Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!HNS.COM!c_rstine
From: c_rstine@HNS.COM (Robert Stine)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: IP performance evaluation & spray
Message-ID: <9103111409.AA10491@hns.com>
Date: 11 Mar 91 14:09:09 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 24


I'm evaluating the network performance of a single-board computer that
runs ethernet and TCP/IP; the board has an 82596CA LAN controller.  In
one of the tests, I use the program "spray", executed from a Sun SPARC
IPC, to see how well the board can handle high volume IP inputs.

(I have used the default settings for ICMP ECHO requests, in which
Spray hammers the target board with 1162 ICMP echo requests in frames
of 86 bytes each, sent as fast as the Sun can generate them.  Spray can
generate either RPC or ICMP traffic.  Because the board under
evaluation does not run a spray daemon, I am banging it with the ICMP traffic.)

The Sun and the target board are on the same MTU.  For the tests, I put
the MTU in loopback mode, to avoid nasty looks from other LAN users :-)

What are reasonable drop rates?  In "System Performance Tuning," Mike
Loukides suggests that the RPC drop rate should be under 5%.  Is this
also reasonable for ICMP?  I am observing drop rates considerably over
5% (e.g., over 20%).

Thanks,

Bob Stine
c_rstine@hns.com