[c-nsp] IP SLAs - throughput measurement

[Jee Kay]

On 18/12/06, Adam Greene <maillist at webjogger.net> wrote:
> I could connect gigabit PC's to both switches and run something like iPerf (which does report delay in increments of µs and smaller), but so far my duo-core 2.8GHz / 1GB RAM PC's have only been able to push 440Mbps max even when directly connected to one another via cat5e.
>
> That's why I was hoping I could test something directly from switch to switch.

My usual method of this is mgen and L3 on the switches.

Basically, bring up L3 on the switches and set the default routes
(assuming they're not already doing L3.. otherwise chose some
192.0.2/24 address space) to point at each other. This nicely
multiplies your traffic load by ~255 (assuming default TTLs).

Then point mgen (or iperf if you like) at the switch L3 and watch the
error counters :) If they're all zero (no overruns, no drops) then
you're good.

Ras