The UDP Forwarder is a simple program written in C that listens for UDP packets on a specified source IP and port and forwards them to a destination IP and port. It allows for simulating packet loss, making it a useful tool for testing the behavior of applications under unreliable network conditions, such as streaming or real-time data transmission.

Forwards UDP packets from a source to a destination.

Allows specification of packet loss rate to simulate network unreliability.

Displays statistics about forwarded and dropped packets.

1. Compile the Program

Use make to compile the program:

make

2. Run the UDP Forwarder

Run the UDP forwarder with the following command:

<SOURCE_IP>: IP address from which the program will receive UDP packets.

<SOURCE_PORT>: Port on which the program will listen for UDP packets.

<DESTINATION_IP>: IP address to which the program will forward UDP packets.

<DESTINATION_PORT>: Port to which the program will forward UDP packets.

<LOSS_RATE>: The number of packets out of 1000 that will be dropped to simulate packet loss (e.g., 0 for no loss, 10 for 1% loss).

Example ./udp_forwarder 127.0.0.1 5000 127.0.0.1 6000 0

This command will forward all packets from 127.0.0.1:5000 to 127.0.0.1:6000 with no packet loss.

3. Streaming Video with VLC (Source)

To stream a video file using VLC to the source port, use the following command:

cvlc --repeat test.mp4 --sout '#standard{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=<SOURCE_IP>:<SOURCE_PORT>}'

Example:

cvlc --repeat test.mp4 --sout '#standard{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=127.0.0.1:5000}'

4. Receiving the Video Stream with VLC (Destination)

On the destination machine, run VLC to receive the forwarded video stream:

vlc -vvv udp://@<DESTINATION_IP>:<DESTINATION_PORT>

Example:

vlc -vvv udp://@127.0.0.1:6000

GCC compiler

Linux environment

VLC media player (for testing UDP streaming)