FreeBSD boxes as a 'router'...

[Ingo Flaschberger]

Am 21.11.2012 00:30, schrieb Barney Cordoba:
>
> --- On Tue, 11/20/12, Ingo Flaschberger <if at xip.at> wrote:
>
>> stems (Intel 82541GI) polling prevent live-locks.
>>
>> Best test:
>> Loop a GigE Switch, inject a Packet and plug it into the
>> test-box.
> Yeah, thats a good real-world test.
>
> To me "performance" is not "burning a cpu" to get some extra pps.
> Performance is not dropping buckets of packets. Performance is using
> less cpu to do the same amount of work.
>
> Is a machine that benchmarks at 998Mb/s at 95% cpu really a "higher
> performance" system than one that does 970Mb/s and uses 50% of the cpu?

Talking about Mb/s is definitly the wrong way - forwarding performance 
is measured in pps.

> The measure of performance is to manage an entire load without dropping
> any packets. If your machine goes into live-lock, then you need more
> machine. Hacking it so that it drops packets is hardly a solution.

No, because standard internet traffic has not 100% 64b packets - but 
when a hacker attacks - it has (dos).
Then it's important to know - who is the attacker and keep the box up 
even if it drops packets.
If you don't like packet drops - go - buy some juniper (which also use 
FreeBSD).

Kind regards,
     Ingo Flaschberger