Thanks for bringing it back to the list - forgot my own 'reply to all' advice earlier... :-\
On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 1:18 PM, Chris Babcock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> IMHO, the 4801 in this case is maxed out and we're not talking about >> interference anyway. >> > Which also brings up the question, how much processing power should be > needed to carry a wireless link of a given speed? The 4801 uses a 266MHz x86 processor with SDRAM that probably runs at either 100 or 133MHz and seems to max out at routing ~30Mbps. Cisco 1200 APs have a ~200MHz PPC processor with an unknown (to me) memory bus speed, but I've seen them operate both radios at full saturation (~50Mbps) without exceeding 70% CPU utilization. Granted, they're normally only bridging packets but it illustrates that processor speed may not be the end-all solution. Given that the maximum observable throughput for 802.11g is typically 20-25Mbps, I think a system that maxes out at 30Mbps should suffice. At higher speeds, you'll either have to reduce the amount of processing you do (less firewalling, bridge interfaces, etc.) or increase your CPU power until it fulfills your needs. All that to say, I think the question of processing power v. throughput is too complicated for a simple equation - you need to take into account how much processing you're going to be doing on a given packet, what your peak PPS rate will be, and what the average packet size will be. The extremely variable bit will be how much processing you'll do, which is often dictated by the OS you're running - how high into the network stack a given packet must traverse. RB _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
