Tulip uses several transport protocols to send/receive packets towards tested network.

The transport properties are defined in the configuration file (<ENVIRONMENT> anchor):

 - The <LOCAL> anchor allows specifying the IP/port used for communication. If the MIN_PORT/MAX_PORT attributes are used, the traffic agents will choose their own port within the specified interval (used only in client transport mode).

- The <REMOTE> anchor contains the FQDN/port of the remote peer. By default, the first declaration is used.

- The <TEST> anchor triggers test mode: the input pipeline is altered so that the packets sent to the test pipeline are redirected towards test traffic agents (AGENT_TEST in configuration file). The OUTPUT attribute is used to redirect standard output towards a file.

The <TRANSPORT> anchor contains the following attributes:

- MODE attribute: if equal to MONO, the same port will be used during the test, and is shared between all agents. If equal to MULTI, each agent uses a specific port.

- ROLE attribute: tulip supports two configurations at transport layer level. If the selected role is CLIENT, tulip will connect to a distant server (ex, TCP server). If selected role is server, tulip will accept connexions from one or more distant clients: no packet will be sent before a connexion was accepted from the client.

- PROTOCOL attribute: specify the transport protocol used by the application. It may be equal to UDP (full UDP), TCP (full TCP), UDP_TCP or TCP_ UDP (UDP + switch to TCP from a given packet size), SCTP (full SCTP).

- RECONNECT attribute: if equal to YES, the application will try to reconnect several times to the distant peer if the connection is lost (only for connected transport protocol).