Traffic Forwarder

A high-performance TCP traffic forwarding service implemented in Go, designed for efficient network traffic routing between local and remote endpoints.

Overview

Traffic Forwarder is a robust, memory-optimized TCP proxy that forwards traffic from local sockets to remote sockets with minimal latency and resource consumption. Built with Go 1.21+, it leverages zero-copy techniques and advanced connection management for optimal performance in production environments.

Key Features

• High-Performance Forwarding: Zero-copy data transmission for maximum throughput
• Memory Optimization: Connection pooling, buffer reuse, and timeout management
• Resource Management: Automatic connection cleanup and graceful shutdown
• Configurable: Customizable connection timeouts, connection limits, and routing rules
• Observability: Comprehensive logging and performance metrics

Architecture

Connection Management

• Connection pool management with configurable limits
• Automatic cleanup of disconnected sessions
• Thread-safe connection handling with sync.WaitGroup

Buffer Optimization

• Fixed-size buffer allocation (32KB) to minimize memory overhead
• Buffer reuse mechanisms to reduce garbage collection pressure
• Efficient memory utilization patterns

Timeout Control

• Configurable read/write timeouts for all connections
• Automatic cleanup of stale connections
• Resource protection against long-running operations

Context Management

• context.Context integration for lifecycle control
• Graceful shutdown capabilities
• Goroutine leak prevention

Requirements

• Go 1.21 or later
• Linux, macOS, or Windows
• Network access to target endpoints

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/amazingchow/traffic-forwarder.git
cd traffic-forwarder
make build

Quick Start

Basic Usage

1. Start the service:

   make start

2. Stop the service:

   make stop

3. View logs:

   tail -f -n50 nohup.out

Optimized Build

For production deployments with enhanced memory management:

make build memory_optimized=1

Configuration

Command Line Options

./traffic-forwarder [options]

Options:
  -conf string
        Configuration file path (default: "./etc/traffic-forwarder.conf")
  -timeout duration
        Connection timeout (default: 30s)
  -max-conns int
        Maximum concurrent connections per port (default: 1000)

Configuration File Format

The configuration file uses a simple pipe-delimited format:

# Format: local_port | remote_host | remote_port
18080 | 127.0.0.1 | 8080
18081 | 192.168.1.100 | 3306

Performance Monitoring

Memory Optimization Guidelines

1. Connection Limits: Adjust -max-conns based on available system resources
2. Timeout Configuration: Set appropriate timeouts for your network environment
3. Memory Profiling: Use go tool pprof for memory usage analysis
4. Service Rotation: Implement periodic service restarts in production

Monitoring Metrics

• Connection count and status
• Memory usage patterns
• Throughput and latency metrics
• Error rates and failure modes

Production Considerations

• Use reverse proxy (nginx, haproxy) for load balancing
• Implement health checks and monitoring
• Configure appropriate resource limits
• Set up log aggregation and alerting