Performance very simple example versus full blown router

[Brecht Vermeulen]

Hi,

I'm busy with doing some measurements about a default Linux router and a
Click router (I will provide the results later on, they can be interesting
for e.g. performance improvements), but I've seen something strange with a
very simple configuration being slower than the full blown router version.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong ?
The very simple configuration (which I thought would be the fastest) :
PollDevice(eth2)->Strip(14)->EtherEncap(0x0800, 00:80:C8:C9:65:52,
00:00:00:00:00:03)-> Queue(400)->ToDevice(eth3)
(or is there still a simpler configuration possible ?)

so all packets are just forwarded (in a throughput test), but this
configuration starts dropping packets from 70 Mbit (64 byte frames)
measured with a smartbits at 5 % and ending with a 34% drop at 100 Mbit
whereas the full blown router (the provided script, where 5 interfaces are
filled in) only drops 6 % at 100 Mbit and nothing at lower bitrates.

The simple configuration is installed with click-devirtualize
-k|click-install
the router script is installed with click-xform -p
ip.clickpat|click-fastclassifier -k|click-devirtualize -k|click-install
(is this the right method for optimal performance ?)

The pc is a K6, 550 MHz. The interface card is a 4 port DLINK 570 with the
tulip driver and uses polling.

do I do something wrong ?

thanks for all comments,
Brecht Vermeulen


 ---------------------------------
Brecht Vermeulen

Department of Information Technology (INTEC)
Ghent University - IMEC
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41
B-9000 Gent
Belgium

Phone : +32 9 267 35 86
Fax : +32 9 267 35 99
Email : brecht.vermeulen at intec2.rug.ac.be