PacketCalc2020.11 - App Store

A Calculator for Packets

“Ridding the world of uncalculated packets, one engineer at a time.”

PacketCalc answers questions like:

- What size payload does a 128 byte ethernet frame carry?

- My work VPN allows only 512 byte packets. How long will it take to upload a 5GB file over IPv4 + TCP (assuming a good connection)?

- Our new data center deployed a 100Gb/s IPv6 fabric with top of rack switch support for VXLAN (IPv6 VTEPs). Our fabric MTU is 9216 bytes, but BULK class of service is throttled to 70%. What's the maximum throughout we can achieve in BULK tagged IPv4 UDP packets sent over this fabric?

Features

- VXLAN, 802.1Q, IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP, plus custom protocols
- Custom Payload allows for simulation of traffic generator signatures
- All RFC2544 frame sizes, plus common Jumbo and Wifi sizes
- Frame Duration
- Percent Throughput, Overhead, Load, Duration
- Adjustable IFG, including easy selection of Standard and IEEE MIN (based on media speed)
- Adjustable MTU or Lock MTU to Size
- Percent Load adjustments in 1000ths of a percent of line rate
- Media Speed adjustments include all popular ethernet speeds
- Frame Rate in Frames per Second
- Export all internal values to Text, Soulver, and JSON using the standard iOS Share Sheet
- Tap any value in the UI for inline help on that item
- Double-tap a Tile to copy its value to the Clipboard
- Long-press a Tile to export its value as JSON, Soulver, or Raw
- Help Tab includes more extensive help
- iOS Dark and Light mode
- iPad Multi-Window (single instance)
- iPad SplitView and SlideOver
- iPad version runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs
- Keyboard shortcuts on iPad/Mac for easier navigation
- Honors iOS System Font Size
- Dynamic Font Size adjustment
- Intelligent display / concealment of Tiles based on selected protocols
- Written entirely in Swift and SwiftUI
- Made with Aloha on the Big Island of Hawai'i

Version History New in PacketCalc 2020.11(27)

Enhancements
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UI: iPad - Keyboard shortcuts on iPad allow for easy navigation between main sections. Press and hold Command to view the available shortcuts.

UI: Changed the Pickers in the Overview and Duration sections to use Form-based rather than Wheel-based.

CAPABILITY: You can now add custom Protocol Headers

CAPABILITY: You can now add a Custom Payload to simulate traffic generator signatures.

General: Fixed a couple references in the Help text to obsolete UI elements. 2020.11(27) 11/23/2020 New in PacketCalc 2020.8(45)

Enhancements
--------------
UI: Completely redesigned the interface for simpler navigation

UI: Double-tap any Tile or Slider to copy the raw value to the clipboard

UI: Long-press on any Tile or Slider to bring up a context menu to copy that individual Tile/Slider's value as Raw, JSON, or Soulver to the clipboard.

UI: Tap on a Tile's value for inline help for that Tile.

UI: Added several organizational sections (L1, L2, L1+L2, Duration, Overhead, Throughput, and Packet Overview)

UI: Added Payload (bytes) tile

UI: Added descriptive labels to Packet Size and MTU selections

CAPABILITY: Added 2.5G, 5G, and 200G speeds

CAPABILITY: Added several new Packet and MTU Sizes

CAPABILITY: Added a "Lock to Size" MTU option
Changed
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General: Under-the-hood changes for iOS 14

UI: Removed the Tabbed interface in favor of a less complex single-view app interface

IU: Decluttered the interface by removing icons/symbols related to packet parameters

UI: Removed disclosure chevrons (which revealed/hid controls) in favor of always showing controls for visible tiles

UI: Removed Show/Hide Tiles Tab (and functionality) in favor of intelligent auto-tile-selection based on the current packet 2020.8(45) 10/29/2020 New in PacketCalc 2020.7(3)

Enhancement
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On iPad, added basic pointer effects, including:
- Tile and Slider opacity change on pointer hover
- Scale disclosure chevrons slightly on pointer hover

Changed
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Changed the iOS deployment target to 13.4 in order to add pointer onHover() support. This requires that your iPad be updated to 13.4. 2020.7(3) 04/04/2020 New in PacketCalc 2020.6(16)

Fixed
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Disclosure chevron response to taps is more reliable.

Fixed
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The ETH II, LLC, and 802.11 buttons disappeared under specific circumstances.

Accessibility
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In response to requests for larger text sizes for the Headers, Sizes, Speeds, MTU, and IFG selector controls, these are now changed to use Button() rather than Segmented Control Picker(), since Button() allows for resizing text (and other stylings).

Enhancement
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To gain vertical real-estate, added a Button at the bottom of the Headers, Sizes and Speeds tabs to Show / Hide the lower controls.

Enhancement
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Header selector buttons are now colored to match their corresponding tiles.

Enhancement
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To mitigate the disorienting "jumping" effect when protocol Headers are selected and deselected, Tile ordering is changed such that non-protocol Tiles are at the top of the ScrollView. The order is now Calculator Tiles, followed by Parameter Tiles, L1/L2 Tiles, and finally protocol Header Tiles.

Enhancement
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Added a Calculator Tile group in the Show/Hide Tab

Other
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- Tweaked colors (again)
- Tiles are slightly taller
- Removed Share button Icon
- Changed Slider button shape to circular 2020.6(16) 03/08/2020 New in PacketCalc 2020.5(4)

This release improves handling of Tile Groups, which were introduced in version 2020.4(15).

