Does 3750 do flow based switching of packets?

ShailendraK · ‎10-30-2008

Hi All,

As we know the 3750 is MLS capable. However I have not been able to find out that when doing inter-vlan routing, does it do it at hardware level after determining the flow or does it do it using the software based method as a router would do? I have searched cisco.com and failed to find any information.

Thanks is advance for answers.

Regards

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎10-30-2008

My understanding is, 3750s can provide their rated Mpps (series max, 38.7 Mpps) for routing traffic as long as the traffic is processed in the fast/CEF path (and processed by their ASIC hardware). I haven't seen a performance rating for their process switching.

Software router process switching is often 10x or more slower than fast/CEF path. For 7600s with sup720, fast/CEF path is 15 or 30 Mpps but process path is only 20 or 500 Kpps, an even larger difference.