I thought about doing that once, just don't forget to account for the
PCI bus bandwidth limitations. The PCI bus runs at 133MB, and since you
have to copy to/from memory (for filtering), you can push no more than
66MB/s (probably less). A 100Mbit port can do about 12MB/s, so at 100%
efficiency, you'd just barely be able to saturate all 5 NICs. My guess
is, however, that you won't be able to do better than
40-60Mbit/s/port... You can also get NICs with 2-4 interfaces on them,
but with the PCI limitations, you won't want to use them in a saturated
network environment.
Logan Bowers
"Carlos T. Latsch Cherem" wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Can i use the linux bridge with five NIC's to act as a switch? My idea is to
> use the bridge code with the netfilter support to connect many machines and
> filter all traffic at all ports. Ist it possible? I'm asking you because if
> it is possible i'll buy other NIC's to make a test.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Carlos Cherem
>
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