On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 1:11 PM, Rohyans, Aaron <[email protected]> wrote: > That's just the nature of cheap switching.
On the LinkSys stuff, the path for anything traversing the NAT/router is through the switch ASIC, into the general-purpose computer (running either Linux or VxWorks), and then back into the switch ASIC again. So the bottleneck isn't the switch ASIC, it's the RAM and CPU for the general-purpose computer. They're intended for Internet connections bursting at maybe 10 or 20 megabit/sec tops. The switch ASIC in those things is actually a VLAN-capable managed switch, albeit not a very good one. The "Internet" port is really just another port on the switch. The general-purpose computer is connected to an "internal" switch port, and uses a VLAN-aware network stack. With third-party firmware, you can do things like run each switch port on a different IP network. Useful for some applications, but I wouldn't run heavy LAN traffic through it. Also, it's worth mentioning that the switch ASIC, the general-purpose CPU, the RAM, and the radio controller are often all one IC package, at least with recent models. "SOC" -- System On A Chip. So my usage is conceptual, not physical. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
