On Dec 19, 2007, at 4:58 AM, Jordi Espasa Clofent wrote:
I'm testing my FW with OpenBSD 4.2+pf in bridging mode. At present moment I've done test with iperf and netperf tools, using a 32/64/128K packets.
*blinks* Is this ethernet? On non-jumbo-frames gear, the max ethernet frame size is 1518 bytes, which gives an IP MTU of 1500 bytes. Gig-e jumbo frames only go up to 9K or so. If you're just generating large IP payloads, you're not testing much network-wise, since it's just getting transformed into IP fragments before it goes out.
But a simple sniffer in my production networks shows me that the packet size is very little: less or equal to 64 bytes (around 35% of total), between 64 and 128 bytes (around 35%) and between 1024 and 1518 bytes (the rest).
For ethernet, the minimum frame size is 64 bytes, putting minimum payload at 46 bytes. Smaller payloads usually get padded by the NIC before it goes on the wire.
So, I need a tool as iperf/netperf sytle, but capable to produce/manage a little packets.
Iperf is certainly capable of generating small packets, but I think we need more information about what exactly you're testing and using as a sniffer before any answer will help.
