HiPerConTracer 3.0: Transport-level Packet Routing Analysis Tool
Thomas Dreibholz, Somnath Mazumdar · 2025
Network-based applications rely on the underlying network infrastructure to reliably forward packets between nodes. The way packets are forwarded has a significant impact on service quality. Therefore, it is important to gain a better understanding of data packet routes. To obtain detailed information about network paths, continuous and long-term packet analysis is required. To achieve this, we present our open-source framework HiPerConTracer 3.0 for large-scale IP trace analysis. It performs Ping and Traceroute measurements to provide detailed insights into packet routes and packet timing by tracing routes between senders and receivers in public and private networks. Particularly, it runs its own measurements, without need to obtain data, or cooperation from, the underlying network service providers or remote server owners. Our tool supports large-scale data collection, storage, and post-processing stages. It supports easy-to-understand route visualization, round-trip time measurements, and hop counts. A proof-of-concept analysis revealed that packet route lengths can change drastically when traveling through unexpected countries, regions, and network operators.