[c-nsp] Re: 2600 load balancing

[Łukasz Bromirski]

Bryan Fetzer wrote:
> Alban/Cisco-NSP crew, 
> Is there a noticeable performance hit if using MLP vs load balancing via
> a routing protocol? Ie is one or the other better from a pure
> performance standpoint? 

First of all, MLP will add PPP overhead, so there may be decrease in
performance, if You're counting every bit per second. And Your ISP
has to support it.

Second, MLP can be fast or process switched in Your particular
setup (IOS/hardware/network modules/interface configurations), so
using pure CEF load-balancing will propably have greater chance of
working optimally (performance and router load).

And last but not least, MLP can be used to do QoS priority scheduling
for applications that require specific time guarantees, like voice.
With CEF doing load-balancing over equal-metric routes, You'll have
to work out per-interface queueing schemes.

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