Simulate slow network connections on Linux and Mac OS X

Inspired by tylertreat/Comcast, the connectivity setting in the WPTAgent and sltc.

Throttle uses pfctl on Mac and tc on Linux to simulate different network speeds. On Linux you also need ip and route for Throttle to work.

You can set the download/upload speed and RTT. Upload/download is in kbit/s and RTT in ms.

This is an early release, so please help us find potential bugs.

Install

npm install @sitespeed.io/throttle -g

On OSX, add these lines to /etc/pf.conf if they don't exist, to prevent the pfctl: Syntax error in config file: pf rules not loaded error when you try to run throttle

pf_enable="YES"
pflog_enable="YES"

Start simulate a slower network connection

Here is an example for running with 3G connectivity. Remember: Throttle will use sudo so your user will need sudo rights.

throttle --up 330 --down 780 --rtt 200

Pre made profiles

To make it easier we have pre made profiles, check them out by throttle --help:

--profile         Premade profiles, set to one of the following
                     3g: up:768 down:1600 rtt:150
                     3gfast: up:768 down:1600 rtt:75
                     3gslow: up:400 down:400 rtt:200
                     2g: up:32 down:35 rtt:650
                     cable: up:1000 down:5000 rtt:14

You can start throttle with one of the premade profiles:

throttle --profile 3gslow

or even simpler

throttle 3gslow

Stop simulate the network

Stopping is as easy as giving the parameter stop to throttle.

throttle --stop

throttle stop

Add delay on your localhost (Linux only at the moment)

This is useful if you run WebPageReplay and want to add som latency to your tests.

throttle --rtt 200 --localhost

Stop adding delay on localhost (Linux only)

throttle --stop --localhost

Use directly in NodeJS

const throttle = require('@sitespeed.io/throttle');
// Returns a promise
throttle.start({up: 360, down: 780, rtt: 200}).then(() => ...

Run in Docker (on Linux)

Make sure to run sudo modprobe ifb numifbs=1 before you start the container.

And then when you actually start your Docker container, give it the right privileges with --cap-add=NET_ADMIN

ibc/throttle