[comp.dcom.lans] performance tests on a cisco router

sob@harvisr.harvard.edu (Scott Bradner) (02/16/89)

We did some simple throughput testing of a cisco router that some of
you might find interesting.

We were going to run the same tests on other vendor equipment but things
conspired to keep us from doing so.  We had gotten the loan of the backup
router from one of the area universities but the day before we were to
run the tests one of their production units went south ...  We did run
the tests on one other vendor but it does not seem fair to just post
that as the only thing other than the cisco so the numbers here are
for the cisco AGS/2-4EM running V7.0 of the roms.

We hope to be able to get back to this and do some more tests on the
cisco and other routers.  We don't know the impact of adding the
rejection of selected ip addresses or protocols etc.  We would like to
be able to test the performance in various DECnet or bridging modes,
maybe someday.

Scott Bradner
Harvard University

test setup:

        TX--------X--------XT                  TX--------------XT
 ------  |        |        |   ------------     |              |   ------
 | hp1|===        |        ====| test box |======              ====| hp2|
 ------       ---------        ------------                        ------
              | ex    |
              ---------

hp1 - HP Lan Protocol analyzer 4972A monitoring the LANalizer output
hp2 - HP Lan Protocol analyzer 4972A monitoring the test box output
ex - Exelan type 5000 LANalizer on Compact 386

T  - terminator
X  - tranceiver
== - tranceiver cable
|  - tranceiver cable
-- - thinnet

The test packet was an IP packet.  
The LANbridge 100 was in bridge mode (the only mode it has )
The cisco router was in ip router mode.

( The LANbridge was included as a control, it should be able to pass
all packets received. )

size    ipi   kb/sec     %        pps      LB    cwin    cbet
64	900	 633	 6.38	 1040	 1040	 1040	 1040
	600	 920	 9.26	 1513	 1513	 1513	 1513
	300	1682	16.85	 2767	 2767	 2767	 2767
	100	3127	31.51	 5142	 5142	 5142	 5142
	"0"	6277	63.44	10323	10323	10323	 5914

128	900	1106	11.15	  988	  988	  988	  988
	600	1572	15.84	 1404	 1404	 1404	 1404
	300	2715	27.36	 2424	 2424	 2424	 2424
	100	4558	45.94	 4069	 4069	 4069	 4069
	"0"	7598	76.58	 6784	 6784	 6784	 4343

256	900	1923	19.40	  897	  897	  897	  897
	600	2630	26.52	 1227	 1227	 1227	 1227
	300	4163	41.96	 1942	 1942	 1942	 1942
	100	6158	62.07	 2873	 2873	 2873	 2873
	"0"	8584	86.52	 4004	 4004	 4004	 2930

512	900	3278	31.99	  758	  758	  758	  758
	600	4110	41.45	  981	  981	  981	  981
	300	5824	58.68	 1389	 1389	 1389	 1389
	100	7581	76.42	 1809	 1809	 1809	 1777
	"0"	9222	92.92	 2199	 2199	 2199	 1773

1024	900	4790	48.30	  579	  579	  579	  578
	600	5800	58.42	  700	  700	  700	  700
	300	7340	73.99	  885	  885	  885	  885
	100	8608	86.78	 1040	 1040	 1040	  992
	"0"	9590	96.65	 1157	 1157	 1157	  991

1514	900	5760	58.05	  471	  471	  471	  471
	600	6713	67.53	  549	  549	  549	  549
	300	8025	80.86	  657	  657	  657	  657
	100	9012	90.84	  738	  738	  738	  697
	"0"	9710	97.86	  797	  797	  797	  695

size	packet size in bytes as told to the Exelan
	We think that the size does not include the preamble or CRC.
ipi	Inter Packet time in micro sec as told to the Exelan
	"0" was as fast as it could go.

kb/sec	data rate in bytes per second as reported by the HP
%	load on ethernet as reported by the HP
pps	packets per second as reported by the HP

LB	DEC LANbridge 100
cwin	cisco gateway with "quad" board, software v7.0 - within a single board
cbet	cisco gateway with "quad" board, software v7.0 - between two boards

(NOTE: I've checked over the transcription of these numbers more than once
but there are an awful lot of them and I make no absolute guarantee. )