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PANTHER Plugin System¤

Modular, extensible testing framework for network protocols

The PANTHER plugin system provides a flexible architecture for extending testing capabilities across different protocols, implementations, and environments. This modular design enables researchers and developers to add new testing scenarios, protocol implementations, and deployment environments without modifying the core framework.

Getting Started with Plugins

New to PANTHER plugin development? Start with the Plugin Development Guide and use the interactive plugin creation tools:

python -m panther --create-plugin service my_protocol
python -m panther --interactive-tutorials

Plugin Architecture¤

PANTHER uses a consistent plugin architecture across all plugin types:

plugins/
├── environments/         # Environment plugins
│   ├── execution_environment/
│   ├── network_environment/
│   └── tutorials/        # Environment plugin tutorials
├── protocols/            # Protocol plugins
│   ├── client_server/
│   ├── peer_to_peer/
│   └── tutorials/        # Protocol plugin tutorials
├── services/             # Service plugins
│   ├── iut/
│   ├── testers/
│   └── tutorials/        # Service plugin tutorials
├── plugin_creator.py     # Plugin creation utilities
├── plugin_interface.py   # Base plugin interface
├── plugin_loader.py      # Plugin loading utilities
└── plugin_manager.py     # Plugin lifecycle management

Plugin Hierarchy¤

PANTHER uses a hierarchical plugin system:

  1. Top-level Plugin Types:
  2. services: Implementations and testers
  3. environments: Network and execution environments

  4. protocols: Communication protocol implementations

  5. Subplugin Types:

  6. Under services: iut (Implementation Under Test) and testers
  7. Under environments: network_environment and execution_environment
  8. Under protocols: Specific protocol implementations (e.g., quic, http)

Plugin Management¤

The plugin system provides dynamic loading and lifecycle management:

Plugin Categories¤

PANTHER plugins are organized into three primary categories:

Services Plugins¤

Service plugins represent either implementations being tested or testing tools:

Category Purpose Examples
IUT (Implementation Under Test) Protocol implementations to evaluate picoquic, minip, HTTP servers
Testers Testing and validation tools ivy_tester, protocol conformance checkers

Documentation: Services Plugin Guide

Protocol Plugins¤

Protocol plugins provide testing logic and configuration for specific network protocols:

Category Purpose Examples
Client-Server Traditional client-server protocols HTTP, QUIC client-server testing
Peer-to-Peer Distributed/P2P protocols BitTorrent, DHT protocols

Documentation: Protocol Plugin Guide

Environment Plugins¤

Environment plugins manage where and how tests execute:

Category Purpose Examples
Execution Environment Performance monitoring and profiling gperf, strace, memcheck
Network Environment Network topology and deployment docker_compose, shadow_ns

Documentation: Environment Plugin Guide

Plugin Ecosystem Architecture¤

The PANTHER plugin ecosystem follows a layered architecture that enables flexible composition of testing scenarios:

graph TB subgraph "Experiment Layer" E[Experiment Configuration] end subgraph "Plugin Manager Layer" PM[Plugin Manager] PL[Plugin Loader] end subgraph "Environment Layer" EE[Execution Environment] NE[Network Environment] DC[Docker Compose] SS[Shadow Simulator] LC[Localhost Container] end subgraph "Service Layer" IUT[Implementation Under Test] TESTER[Tester Services] end subgraph "Protocol Layer" QUIC[QUIC Protocol] HTTP[HTTP Protocol] MINIP[MinIP Protocol] end subgraph "Implementation Layer" PQ[Picoquic] QC[Quiche] MV[mvfst] IVY[Panther Ivy] end E --> PM PM --> PL PL --> EE PL --> NE NE --> DC NE --> SS NE --> LC PM --> IUT PM --> TESTER IUT --> QUIC IUT --> HTTP IUT --> MINIP TESTER --> QUIC QUIC --> PQ QUIC --> QC QUIC --> MV TESTER --> IVY classDef environment fill:#e1f5fe classDef service fill:#f3e5f5 classDef protocol fill:#e8f5e8 classDef implementation fill:#fff3e0 class EE,NE,DC,SS,LC environment class IUT,TESTER service class QUIC,HTTP,MINIP protocol class PQ,QC,MV,IVY implementation

Plugin Interaction Workflow¤

The following diagram illustrates how plugins interact during experiment execution:

sequenceDiagram participant EM as Experiment Manager participant PM as Plugin Manager participant NE as Network Environment participant IUT as IUT Service participant TESTER as Tester Service participant PROTOCOL as Protocol Plugin EM->>PM: Load experiment configuration PM->>NE: Initialize network environment PM->>IUT: Load implementation plugin PM->>TESTER: Load tester plugin PM->>PROTOCOL: Configure protocol NE->>NE: Create network topology IUT->>PROTOCOL: Register protocol capabilities TESTER->>PROTOCOL: Register testing capabilities EM->>NE: Start environment EM->>IUT: Start implementation EM->>TESTER: Start tester TESTER->>IUT: Send test traffic IUT->>TESTER: Respond to tests PROTOCOL->>EM: Report protocol events EM->>TESTER: Stop tester EM->>IUT: Stop implementation EM->>NE: Stop environment EM->>PM: Generate results