[clug] Small form PCs with good networking performance

[Scott Ferguson]

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.

APU
MicroTik
ALIX

> 
> Bonus points for something that's compatible with the Intel DPDK [1].

AAEON boards?

Anything with the Intel 89xx (Cave Creek) chipset - either a
mini/pico-ITX or a blade - if you want high-end network capabilities
e.g. 8+GBps (designed for close to real-time DPI).

> 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.

low volume lists - Debian Firewalls, NANOG

> 
> 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)
> 


Kind regards