[nsp] 7206vxr pps & mbit/s limits

[Cisco List]

Jon, I don't have an NPE 300 handy to test but the performance should be
nearly the same as the NSE-1 that I tested recently.  As another poster
mentioned, the NSE-1 is essentially a NPE-300 with acceleration for
certain edge features and stuff like ACLs.

This test was part of some basic baseline performance testing we were
doing and was done using a Spirent Smartbits 6000.  The test was run
with the Smartbits connecting via GigE to a Gig PA on the 7200 and then
back out of the 7200 on another Gig PA into another port on the
Smartbits.  The test was run using straight IP with a single source and
destination IP/MAC with no routing protocols etc. running.  No ACLs were
in place either but CEF was turned on. This was a uni-directional test
so the stream was only going in one port on the router and back out
another port.  Pretty basic test so it should run reasonably well.  As
you can see we got a little better than 110mb with 64 byte packets.  We
never hit line rate (which we didn't expect anyway) and maxed out at
380mb with 1024 byte packets.  Interestingly enough the throughput
dropped from there down to 360mb.  In past testing on various routers
and switches we'll usually see throughput increase as packet size goes
up which is what we would normally expect.

                                                               
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------		
					Throughput Test			
			Test duration (sec): 60
Number of pairs:	1
			Minimum frame size (byte): 64
Initial rate (%):	100.00
			Maximum frame size (byte): 1518		Maximum
rate (%):	100.00
			Step frame size (byte):	Custom
Resolution rate (%):	1.00
** Measured on one receiving card only				Mode:
Uni-directional
Frame Size	Passed Rate(%)	(pks/sec)	Total

						
64		11.76			175070	175070

128		20.50			173130	173130

256		33.74			152812	152812

512		37.46			88028		88028

1024		38.10			45620		45620

1280		36.85			35431		35431

1518		36.88			29976		29976

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------


Good luck,
Chad


------------------------
Chad Skidmore
One Eighty Networks
http://www.go180.net
509-688-8180 

-----Original Message-----
From: jlewis at lewis.org [mailto:jlewis at lewis.org]
Posted At: Monday, October 27, 2003 4:33 PM
Posted To: Cisco List
Conversation: [nsp] 7206vxr pps & mbit/s limits
Subject: [nsp] 7206vxr pps & mbit/s limits


I see there was a similar thread about a year ago...but now I'm
wondering what I should reasonably expect from a 7206vxr NPE300.  I've
got one routing betweeen several FE's, doing OSPF, BGP, ISL, some ACL's,
policy routing to block nachi pings.  CPU load is pretty constant around
50% except for the bgp scanner spikes. 

We recently moved a FE transit connection to it, and that seems to have
pushed it over (or at least a lot closer to) the edge.  If I add up all
the 30s avg bps/pps, I get (at this moment) 125mbit/s and 37kpps.  When
we moved that busy transit FE onto this router, we immediately started
getting fairly constant underrun errors on the interface and output
drops. 
I was able to considerably reduce the output drops by increasing the
hold-queue, and this may have even reduced the frequency of underruns,
but we still get them regularly.

Previously, this transit FE was on a 7500 (RSP4, VIP2-50s) that seemed
perfectly happy with the traffic.

Is upgrading to a faster NPE (NPE400?) going to make much difference, or
would we have to go to NSE1 or NPEG1 to see much improvement?  I'm
wondering if we ought to just go with another 7500...perhaps the
distributed architecture really does beat the 7206 and its single
processor.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jon Lewis *jlewis at lewis.org*|  I route
 Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
 Atlantic Net                | 
_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________

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