[c-nsp] Your opinions on router throughput

[Chris Cappuccio]

Gert Doering [gert at greenie.muc.de] wrote:

> Regarding the original question: a NPE-300 should handle 45 Mbit of load
> just fine, *even* if it's all small packets - the "routerperformance.pdf"
> file claims 180 Mbit throughput with 64 byte packets for the NPE-300,
> and those numbers tend to be fairly realistic.
> 

I've tested this on a smartbits analyzer, and yes, although it might be able
to pass those packets, the CLI and routing processes will be pretty much
unusable on an NPE-300 somewhere between 40 and 60Mbps of 64 byte packets.  

I don't think 180Mbps of 64 byte packets is realistic in any way.  Livelock
happens somewere betwen 40-60 Mbps at 64 bytes and 0 other features turned on.
I can't remember if it was dropping packets at 100Mbps/64 bytes, but when you
reach livelock, the NPE is basically useless for doing anything but static
routing.

-- 
A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the
power off and on.  Knight, seeing what the student was doing,
spoke sternly: "You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling
it with no understanding of what is going wrong."  Knight turned
the machine off and on.  The machine worked.
-- Danny Hillis