* Alex Thurlow  [2007-02-22 00:25]:

quoted text
> I have 2 GigE lines from different providers balanced via BGP with full

> routes from both providers.  Currently, these are running through a

> Linux/Quagga/Iptables router/firewall with a P4 3.2 GHz.  The distro is

> Gentoo, and we've stripped it down quite a bit.

>

> We're pushing streaming video, so it's almost all outbound traffic by

> about a 30:1 factor, and our average packet size is quite large - around

> 1200 bytes.  At the moment, when we hit about 350Mbps, the router gets

> to ~30% CPU usage, and it appears that we stop being able to pass all

> the traffic at full speed.  I don't see packet loss, but our traffic

> graph flattens a good bit.  At those rates, we also start to see

> crashing, but we haven't been able to figure out the exact cause of

> those either.

>

> So, long story short, I need a new router.  We've looked at Cisco, etc.

> and for what we're doing, it looks like we need a carrier class router.

> I can get a decked out 12008 for about k, but I'd rather not spend

> that much, or use the 2 feet of rack space.

>

> I've used OpenBSD/PF for firewalls in the past, and loved them, so I'd

> like to use it for a router if it can handle what we need.  Basically, I

> need to be able to saturate both of those GigE lines.  I'm willing to

> buy the brand-newest hardware - the PCI express bus should be able to do

> 2.5 Gbps, but I can't find anything that says I can push that much

> through software.

well... "it depends".

we have a router at a customer that I have seen peaking above 750

MBit/s, and that was with relatively "mean" traffic (i. e. not all nice

big packets). so I'd say there is a realistic chance to get reasonably

close (and if everything else fails, you can still split outgoing over

two or so).

naturally, that requires somewhat carefully selected hardware, and

these are ones of the very few machines I run where we do not go for

GENERIC.* for a reason.
--

Henning Brauer, hb@bsws.de, henning@openbsd.org

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