[c-nsp] Cisco 3640 Maximum performance

[Terry Baranski]

> Actually, you should get a lot more than 70-90Mbit/s out 
> of the platform.
> 
> Let's assume a forwarding rate with 50.000 packets per 
> seconds and packets of 1000 BYTES, That gives 50.000.000 
> BYTES/Second = 50 MBYTE / Second = +- 500 Mbits / Second.
> 
> The actual performance can be higher or lower, depending 
> on software/hardware features used.

Cisco's PPS ratings are based on 64-byte packets, and PPS tends to
decrease as packet size increases.  So you can forget about
50MBytes/sec.

Someone on this list ran TTCP through a 3640 a while back and got 80Mbps
(full-size packets).  This pretty much represents the theoretical
maximum.  Throughput will decrease as 1) average packet size decreases,
and 2) performance-reducing features are turned on (e.g., ACLs, NAT, and
so forth).  

-Terry