C# method for very fast and efficient traceroute (network diagnostic tool)

We like C#, .NET and .NET Core!

Last time we played a little bit with traceroute utility and thought, could we write something fast, efficient, and since we love Asynchronous Programming with async and await (C#), something that would include this pattern as well?

Here is what we came up with :)

using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Diagnostics.Contracts; using System.IO; using System.Net.NetworkInformation; using System.Text; using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace AppBeat.Core.Utility { public class TraceRoute { private const string DATA = “AppBeat Monitoring - https://appbeat.io - AppBeat Monitoring”; //60 Bytes private static readonly byte[] _buffer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(DATA); private const int MAX_HOPS = 15; private const string STR_REQUEST_TIMEOUT = “Request timed out.”; private const string STR_REQUEST_TIME_NA = “*”; private const int REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 4000;

    /// <summary>
    /// Runs traceroute and writes result to console.
    /// </summary>
    public static async Task TryTraceRouteAsync(string hostNameOrAddress)
    {
        EnsureCommonArguments(hostNameOrAddress);
        Contract.EndContractBlock();

        using (var console = Console.OpenStandardOutput())
        using (var sw = new StreamWriter(console))
        {
            await TryTraceRouteAsync(hostNameOrAddress, sw);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Runs traceroute and writes result to provided stream.
    /// </summary>
    public static async Task TryTraceRouteAsync(string hostNameOrAddress, StreamWriter outputStreamWriter)
    {
        EnsureCommonArguments(hostNameOrAddress);
        if (outputStreamWriter == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(outputStreamWriter));
        }
        Contract.EndContractBlock();

        await outputStreamWriter.WriteLineAsync($"traceroute to {hostNameOrAddress}, {MAX_HOPS} hops max, {_buffer.Length} byte packets");

        //dispatch parallel tasks for each hop
        var arrTraceRouteTasks = new Task<TraceRouteResult>[MAX_HOPS];
        for (int zeroBasedHop = 0; zeroBasedHop < MAX_HOPS; zeroBasedHop++)
        {
            arrTraceRouteTasks[zeroBasedHop] = TryTraceRouteInternalAsync(hostNameOrAddress, zeroBasedHop);
        }

        //and wait for them to finish
        await Task.WhenAll(arrTraceRouteTasks);

        //now just collect all results and write them to output stream
        for (int hop = 0; hop < MAX_HOPS; hop++)
        {
            var traceTask = arrTraceRouteTasks[hop];
            if (traceTask.Status == TaskStatus.RanToCompletion)
            {
                var res = traceTask.Result;
                await outputStreamWriter.WriteLineAsync(res.Message);

                if (res.IsComplete)
                {
                    //trace complete
                    break;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                await outputStreamWriter.WriteLineAsync($"Could not get result for hop #{hop + 1}");
            }
        }
    }

    private static void EnsureCommonArguments(string hostNameOrAddress)
    {
        if (hostNameOrAddress == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(hostNameOrAddress));
        }

        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(hostNameOrAddress))
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Hostname or address is required", nameof(hostNameOrAddress));
        }
    }

    public class TraceRouteResult
    {
        public TraceRouteResult(string message, bool isComplete)
        {
            Message = message;
            IsComplete = isComplete;
        }

        public string Message
        {
            get; private set;
        }

        public bool IsComplete
        {
            get;private set;
        }
    }

    public static async Task<TraceRouteResult> TryTraceRouteInternalAsync(string hostNameOrAddress, int zeroBasedHop)
    {
        using (Ping pingSender = new Ping())
        {
            var hop = zeroBasedHop + 1;

            PingOptions pingOptions = new PingOptions();
            Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch();
            pingOptions.DontFragment = true;
            pingOptions.Ttl = hop;

            stopWatch.Start();

            PingReply pingReply = await pingSender.SendPingAsync(
                hostNameOrAddress,
                REQUEST_TIMEOUT,
                _buffer,
                pingOptions
            );

            stopWatch.Stop();

            var elapsedMilliseconds = stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds;

            string pingReplyAddress;
            string strElapsedMilliseconds;

            if (pingReply.Status == IPStatus.TimedOut)
            {
                pingReplyAddress = STR_REQUEST_TIMEOUT;
                strElapsedMilliseconds = STR_REQUEST_TIME_NA;
            }
            else
            {
                pingReplyAddress = pingReply.Address.ToString();
                strElapsedMilliseconds = $"{elapsedMilliseconds.ToString(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)} ms";
            }

            var traceResults = new StringBuilder();
            traceResults.Append(hop.ToString(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).PadRight(4, ' '));
            traceResults.Append(strElapsedMilliseconds.PadRight(10, ' '));
            traceResults.Append(pingReplyAddress);

            return new TraceRouteResult(traceResults.ToString(), pingReply.Status == IPStatus.Success);
        }
    }
}

}

Method above basically dispatches 15 parallel (asynchronous) tasks and waits for their result. For this reason it is really fast compared to standard implementation, which would do only one step at a time, and wait for each step (15 times in a row).

Hopefully you will find this useful :)