LinuxCon + CloudOpen + ELC-E Europe 2014

This presentation provides an overview of effective means for correlating and visualizing the trace data collected from a network processor. Trace data directly associated with the network packets is collected at key points in the system, using hardware and/or Linux software mechanisms such as ftrace or LTTng. An abstract model of the packet data flows in the system is used in order to represent the trace-based analysis data in an intuitive fashion. The trace data collected from multiple sources is correlated and analyzed in order to automatically build the data flow model, together with the data flow profile. The model is used to visualize the activity of the traced system along with key metrics such as network packet processing latencies, load balancing factors, packet dropout rates, processed data volume and others. The presentation discusses the trace data requirements, the trace correlation aspects and the need for networking oriented trace data analysis and visualization. The Freescale Packet Analysis Tool, a software tool implementing these trace analysis techniques, is used to demonstrate the presented concepts.