficient bandwidth reserves or uneven distribution can surface.

Network impairment emulation is a valuable technique that supplies controlled, reproducible network conditions for exhaustive pre-deployment testing. By simulating real infrastructure limitations, emulators uncover weakness or points of failure before significant deployment begins. They provide realistic network stressing not achievable by simple throughput tools. As network designs grow ever more sophisticated Emulators will remain indispensable for delivering high quality user experiences over the complex, globally-distributed networks of tomorrow.

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