Methods / L4 / ICMP
L4 · NetworkVolumetricICMPBandwidthSpoofable

ICMP stress test

Saturates your inbound pipe with a high-rate ping flood so you can confirm upstream bandwidth and ICMP rate limits hold under load.

Run ICMP test → All methods
600k pps
peak packet rate

How it works

This method emits a continuous stream of small 32-byte ICMP echo request packets toward the target, with source addresses drawn from a wide range to mimic distributed traffic. The goal is raw link saturation: enough echo requests to fill the inbound pipe before they ever reach the application. It validates whether your edge can rate-limit or drop ICMP at line rate and whether upstream scrubbing kicks in before customer-facing bandwidth is exhausted.

Parameters

pps600k ppsPackets per second; drives the headline saturation rate.
payload0-1472 bytesICMP payload size per packet, trading PPS for bits per second.
duration10-600 sHow long the flood runs against your endpoint.
sourcessingle or distributedSource distribution to emulate single-origin or spread traffic.

Run it from the CLI

retro-cli
$ retro run icmp --target 203.0.113.45 --port 443 --duration 120

ICMP FAQ

Is ICMP testing legal?+
Only against infrastructure you own or are authorized to test. RETRO//STRESS requires authorized targets.
What does ICMP stress?+
Saturates your inbound pipe with a high-rate ping flood so you can confirm upstream bandwidth and ICMP rate limits hold under load.
Can I combine it with other methods?+
Yes, add it as a step in a packet chain to sequence it with other protocols.