Fixed
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The L1/L2 Tile Group indicated it was partially enabled, even when all L1/L2 Tiles were enabled

Fixed
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Intermittently, on restarting PacketCalc, tapping a disabled Tile Group had no effect.

Fixed
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When upgrading PacketCalc, renamed internal Tile and Tile Group resources were not properly cleaned up. 2020.5(4) 02/17/2020 New in PacketCalc 2020.4(15)
Enhancement
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Basic Multi-Window support on iPad, enabling multiple instances of PacketCalc to run.

When running multiple PacketCalc instances, the Hide/Show Tile state when starting a new instance will be that of the last change made by any instance.
Enhancement
--------------
The Copy button is now a Share button which brings up the standard iOS Share Sheet which includes the previous Copy to Clipboard functionality, but also adds sharing directly with Messages, Mail, AirDrop, etc.
Enhancement
--------------
The Headers Display at the top of the app now dynamically resizes with byte-accurate proportional header widths.
Enhancement
--------------
The Headers Display at the top of the app serves double-duty to display warnings.
Enhancement
--------------
Tapping the Headers Display at the top of the app transitions it to full-screen. Tap again to dismiss it.
Enhancement
--------------
Added buttons in the Show / Hide tab to select and de-select groups of tiles (e.g. all L3 tiles).
Enhancement
--------------
Tapping the warning at the top of the app when MTU or packet size is invalid now provides the means to fix these errors directly by adding the appropriate controls to the inline help.
Behavioral Change
-------------------
Informational RFC7348 states (section 6.1):

"On the encapsulation side, a VTEP SHOULD NOT include an
inner VLAN tag on tunnel packets unless configured
otherwise. When a VLAN-tagged packet is a candidate
for VXLAN tunneling, the encapsulating VTEP SHOULD
strip the VLAN tag unless configured otherwise."

To accommodate the phrase "unless configured otherwise," PacketCalc now supports adding an 802.1Q header to either inner or outer (or both) ethernet frames with the addition of a second Picker labeled VLAN_O (VLAN outer). This Picker is displayed only when IPv4 or IPv6 VTEP is selected.

We trust our users to calculate wisely.
Behavioral Change
-------------------
FPS and BPS Tile labels have been changed to Frame Rate and Bit Rate respectively.

These are now followed by the current unit of measurement, since their values are now scaled to be more quickly discerned.

Both Frame Rate and Bit Rate are still exported as unscaled values, and are displayed in inline help as unscaled values.
Fixed
--------------
Total VXLAN header length included (IPv4 + UDP) or (IPv6 + UDP), but omitted VXLAN header.
Other Changes
---------------
Tile Icons match the icons in the Headers Display. Outer Headers use filled circle versions of Inner Headers Icons.

Enabled hiding the Toggle L1/L2 Tile.

Renamed the "802.1Q" header label to "VLAN".

Renamed DATA Tiles to Payload.

Added Tiles for Inner/Outer Ethernet, VLAN, outer IPv4, IPv4 Options, IPv6, IPv6 Extension Headers, VxLAN, and FCS.

Added a unit_test_headers_0 key/value to the values exported by PacketCalc. The value should always equal zero when pasted into Soulver.

Updated Help text in several places to align with changes to PacketCalcf

Added a link to PacketCalc in the App Store (Help Tab -> About). Leaving a review would be appreciated! 2020.4(15) 02/09/2020 New in Version 2020.3(2)

Enhancement: PacketCalc received a paint job and some wintertime Spring cleaning!

- In Light Mode, black borders are replaced with white borders. If you're a fan of black borders, they're still there in Dark Mode.

- Tile, Slider, and Button colors have been tweaked in both Light and Dark Modes

Enhancement: Eight new Tiles!

- PacketCalc gets new Tiles for IPv4, IPv6, IPv4 Options, IPv6 Extension Headers, UDP, TCP, TCP Options, and BPS (bits per second)

- If you are upgrading from a previous version of PacketCalc, these Tiles will be hidden initially. Enable them in the Show / Hide Tiles Tab
- The IPv4 and IPv4 Options Tiles are hidden, even if enabled, unless IPv4 is selected in the Headers Tab
- Likewise for the IPv6 and IPv6 Extension Headers Tiles
- The UDP Tile is hidden, even if enabled, unless UDP is selected in the Headers Tab
- The TCP and TCP Options Tiles are hidden, even if enabled, unless TCP is selected in the Headers Tab

Enhancement: Show / Hide Tile has been tweaked to make Tile selection status more obvious

Enhancement: PacketCalc now exports more internal values. The following have been added:

bytes_dot1q
bytes_ipv4
bytes_ipv4_options
bytes_ipv6
bytes_ipv6_extension_headers
bytes_udp
bytes_tcp,
bytes_tcp_options
bytes_vxlan 2020.3(2) 01/27/2020 Fix: L1 values were not copied to the clipboard unless Toggle L1/L2 had been tapped prior to tapping Copy.
Fix: Several places in the Help text referred to an older version of the App. Updated to match the current UI.

Enhancement: Added an "Exported As" section to the Help page for all exported values. This section contains the key associated with each exported value. Hopefully this clarifies which values displayed in PacketCalc correspond to each of the exported values. 2020.1 01/21/2020 2020.2 01/20/2020