MoonGen

Spec sheet

Purpose

MoonGen is a scriptable high-speed packet generator built on DPDK and LuaJIT.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

License

The repository identifies the project as MIT licensed.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Hardware support

Basic functionality is available on DPDK-supported NICs; hardware timestamping and rate control support varies by NIC model.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Installation

The documented installation uses a build script and requires binding NICs to DPDK; Debian and Ubuntu dependencies are listed.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Interface

MoonGen offers a simplified command-line interface for quick tests and a full API for custom scripts and more complex test setups.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Known limitation

The README says hardware checksum offloading and timestamping do not work on ixgbe NICs with this version of MoonGen.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Measurement

MoonGen supports precise rate control and hardware timestamping, with timestamp precision and accuracy below 100 ns on supported NICs.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Packet control

User-provided Lua scripts craft packets in real time and control packet reception as well as transmission.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Path emulation

The related MoonEm tool can emulate path delay, rate limits, and random packet loss.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Performance

The README says MoonGen can saturate a 10 Gbit/s Ethernet link with 64 byte packets on one CPU core while modifying each packet with a Lua script.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Scaling

MoonGen supports multiple cores and reports more than 20 million packets per second per CPU core as a performance target.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Use cases

The README describes using MoonGen to benchmark systems such as firewalls and to check which packets a system under test drops.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Plans and prices

Every MoonGen plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Network Testing Software#23 of 337.5