Packet Flow

A network monitoring tool that measures UDP packet loss and latency between endpoints and stores metrics in InfluxDB.

Overview

Packet Flow sends UDP packets between endpoints and monitors network performance metrics like packet loss and latency. All metrics are sent to InfluxDB for storage and visualization.

Features

• UDP packet sending with configurable rate
• Packet loss detection and measurement
• Network latency measurement
• Multiple operating modes: sender, receiver, or both
• Flexible configuration via command-line, environment variables, or config file
• InfluxDB integration for metrics storage
• Docker support

Installation

Building from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/packet-flow.git
cd packet-flow

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# The binary will be available at target/release/packet-flow

Using Docker

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t packet-flow .

# Run the container
docker run packet-flow --help

Configuration

Configuration can be provided in three ways (in order of precedence):

1. Command line arguments
2. Environment variables
3. Configuration file (TOML)
4. Default values

Generate a default config file

./target/release/packet-flow --generate-config --config-file config.toml

Configuration options

Option	CLI Flag	Environment Variable	Description
Mode	-m, --mode	PACKET_FLOW_MODE	Operating mode: "sender", "receiver", or "both"
Local Address	--local-addr	PACKET_FLOW_LOCAL_ADDR	Local address to bind to (e.g., "0.0.0.0:8000")
Remote Address	--remote-addr	PACKET_FLOW_REMOTE_ADDR	Remote address to connect to (e.g., "127.0.0.1:8000")
Rate	-r, --rate	PACKET_FLOW_RATE	Packet sending rate in milliseconds
InfluxDB URL	-i, --influx-url	PACKET_FLOW_INFLUX_URL	InfluxDB server URL
Database	-d, --database	PACKET_FLOW_DATABASE	InfluxDB database/bucket name
Token	-t, --token	PACKET_FLOW_TOKEN	InfluxDB authentication token
username	-u, --username	PACKET_FLOW_USERNAME	InfluxDB username
password	-p, --password	PACKET_FLOW_PASSWORD	InfluxDB password
Config File	--config_file	PACKET_FLOW_CONFIG_FILE	Path to a TOML config file. this is the only environment variable that overrides a commandline option
Generate Config	--generate-config	N/A	Generate a default config file

Usage

Sender Mode

Sends UDP packets to a specified address:

./target/release/packet-flow --mode sender --remote-addr 192.168.1.100:8000 --rate 100

Receiver Mode

Listens for UDP packets and reports metrics to InfluxDB:

./target/release/packet-flow --mode receiver --local-addr 0.0.0.0:8000 --token your-influxdb-token

Both Mode

Sends and receives packets simultaneously:

./target/release/packet-flow --mode both --local-addr 0.0.0.0:8000 --remote-addr 192.168.1.100:8000 --token your-influxdb-token

InfluxDB Setup

1. Make sure InfluxDB is running
2. Create a bucket named "network_monitor" (or specify a different name with --database)
3. Generate an API token with write access to the bucket
4. Provide the token to packet-flow with --token or the PACKET_FLOW_TOKEN environment variable

The included start_influx.sh script can be used to start a local InfluxDB instance for testing.