[clug] Small form PCs with good networking performance

[Bob Edwards]

On 28/02/15 14:09, Dale Shaw wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm looking for a small form factor PC (e.g. sized like Intel NUC, Zotac
> ZBOX and friends) with "good" network interface performance -- i.e. capable
> of pushing line rate or close to line rate (gigabit Ethernet, for now). If
> not small, then still relatively $cheap and preferably also quiet.
>
> I'd like to build something that can be used to torture network devices
> with lots of frames/packets and/or lots of bits.
>
> Bonus points for something that's compatible with the Intel DPDK [1]. It
> looks like there are some open source implementations of RFC2544 [2] and
> EtherSam/Y.1564 [3] out there, too.
>
> I'm currently tossing up between rolling-my-own and finding something off
> the shelf to do this. I've used Accedian NIDs to run test suites in the
> past but they're all $2.5K+ and do a lot more than what I really need.
>
> Is anyone on the list dabbling with this kind of thing? A penny for your
> thoughts.
>
> Cheers,
> Dale
>
> [1] http://dpdk.org/doc/nics
> [2] Benchmarking Methodology for Network Interconnect Devices (
> https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2544.txt)
> [3] Ethernet service activation test methodology (
> http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-Y.1564-201103-I/en)
>

Thanks for the links etc., Dale. I hadn't heard of Intel's Data Plane
Dev Kit (DPDK) previously. Looks quite interesting.

Tony Breeds mentioned a little box they are playing with with three
GigE ports that sounds quite interesting. Can't remember what it was
called, and so also not sure what NICs it uses. May fit your bill.
URL Tony?

Bob Edwards.