Cisco 7200 VXR with NPE-400 (was RE: The market must be coming back)

["Gary" <garyb () foundrynet com>]

Adam:

> [...] Sort of like buying a GbE interface for a 7200 (It only get's
> > 10% throughput...  Why waste the money, just buy FE!).
>
> How did the Foundry test lab arrive at those figures, and what
> substances were consumed at the time?

I used a Cisco 7200 VXR with NPE-400.  I used two different 7200's with the
exact same results.  Bidirectional throughput on 1GbE is a fraction above
10%.  Unidirectional is a bit better (23%).  Singl line ACL drops it to 8%
(permit ip any any).  FE performance doesn't start to drop below line rate
until you put more than two in the box.  I have a powerpoint if you'd like
it, but it is not meant to slander Cisco, just to convince my customers NOT
to put GbE in a 7200!  It is not a GbE platform!

> I'd say 300+ mbit/sec on a PA-GE is a more accurate real-world limit,
> assuming you've got plenty of spare CPU cycles to burn, and no ACL's.
>
> Besides, that's really an apples to oranges comparison.  I don't think
> anyone, including Cisco, has ever made the claim that it can do line
> rate GbE; that's not to say it isn't useful for certain topologies
> requiring slightly-faster-than-fast-e router<->switch uplinks, etc.

My powerpoint compares the 7200 with the FastIron 4802 Premium.  It is line
rate with less than 7 us latency on the two GbE ports.  I tested this
myself.  I can forward this to you if you like.  It is a bunch of SmartApps
screen captures of the testing.

I really like the 7200 VXR.  It is a good 10M and minimum FE platform.  It
can switch DS0 on the midplane and it supports a wide array of interfaces!
I just don't like to see it oversubsribed.  Many of our customers use the
7200 and have nothing bad to say about it when deployed properly.

Gary