Litmus Speed Test

Litmus is a network performance testing tool that measures bandwidth, latency, jitter, packet loss, and data integrity between two machines. It operates as a client-server pair: a server is started on one end, a connection is made from the other, and a complete analysis of the actual network performance is obtained.

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• TCP and UDP protocol testing. The software allows performance testing over TCP, UDP, or both protocols within a single session. This functionality makes it possible to analyze network behavior under different transmission conditions and traffic types.
• Configurable test directions. Users can run upload, download, or bidirectional tests within the same session. The application supports up to 8 parallel streams with independent tracking for each stream, facilitating the evaluation of networks with multiple simultaneous connections.
• Network Quality Score. Each test receives an alphabetical grade from A to F based on five weighted metrics: bandwidth stability, latency, jitter, packet loss, and data integrity. All grading thresholds are user-configurable.
• Certification Mode. This function runs a test suite comprising the six combinations of protocol and direction sequentially. Results are compiled into a single certification PDF file that includes the scores per test and an overall pass/fail determination.
• Advanced network parameter control. The tool incorporates options for bandwidth configuration, DSCP/QoS marking, custom socket buffer sizes, warm-up period skipping, configurable UDP packet sizes, and multiple test completion modes based on duration, bytes transmitted, or packets sent.
• Real-time visualization. During test execution, a live performance graph is displayed with five visualization styles: area, line, bar, step, and gauge. The interface allows displaying up to four test runs simultaneously for direct comparison.
• Report generation and data export. The program produces automatic PDF reports with light and dark themes. Test data can be exported in JSON or CSV format for further processing and analysis in other applications.
• Peer discovery and chat system. Includes a multicast discovery system that locates other Litmus instances on the local network. It incorporates a chat system with usernames, emoji support, and a bridging functionality between subnets.
• Data integrity tests. The application allows using nine different data patterns for tests, including random sequences, alternating bits, and microwave stress patterns, which verifies the integrity of transmitted information.
• Network interface binding and automatic MTU detection. Offers the possibility to bind tests to a specific network interface. Includes automatic detection of the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) to optimize tests according to connection characteristics.
• Cross-platform application formats. Litmus is available as a desktop application for Windows via a standalone executable file that requires no additional runtime, and as a terminal application for Linux with an interactive user interface (TUI), headless mode, and JSON output for script integration.

Litmus is developed by Bob Popcorn. The program began its development in 2021 and is written primarily in the Rust programming language.

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