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Date:      Thu, 01 Apr 1999 18:36:22 GMT
From:      jbg@masterplan.org (Jason George)
To:        freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: IPFW performance impact?
Message-ID:  <199904011836.LAA01347@gongshow.masterplan.org>

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>
>> Right now, i've got close to 2MB out, and 1MB in, with two fxp0 cards,
>> and a pretty heavy ruleset (40 rules, that most packets have to pass
>> through all of them).
>> 
>> last pid: 26211;  load averages:  0.00,  0.00,  0.00
>> 13 processes:  1 running, 12 sleeping
>> CPU states:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% system,  6.6% interrupt, 93.4% idle
>> 
>> 
>> This is on a P/200.
>
>How much traffic do you have going through at the time you posted this?
>This data would be more meaningful if, say, you we're doing an FTP or dump
>to a machine just on the other side, so you had lots of traffic.  If it's
>idle, then it doesn't really matter how many rules or how much you've
>got--it'd be as idle on a 386-16.
>


Exactly.  I have a 386-16 routing a 2Mbit SDSL line, a 386-25 routing 
a 10Mbit cable modem and a 386-33 routing a 1.5M/640k RADSL line line. 
 Each has ~20 rules.  I can easily sustain the maximum throughput on 
the WAN connections with an acceptable CPU impact, even running 
address translation.

Running NAT on the SDSL line, full WAN saturation occurs at the 
expense of about 50% CPU utilization on the 386-16.

Being a glutton for punishment, I run sendmail, qpopper, INN and 
samba.  Nominal throughput on the cable modem system is about 640k, 
and the 386-25 does a bang-up job.

For edge routers providing point-to-point connections, a low-end PC is 
fine.  Multiple (>2) interface systems with complex routing and 
heavier traffic and firewall rule-matching patterns will really begin 
to tax low-end hardware. 

--Jason
j.b.george<at>ieee.org
jbg<at>masterplan.org


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