an integrated circuit includes a first port configured to receive packets and a packet definition . the packets are transmitted from a network to the integrated circuit . one of the packet definition is transmitted from a central processing unit of a host to the integrated circuit and the packets include the packet definition . the packet definition identifies characteristics of a packet . a forwarding engine is configured to receive the packets from the first port and forward the packets to a second port . a packet generator is configured to receive the packet definition and originate a test packet according to the packet definition . a medium access controller is configured to test the network by transmitting the test packet to the network .