Can Netgate 6100 saturate 5G Internet?

smk

Hi

Is the Netgate 6100 device able to saturate a 5G Fiber based WAN with outbound NAT and minimal FW rules? How can I test to confirm?

Just bought a new Netgate 6100 and not sure if its the right fit for my internet bandwidth. Speedtest shows about 2.5 Gbps download with uploads generally less than that.

Thanks in advance!

SMK

keyser

@smk In single session traffic: No
In multisession: No - unless you REALLY optimize the traffic for this one benchmark.

Any kind if real life scenario is going to cap you somewhere in the 2 - 3,5 Gbps range.

stephenw10

It depends. How are you testing now to see 2.5Gbps? Using one of the 2.5G ports?

smk

@stephenw10, should have mentioned earlier: Both 10g ports used: one 10g for WAN, another 10g for LAN.

Testing via a 10g capable client wired to LAN.

stephenw10

Hmm, I'd expect to see more than 2.5Gbps then. What test are you actually running?

smk

@stephenw10 speedtest.net via thick client

If I run the same speedtest directly off the ISP, I'm showing full 5Gbps. But passing that traffic through the 6100, drops to about 2.5 - 3 Gbps range.

stephenw10

Hmm, OK try to check the CPU usage whilst you're testing. At the console or via SSH run top -HaSP to check the per core usage.

The speedtest.net test are usually at least two streams so I'd expect relatively good load spreading.

smk

@stephenw10 : Good idea!

At one point during the test:

All 4 cores are at 0% idle!

Does this mean I'm maxing out on CPU? That could explain why I'm not able to saturate the 6100 in real life testing.

stephenw10

Yes, that's all cores at full use. Though it must be for short time looking at the load averages.

What was that load shown on in the list below that?

smk

@stephenw10 : Not always do all 4 cores go to 0% idle. Most of the times just 2 cores go to 0% idle. When that happens, bandwidth usage is lower.

Lst view with 2 cores saturated:

Wondering why I'm not able to saturate all 4 cores all the time.

stephenw10

Mmm, no unexpected usage there. But, yes, if all the load sits on 2 cores that's a problem.

How does the measured throughput change when that happens?

JKnott

@smk said in Can Netgate 6100 saturate 5G Internet?:

Is the Netgate 6100 device able to saturate a 5G Fiber based WAN

It would help to use the correct terms. 5G generally refers to the cell network. For fibre, it would be 5 Gb/s.

smk

Thanks @stephenw10 : This video shows how measured throughput change vs cores usage:

Video:

Download: at most 3 cores are fully loaded at 0:15
Upload: at most 2 cores are fully loaded at 0:26

I wonder why not all cores could be used to increase bandwidth saturation.

stephenw10

Well usually it's because the workload cannot be spread across more cores. So if there is only one queue on the NIC for example. Or if the traffic being passed cannot be spread across multiple queues like a single stream iperf test for example.

smk

Thanks @stephenw10 ! Then clearly the CPU on 6100 limits the saturation of 5Gbps internet connection.

I was hoping to make it work with netgate 6100. I'm going to have to upgrade to something like a protectCLI with i7 and 2x 10gbps ports to replace the netgate 6100.

Thank you all !

stephenw10

Hmm, so you see about double that download when it uses all 4 cores?

smk

@stephenw10 : Yes, that is right.