Subject: Re: Route cache performance under stress

From: "John S. Denker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 07:58:33 -0400

On 06/10/2003 07:41 AM, Pekka Savola wrote:
> 
>>Typical packet is around 500 bytes
>>average. 
> 
> Not sure that's really the case.  I have the impression the traffic is 
> basically something like:
>  - close to 1500 bytes (data transfers)
>  - between 40-100 bytes (TCP acks, simple UDP requests, etc.)
>  - something in between

It helps to take a more sophisticated view of things.
In typical networks:
Most of the packet-count is to be found in small packets.
Most of the byte-count is to be found in large packets.

Some things (e.g. routing) depend mainly on the packet-count.
Other things (e.g. encryption, layer-1 hardware requirements,
memory bandwidth usage, ISP contracts) are sensitive to the
byte-count.

We shouldn't optimize one at the expense of the other.