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Date:      Mon, 29 Mar 1999 18:27:03 -0500
From:      Craig Metz <cmetz@inner.net>
To:        alk@pobox.com
Cc:        freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD as a router 
Message-ID:  <199903292322.XAA11026@inner.net>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:34:58 CST." <14079.61724.162248.667212@avalon.east> 

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In message <14079.61724.162248.667212@avalon.east>, you write:
>Since the discussion is occurring at this level, it is probably
>helpful to note that the *size* of the packets also plays a large role
>in determining maximum routing throughput: The box has to do a lot
>more routing for 512B packets than it does for 1024B packets at the
>same bandwidth.

  The box doesn't have to do "more routing" for a 512B packet than a 1024B
packet, but, if you're filling the same number of bits/second, there are twice
as many packets to move for 512B packets than for 1024B packets. (I believe
this is what you meant, I just wanted to make sure people didn't get the wrong
interpretation) Most router benchmarks like to talk about PPS as opposed to
bits/second, and this is why -- most of the routing overhead is per-packet, not
per-byte.

>I'm guessing that a thorough search would show up some clock
>vs. packet-size vs. bandwidth limit graphs for FreeBSD, Linux,
>various commerical routers.

  I'd love to see well-done test data to substantiate or refute this sort of
discussion; people know what the good and bad properties of the hardware and
the software are and can take reasonably good guesses, but they're still just
guesses and not measured performance numbers. I know that there is data out
there, but I don't know how good it is.

									-Craig




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