Measuring TCP Stack execution time
 

Hello everyone :),
I'm a novice linux guy and would really appreciate any help on a problem I'm facing. I searched the list for something similar to the issue I'll mention, but could'nt find an exact remedy.

The Problem: I need to measure how much delay does the TCP stack induce in a networking application.

In more detail: consider that I have a small C program using sockets to connect to a remote machine. Now I need to measure how much time does it take for the application packets to pass through the TCP stack and to the card. This will allow me to decompose performance delay into, application delay, stack delay and on-the-wire delay.

I think one possible solution could be compiling the entire network module with gprof and then running the kernel with this stack. Using gmon.out I could perhaps get stats regarding what functions in the stack are taking how much 'relative' time .. but doing this would slow down the actual stack, because of inserted profiling statements.

Can someone please point me to a more simple solution/project that addresses this issue? As I already mentioned, I'm no linux guru, so please excuse any technical detail I may have mucked up in this post.

Thanks,
-A