A system and method for simulating network connection characteristics by alteration
of a network packet. In general, the method of the present invention includes providing
a driver that is capable of accessing all outgoing and incoming network packets
and altering a network packet to simulate a connection characteristic of the network.
In particular, the method of the present invention includes receiving a network
packet, assigning a new, simulated network address to the network packet and performing
modification of the network packet to simulate certain network connection characteristics
(including, for example, transmission delay, limited bandwidth, packet dropping,
packet fragmentation, packet duplication and packet reordering). The system of
the present invention includes a modification module for altering certain characteristics
of a packet. The modification module includes an addressing module, for mapping
a new, simulated network address to a network packet and a propagation module,
for modifying a propagation characteristic of the network connection. In addition,
the modification module includes a sequence module that alters an additional packet characteristic.
