Max throughput NPE-400

[achampag]

Hi,

We have a 7204 with 2 Gig int cards. Only OSPF is enabled with NPE-400 CPU and 128 RAM config.

In the spec sheet it says NPE-400 scales up to 400kpps. What would be the max throughput one can acheive on those boxes. we are currently at 50Mbps and the box is at 15% CPU.

Thanks

[vcjones]

400,000 pps * 64 bytes/packet * 8 bits/byte = 204.8 Mbps

400,000 pps * 1500 bytes/packet * 8 bits/byte = 4.8 Gbps

You should consider these as upper bounds for worst case and best case respectively. I suspect that backplane bandwidth will be somewhere between these two extremes, but I'll let somebody else provide that number.

Good luck and have fun!

Vincent C Jones

www.networkingunlimited.com

[tbaranski]

Note that PPS tends to decrease substantially as packet size increases. For what it's worth, an NSE-1 was tested (not by me) with a Smartbits and it maxed out at around 380Mbit/sec with large packets under optimal conditions (CEF, no performance-reducing features such as ACLs, etc). My understanding is that the NSE-1 is essentially an NPE-300 with acceleration for certain features (e.g., ACLs).

[ctam]

The max bandwidth of the PA is 400Mbps because of the bandwidth limitaion of the PCI bus. The on-broad GE port on NPE-G1 is the exception.

[achampag]

Thanks for your replies.

Would 400Mbps/sec be a good estimate with variable packet size ?

That is what I came up with reading the documentation, but various articles on the Internet state that the performance is more around 200Mbps ??