What type of testing can the iperf command perform?

The iperf command is specifically designed for throughput testing, which involves measuring the amount of data that can be transferred across a network over a specified time interval. This tool can set up a server and a client to test the bandwidth between them, providing valuable metrics on the network's performance under various conditions.

By generating TCP or UDP traffic, iperf can assess the maximum capacity of the network link, which is essential for identifying bottlenecks or limitations in speed. The results can include throughput in bits per second and can help network engineers optimize their configurations or troubleshoot issues.

While the other options relate to networking, they do not define the primary function of iperf. Unlike packet sniffing, which captures introspective data from the network, or end-to-end latency measurement, which focuses on the time it takes for a signal to travel from source to destination, iperf is not designed for these purposes. Network path discovery, on the other hand, involves discovering the pathway that packets take through a network, which is also outside the scope of iperf’s functionality.