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Ethernet Packet Rate and Throughput Calculations

 Discussion created by jsharma on Sep 13, 2016
Latest reply on Nov 8, 2016 by sl_engin 

 Like • 15  Comment • 6

Almost on daily basis we encounter with packet rate, throughput and bandwidth calculations on Ethernet links in our testing. Also, on the traf ic
generator, we set packet rates or bandwidth rates etc. for traf ic and throughput related testing.
Following explanation will help you understand these calculations:

When we talk about link speeds in Mbps or Gbps, it is always a factor of 1000, and not 1024. Memory storage multiplier is 1024, but link speed
multiplier is 1000.
For every packet transmitted on Ethernet link, we send 7 bytes of preamble and 1 byte of SFD (start of frame delimiter) plus 12 byte of IFG (inter-
frame gap). Some implementation provide the lexibility to reduce IFG to lower values like
10 or 8 these days to exploit the available BW further. The primary purpose of IFG is to allows receivers some minimum ‘‘breathing room’’ between
frames to perform necessary housekeeping chores (posting interrupts, buffer management,
updating network management statistics counters, and so on).
So, for every packet of X bytes (starting from DMAC up to and including CRC), actual bytes transmitted on the link are (X+20).
Ethernet link speed includes these overheads as well and so actual useful traf ic is always less than the given Ethernet link speed. Bigger the frame
size, lesser is the percentage overhead, as 20 bytes overhead is ixed irrespective of Ethernet frame size. So data throughput for 1518 byte packet is
always more than for 64 byte packet.
Now the calculations:
Let’s calculate the maximum number of 64 byte packets that can be theoretically sent over a 1 Gbps link:
Link speed in bits/sec = 1*1000*1000*1000 (say A)
Packet size in bits including (Preamble+ SFD+ IFG) overheads = (64+20)*8 (say B) [Multiply by 8 is for 8 bits/byte]
Maximum packets/sec that can be sent on the link = A/B = 1488095.23 packets/sec (say C)
Now maximum throughput for 64 byte packet on a one Gbps link = C*64*8 =
761904757.76 bps = 761904757.76/(1000*1000) = 761.90 Mbps [because actual useful packet was
still 64 bytes]
Maximum throughput for Q-in-Q service
As an extra VLAN tag will get added on NNI side on top of the VLAN tagged packets
sent by user, so packet size X will actually become (X+4) on NNI.
Now suppose NNI is again a one Gbps link same as UNI, so maximum packets per second
from user perspective will be less, considering a user packet now has (X+4+20)
bytes.
So calculate the maximum packets per second considering (X+4) and then multiple
the packet rate with X*8 to get actual maximum throughput possible
Maximum throughput for MPLS service
Total of 26 bytes added on MPLS transport to the actual user frame, 6 byte DMAC, 6
bytes SMAC, 2 byte protocol-type, 4 byte link VLAN, 2 labels of 4 bytes each,
so 6+6+2+4+4+4 = 26 bytes (Note: SAOS does not support creating IP interfaces
directly over the physical interfaces and allows only over a VLAN)
Depending on if you have con igured “egress-untag-vlan” same as your link VLAN for NNI,
link VLAN will not be sent on the link and overhead will be 22 bytes
SAOS does not support PW control word, otherwise 4 bytes of that would also add
making it total 30 bytes of overhead
Apply similar calculations as Q-in-Q, just the overhead is more now in case of MPLS.
Note: These calculations can be used in your benchmark testing (RFc 2544) as well. Keep in mind
whether while showing the test results, whether overhead is considered or not by the FPGA.

OUTCOMES

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Visibility:  Packet Networking • 13333 Views

Last modified on Sep 13, 2016 2:14 AM

Tags: ethernet throughput

Categories: Frequently Asked Questions

6 Replies

ksundara
Sep 29, 2016 10:06 AM

Thank you for this very useful info.

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 shaskett
Oct 4, 2016 3:22 PM

Good stuff...Thank you for sharing

 Actions  Like • 1

fvalcho
Oct 7, 2016 4:37 PM

Don't forget to check you Band Width settings. They affect the IPG. "flow bw-calculation-mode show"
These are important when looking at stats.
All Ciena devices will have the BW mode set to Payload.
3911, 3930, 3931, 3960, 5140, 5150.
"flow bw-calculation-mode set mode payload" is the command set to it to payload.

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fvalcho
Oct 7, 2016 4:39 PM

we created a spreadsheet to aid in the calculations.

This could be edited for better results.
Here is a paste of the spreadsheet.
Try it out.

1Gbps 1000000000
IFG 20
(bytes)

Port 1 10 100
speed
(Gbps)
Frame PPS per port
Sizes
(bytes)
64 1,488,095 14,880,952 148,809,523
128 844,594 8,445,945 84,459,459
256 452,898 4,528,985 45,289,855
512 234,962 2,349,624 23,496,240
1024 119,731 1,197,318 11,973,180
1500 82,236 822,368 8,223,684
1518 81,274 812,743 8,127,438
2048 60,444 604,448 6,044,487
9216 13,533 135,339 1,353,399

5305 5410 5430

Port 1 10 10 1 10 10
speed
(Gbps)
Num of 24 2 4 32 10 40
ports
Aggregate 24 20 40 32 100 400
port
speed
Frame PPS per LM
Sizes
(bytes)
64 35,714,280 29,761,904 59,523,808 47,619,040 148,809,520 595,238,080
128 20,270,256 16,891,890 33,783,780 27,027,008 84,459,450 337,837,800
256 10,869,552 9,057,970 18,115,940 14,492,736 45,289,850 181,159,400
512 5,639,088 4,699,248 9,398,496 7,518,784 23,496,240 93,984,960
1024 2,873,544 2,394,636 4,789,272 3,831,392 11,973,180 47,892,720
1500 1,973,664 1,644,736 3,289,472 2,631,552 8,223,680 32,894,720
1518 1,950,576 1,625,486 3,250,972 2,600,768 8,127,430 32,509,720
2048 1,450,656 1,208,896 2,417,792 1,934,208 6,044,480 24,177,920
9216 324,792 270,678 541,356 433,056 1,353,390 5,413,560

3 people found this helpful

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nkalra
Oct 21, 2016 5:42 AM

Thankyou for Sharing very useful information. We generally encounter this during our day to day testing.

 Actions  Like • 1

sl_engin
 Nov 8, 2016 11:30 PM

Good read. Keep the short, but sweet reads coming.

 Actions  Like • 1

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