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Network traffic generators emulate real-world network and application traffic and inject it across websites and networks to stress test the network and measure performance metrics like load times, download rates, jitter, packet loss, and delay. These tools are essential for measuring network services, QoS, and user experience.

Typically, network traffic generators are used to test large-scale network deployments. Sometimes referred to as network assessment, common use cases include measuring service quality across distributed, hybrid networks and validating large-scale deployments like SD-WAN before going live.

Performance testing comprises a large subset of software quality assurance (QA) testing, including load testing, stress testing, volume testing, and scalability testing. Since these tests typically validate application clients, servers, networks and application devices against heavy traffic volumes, test automation is a prerequisite. These tests would be too time consuming to perform manually.

Performance testing tools simulate the actions of real users with efficient, low-overhead, and consistent virtual users (VUs). VUs enable QA test teams to quickly and repeatedly assess the performance of a system under test, resulting in shortened product cycles and improved user experience. Performance test suites often include powerful, easy-to-use tools that help testing teams create customized, dynamic VUs — enabling more complex and advanced testing where each VU has its own unique data and timings. Since users often take different paths across websites and applications, groups of VUs can run different scripts or workflows within the same test for greater real-world accuracy. By acting as an engine for coordinating the execution of dynamic and variable VUs, performance test tools simplify the process of deploying realistic tests against systems and environments under test.

A specific subset of performance testing, load testing examines how applications, websites, and servers handle abnormally high traffic volumes. QA testers often run load tests before high-profile feature releases or high-traffic events like e-commerce sales or holidays to avoid website crashes and outages.

While load testing tools traditionally focus on generating application-layer traffic, Eggplant Performance is unique because it can also generate protocol-layer traffic. It acts as both a server and client, generating synthetic traffic loads to test websites and applications, network infrastructures, intermediate layers of N-tier architectures, and back-end equipment including routers and content-aware network devices.