what's meaning of 40Mpps routing throughput for Cisco 3-layer switch

[johnleee]

Can the 40Mpps be converted to xxx Mbps routing throughput? what's the calculation base?

Does it mean each routing session has 40Mpps individually? or for the total sessions sharing?

[lgijssel]

Its 40 million packets per second. That a good criterium because the part of each packet that has to be examined is the same in size. The portion of the packet containing the data is variable in size ( Ethernet packets can be from 64 upto 1518 bytes. )

Mostly this type of test are ran with lots of small packets to keep the network utilization within limits and at the same time feed the maximun amount of packet headers through the device. Its the number-crunching that counts, not the data that is shoved around!

[johnleee]

It's shared 40Mpps or dedicated 40Mpps for individual routing sessions? thnks,

[warren]

For a layer-3 switch it is 40Mpps total (shared). For some of the higher-end cisco routers (eg GSR) the routing is "distributed" between multipe line-cards, in which case the PPS numbers are based on the number (and types) of line cards, bit for non-distributed architectures (Catalyst switches, 1600-7200 routers) the numbers are based on the routing engine, so it is the maximum number of Packets Per Second that the box can route.