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Date:      Tue, 5 Aug 2003 14:01:32 -0700 (PDT)
From:      John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com>
To:        net@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: bpf, ipfw and before-and-after
Message-ID:  <200308052101.h75L1WR1006787@strings.polstra.com>
In-Reply-To: <01ca01c35b86$83c75590$812a40c1@PETEX31>
References:  <20030805133922.GA7713@k7.mavetju> <200308051817.h75IH7jb006622@strings.polstra.com> <01ca01c35b86$83c75590$812a40c1@PETEX31>

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In article <01ca01c35b86$83c75590$812a40c1@PETEX31>,
Petri Helenius <pete@he.iki.fi> wrote:
> >
> > This would add additional delays to the code path for both ingress
> > and egress.  In a world where gigabit ethernet is becoming the norm,
> > every nanosecond counts.  I don't think the benefits of your proposal
> > would justify the performance loss.  At the very least, I'd want the
> > extra calls to bpf_mtap to be present in the code only if enabled by
> > an option in the kernel config file.
> >
> bpf is slow by design because the design mandates a packet copy.
> 
> Itīs not a justification to make it slower but gigabit performance out of bpf
> is just not there until memory speeds increase a lot or the copying goes away.

My point is that the extra calls to bpf_mtap would harm performance
even when bpf wasn't being used.

John
-- 
  John Polstra
  John D. Polstra & Co., Inc.                        Seattle, Washington USA
  "Two buttocks cannot avoid friction."                     -- Malawi saying



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