Broadcast and multicast counters

[djhurley]

Hi, we have a C6509 and a query about some of the interface counters - ouput below

5 minute input rate 67782000 bits/sec, 20224 packets/sec

5 minute output rate 6882000 bits/sec, 5776 packets/sec

L2 Switched: ucast: 1 pkt, 114 bytes - mcast: 64 pkt, 4498 bytes

L3 in Switched: ucast: 0 pkt, 0 bytes - mcast: 251526 pkt, 100628222 bytes mcast

L3 out Switched: ucast: 116260 pkt, 15704855 bytes mcast: 0 pkt, 0 bytes

309491 packets input, 121612961 bytes, 0 no buffer

Received 309489 broadcasts (643518 IP multicasts)

0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles

0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored

0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input

0 input packets with dribble condition detected

77138 packets output, 11294453 bytes, 0 underruns

As you can see the L3 out switched packets are 116260 packets

Whereas the ouput packets counter is only 77138 packets.

Can anyone tell me why these should be different, I know the L3 switched, is the h/w switched packets, but not sure what then the ouput packets is actually counting.

This is also the same for the input packets

Regards

Dave

[hadbou]

packets input/output in the Cisco IOS sh interfaces counter command gives the total error free packets received and transmitted on the interface. Monitoring these counters for increments is useful to determine whether traffic flows properly through the interface. The bytes counter includes both the data and MAC encapsulation in the error free packets received and transmitted by the system.