1. A method for altering communication protocol performance, the method comprising: collecting computing platform data and environment information related to a parallel processing system, the parallel processing system comprising a plurality of nodes communicating using a communication fabric; specifying a series of tuning rules; passing the computing platform data, the environment information and the tuning rules to a tuning unit; analyzing a simulation of said communication protocol performance by a test kernel using the tuning unit, wherein analyzing the simulation by the test kernel using the tuning unit comprises selecting initial settings for the input parameters, executing the test kernel on a computing platform, and measuring output parameters; wherein said simulation is according to said environment information, said computing platform data and said tuning rules; generating a tuned parameter file from the analysis of the test kernel; and using the tuned parameter file to select input parameters for use with the communication protocol.