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WANemu: the link between two sites, with its faults turned on

Delay, jitter, loss and bandwidth shaping per link, profiles for satellite, mobile, long-haul and congested paths, one window with the generator and the device counters. Built for SD-WAN, VPN and site-to-site runs on CloudLAB and now in beta: book a demo on the bench or join the beta list.

A link with impairments Two units on the bench, WANemu between them
Site A SD-WAN edge, firewall Site B hub, DC, cloud VPN WANemu per link, per direction delay 250 ms jitter 30 ms loss 1 % bandwidth 50M Traffic generator app mix across the link throughputloss
  • 4impairments per link: delay, jitter, loss, bandwidth
  • 2directions, set apart
  • 1 windowwith the generator and the device console
  • Profilessatellite, LTE, long-haul, congested

What it does

Turns a lab cable into a real path

A device that passes every test on a clean 10G cable can still fail at 250 ms with 1 % loss. WANemu puts that path on the bench and keeps it the same for every run.

  1. 1

    Impairments per link

    delay, jitter, loss, bandwidth

    Fixed or distributed delay, jitter with a chosen shape, random and burst loss, a bandwidth cap with a queue. Each direction on its own

    Changed live, logged with the run

  2. 2

    Path profiles

    library

    Satellite, LTE and 5G, long-haul fibre, congested broadband, a cloud VPN hop. Take a profile or build one from your own link measurements

    Profile saved with the report

  3. 3

    One window

    with the generator

    The impairment, the traffic and the device counters on one timeline, so that a drop in throughput lines up with the moment loss went to 2 %

    Timeline exported with the report

Where it is used

The runs it was built for

Each row is a case the bench runs for operators, integrators and vendors; the impairment column is the usual starting point, the plan sets the exact values

CaseDeviceImpairmentWhat you learn
01SD-WAN path selection SD-WAN edge pair loss and jitter raised on one of two links how fast traffic moves to the good link and what the users felt meanwhile
02VPN throughput over distance firewall or VPN gateway delay from 20 to 300 ms, 0 to 1 % loss throughput per tunnel against delay, where TCP window and MTU settings bite
03Voice and video quality SBC, video gateway, edge jitter and burst loss on the access link MOS and freeze time against the impairment, when the codec or FEC gives up
04Backup and replication windows storage gateway, WAN optimiser bandwidth cap with a queue, long delay whether the nightly window still closes at the branch link rate
05Cloud VPN hop cloud VPN appliance as a VM the measured profile of your provider path the same numbers you will see in production, before the cutover

WANemu runs between any two units on the CloudLAB patching field, including your own device and a commercial generator

Status

Beta this autumn, on the bench today

WANemu runs customer sessions on CloudLAB next to a commercial emulator; the impairment it applies is measured with the generator before each run and listed in the report

Beta
customer runs on the bench since autumn 2026
Measured
the applied impairment is verified before each run
Nov 2026
public demo at DigiTec, Yerevan

A licence for your own lab follows the beta and is quoted with the plan

In the beta build
Delay and jitter per direction, fixed or distributed included Random and burst loss percent and burst length included Bandwidth cap with a queue, per direction included Path profiles satellite, LTE, long-haul, congested, cloud hop included One timeline impairment, traffic, device counters included

How to get it

Demo on the bench, then a seat, then a licence

The sequence is the same as for the generator

  1. 1

    Demo

    one session

    Your device pair in the rack or as VMs, the profile of your real path, a commercial emulator next to WANemu for the reference

    Report with both instruments

  2. 2

    Beta seat

    autumn 2026

    Early builds every few weeks, release notes, direct chat with the developers, your path profiles first in the library

    Within your bench plan on CloudLAB

  3. 3

    Licence

    after the beta

    WANemu in your own lab, updates included. The profiles from the bench come with it

    Quoted with the plan

How accurate is the applied delay and loss?

Before each run the generator measures the path through WANemu and the report lists the applied and the measured values side by side. On the bench a commercial emulator runs the same profile as the reference during the beta.

Can we replay the profile of our own link?

Yes. Delay, jitter and loss measured on your path, from a probe or from your monitoring, become a profile. The profile is saved with the report and reused on the next firmware.

Does it work with our device as a VM?

Yes. WANemu sits between any two units on the patching field, physical or virtual; a cloud VPN appliance uploaded to the lab hypervisor is a common case.

What rates does it handle?

The beta runs on the 1G and 10G links of the bench; higher rates are agreed per setup with a commercial emulator in the loop. The rate used is in the report.

What does a beta seat cost?

On CloudLAB it comes within the bench plan you book. A licence for your own lab is quoted after the beta.

Put your link on the bench

A demo session on CloudLAB with your device pair and the profile of your path. Device, path and dates in the form.

Demo and beta access

See the tool on your own traffic profile

Tell us which product you want to see and what you plan to run through it. An engineer replies within one business day with a slot or an invitation.

Prefer to chat? Message an engineer on WhatsApp

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