A distributed testing platform tests network traffic filtering rules. A
control point receives a network traffic filtering rule and test
parameters describing how to test the rule. The control point distributes
the rule and parameters to a plurality of testing nodes. The testing
nodes are located on a network at locations where they receive a variety
of different network traffic. The testing nodes test the rule against
traffic received by the nodes according to the test parameters. The
traffic can include real-time traffic and corpora of traffic designed to
test different types of rules. The testing nodes return test results
describing the testing to the control point. The control point analyzes
the test results to determine the accuracy and performance of the rule.