Get max performance from fiberlink with Pfsense possible?

Unubtanium

Hi All

Here is what I am wondering about:
I have a client that have an Ethernet link from Virgin Media UK to connect two sites together.
The speed is to be 100Mbit, but my problem is that Virgin only guaranties that speed with UDP traffic.
I have tried to get full speed on one connection over the link but could only get about 15-20 Mbits/sec and when tested with IPERF I do not even get that and when I test UDP connection with IPERF I do get a bit better speed but not much.
And Virgin Says that one UDP connection can not puch a full 100Mbit???? HUmm…

Quote:
Virgin Tech Guy! 10 UDP connections will not "push" the bandwidth, as on average 1 second of UDP traffic will be between 500kb and 5mb depending on the quality of it. Times this by 10 and you are only using 50% of the circuit at the gigh quality end. Times this by 20 and you'll see more of the bandwidth being used.
End quote REALY? ???

Currently I have only a switch in each end to connect the two sites, so finally here is what my question is:

Would I get a better performance if I set a Pfsense in each end with Gigabit interface and use some UDP protocol to Push the traffic???? If so can anyone give me a hint to what protocol/setup to use?

jasonlitka

The Virgin tech guy is an idiot. I'm not from the UK and am not familiar with that product, but it almost sounds like they've provisioned you a VPN circuit that goes over the same network as most public traffic, rather than use dedicated links.

What is the latency between the two locations?

Have you tried a cross-over between the two routers to make sure that your hardware is capable of 100Mbit/s?

dreamslacker

iperf testing needs to be tweaked to test the maximum capabilities. Try adjust the window and buffer sizes up.
Take a look at this guide from smallnetbuilder:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-howto/30418-measuring-network-performance-jperf-and-tcp-part-2

As to connecting the 2 sites via UDP, try OpenVPN.

On the UDP part, it's not true that you cannot push full 100mbit with a single UDP connection. That virgin tech guy is probably just trying to worm his way out of the situation.

Unubtanium

Thanks for the responses, this helps me confirming what i was thinking about the UDP protocol.

I know that the fiber link supports 100Mbit because when i tell iperf to use 20 UDP connections i do get a total transfer rate of 100Mbit.. ??? ???

The reason i want to get max on one connections it that this link is going to be used for file transfer and backup and it just seems weird to me that i can not get FULL transfer rate on one connection..

And this link is a closed fiber circuit so i do not need to use VPN, so i do not get the "overhead" with the VPN ;)

So to make sure that i get FULL speed ahead on this link should i use a Pfsense router in each and route the traffic to get pfsense to push the link to max???

Or am i missing something here and Maybe i need to read some more ????

stephenw10

Exactly which Virgin Media product are you using? Please link to any specs on their site:
http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/Products-and-solutions/Site-to-Site-Connectivity/

Seems odd that they would impose a limit per UDP connection.

Steve

Unubtanium

Hi Stephen

Here is the link to the product my client has:

http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/Products-and-solutions/Site-to-Site-Connectivity/Ethernet-Services/

And i agree with you about limit per connection. I just find it soooooo strange that iperf can not get 100% on one connection.

stephenw10

The 'ethernet extensions' product?
http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/Products-and-solutions/Site-to-Site-Connectivity/Ethernet-Extensions/#detailed_info

Steve

Unubtanium

@stephenw10:

The 'ethernet extensions' product?
http://www.virginmediabusiness.co.uk/Products-and-solutions/Site-to-Site-Connectivity/Ethernet-Extensions/#detailed_info

Steve

I am 99% sure it is this but will confirm tomorrow.. :)

stephenw10

Doesn't actually help provide an explanation either way!
The 'ethernet extentions' product is routed via their fibre network, which is presumably shared with other traffic, where as the extensions+ product is swiched ethernet.
Plenty of people complaining about virgin media in general though. ::)

Steve