This paper covers details about the Facebook ATC tool (Augmented Traffic Controller) which allows us to do network simulation, bandwidth, network emulation testing for various mobility, device and online test areas.

1. This report contains information on how to setup the Facebook ATC tool and use it for testing
purposes.
Author: Kalilur Rahman
Aut
FACEBOOK – AUGMENTED
TRAFFIC CONTROLLER TOOL
TOOL SETUP AND USAGE REPORT

2. 1
FACEBOOK –
AUGMENTED
TRAFFIC
CONTROLLER
TOOL
TOOL SETUP AND USAGE REPORT
Facebook Augmented Traffic Control
Have you ever felt the need to simulate various network and mobile
performance conditions for testing your new digital/mobile application
or a responsive online system you want to test? Field emulation,
network simulation and special condition testing is a challenging puzzle
to crack. If you have a popular online portal or a mobile application with
a massive reach, you need to ensure that the system behavior is
acceptable across network conditions, across platform and devices.
Digital content verification and validation comes to the foray.
One of the excellent tools available for you to accomplish this task is
available freely from the most popular digital company in the world at
the moment – Facebook. Facebook’s – Augmented Traffic Control
(http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-control/ ) is a brilliant tool to
simulate network conditions, latency, packet loss/corruption/reordering
for simulating testing and running the tests smoothly in a short span of
time.
How it works?
http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-
control/images/atc_overview.png ?
 http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-
control/images/atc_overview.png
Links for Facebook ATC
 Documentation -
http://facebook.github.
io/augmented-traffic-
control/
 https://github.com/fac
ebook/augmented-
traffic-control
FACEBOOK
ATC TOOL
ATC is an excellent
open source tool for
simulating bandwidth
and network
conditions. It is a cost
effective tool if you
want to setup test
infrastructure quickly
for your project
requirement.

3. 2
How to Install?
Landing page for wealth of information is available at
 http://facebook.github.io/augmented-traffic-control/
 User guide and manual for installation is available at
o https://github.com/facebook/augmented-traffic-control
Skills Needed to Install and Test
 Good know-how of Linux and basic Linux Admin skills to configure processes/daemons
 Basic Python Skills
 Basic know-how to understand Django – No coding required
 Very good problem solving skills
First Person POV on the experience of a proof-of-concept and usage
 Installation was a charm for our installation in a UBUNTU build.
 Configurations were followed in a seamless manner.
 A wired network with a high-speed DSL was setup.
 A wireless router with high-speed internet
 Deployment instructions followed as per guides
 It would be hard to believe a seamless installation/configuration isn’t it. We encountered issues
while configuring the setup.
o A setup issue was encountered for running of daemon process and GUI invocation
 An email was sent to the developers and a query to SME helped resolve the
issue within 9 hours
Post configuration of the daemon process, use of 10 ATC sample profiles were available to test. We
added a few additional configuration parameters to ensure we are able to emulate different
configurations. It worked like a charm.
For ATC profile invocation, you can do the following.
1. Invoke the ATC Daemon GUI
2. Choose the profile you want to setup
3. Turn-on the Profile
4. Once done with testing, Turn-off the profile

4. 3

5. 4

6. 5
What was the outcome?

7. 6
We were able to configure setup for various speeds, throttle network speed, validate with speed
testing tools, and carry on with the testing for expected conditions.
Original network speed in the device
Speed Throttled to 50% with profile activation in ATC

8. 7
Speed Throttled to 75% with profile activation in ATC

9. 8
Server Logs for invocation and API Calls for profile invocation

10. 9
What else can you do?
Given this is delivered under BSD license, within the permissible limits, you can build your own
test infrastructure, extend the interfaces for different purposes (i.e. build a better GUI for configuration,
throttling, monitoring and reporting).
You can also script an automated test execution scripting suite and run various simulation conditions in
a sequential / parallel mode (based on setup and need).

11. 10
Conclusion/Summary
We found ATC to be an excellent open source tool for simulating bandwidth and network
conditions. It is a cost effective tool if you want to setup test infrastructure quickly for your project
requirement.
Hope this is useful. Comments are welcome.