On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:52:13 -0600 <dan-linuxbridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I have been running benchmarks to compare the performance of bridging to > routing on the same hardware. > > The bridge/router system is a dual Opteron 246 (2.0Ghz); Tyan 2882 > motherboard; 2 GB PC3200 memory (1 GB in each CPU's bank; 128bit > configuration); dual e1000 based NIC; PCI-X 133Mhz; 2.6.9 Kernel; NAPI > enabled in the kernel and the NIC drivers; CPU affinity ties each eth to a > specific CPU; system otherwise idle. > > My test configuration is: > > Packet Generator System <--> Bridge/Router <--> Packet Recipient > > The network and hosts are otherwise idle. > > Using pktgen (the Linux packet generator) I can send 459,000pps through this > hardware when it is configured as a router. I only get 252,000pps through > the hardware when configured as a bridge. > > Needless to say, I use two IP subnets when routing, and a single subnet > while bridging. Also, when routing I set the mac addr destination for > pktgen to the router interface (otherwise it won't pick up the packets), > whereas when bridging I set it to the recipient's mac address. > > Any ideas why the performance of the bridge is so bad? No, but perhaps oprofile would help. -- Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@xxxxxxxx>
