4 Tested Physical Topologies
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5 --------------------------
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7 CSIT VPP performance tests are executed on physical baremetal servers hosted by LF
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8 FD.io project. Testbed physical topology is shown in the figure below.
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12 +------------------------+ +------------------------+
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14 | +------------------+ | | +------------------+ |
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16 | | <-----------------> | |
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17 | | DUT1 | | | | DUT2 | |
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18 | +--^---------------+ | | +---------------^--+ |
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20 | | SUT1 | | SUT2 | |
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21 +------------------------+ +------------------^-----+
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26 +------------------> TG <------------------+
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30 SUT1 and SUT2 are two System Under Test servers (Cisco UCS C240, each with two
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31 Intel XEON CPUs), TG is a Traffic Generator (TG, another Cisco UCS C240, with
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32 two Intel XEON CPUs). SUTs run VPP SW application in Linux user-mode as a
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33 Device Under Test (DUT). TG runs TRex SW application as a packet Traffic
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34 Generator. Physical connectivity between SUTs and to TG is provided using
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35 different NIC models that need to be tested for performance. Currently
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36 installed and tested NIC models include:
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38 #. 2port10GE X520-DA2 Intel.
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39 #. 2port10GE X710 Intel.
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40 #. 2port10GE VIC1227 Cisco.
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41 #. 2port40GE VIC1385 Cisco.
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42 #. 2port40GE XL710 Intel.
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44 From SUT and DUT perspective, all performance tests involve forwarding packets
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45 between two physical Ethernet ports (10GE or 40GE). Due to the number of
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46 listed NIC models tested and available PCI slot capacity in SUT servers, in
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47 all of the above cases both physical ports are located on the same NIC. In
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48 some test cases this results in measured packet throughput being limited not
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49 by VPP DUT but by either the physical interface or the NIC capacity.
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51 Going forward CSIT project will be looking to add more hardware into FD.io
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52 performance labs to address larger scale multi-interface and multi-NIC
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53 performance testing scenarios.
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55 For test cases that require DUT (VPP) to communicate with VM over vhost-user
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56 interfaces, a VM is created on SUT1 and SUT2. DUT (VPP) test topology with VM
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57 is shown in the figure below including applicable packet flow thru the VM
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58 (marked in the figure with ``***``).
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62 +------------------------+ +------------------------+
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63 | +----------+ | | +----------+ |
\r
64 | | VM | | | | VM | |
\r
65 | | ****** | | | | ****** | |
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66 | +--^----^--+ | | +--^----^--+ |
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68 | +------v----v------+ | | +------v----v------+ |
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69 | | * * |**|***********|**| * * | |
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70 | | ***** *******<----------------->******* ***** | |
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71 | | * DUT1 | | | | DUT2 * | |
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72 | +--^---------------+ | | +---------------^--+ |
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74 | *| SUT1 | | SUT2 |* |
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75 +------------------------+ +------------------^-----+
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80 *+------------------> TG <------------------+*
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81 ******************* | |********************
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84 For VM tests, packets are switched by DUT (VPP) twice, hence the
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85 throughput rates measured by TG (and listed in this report) must be multiplied
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86 by two to represent the actual DUT aggregate packet forwarding rate.
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88 Note that reported VPP performance results are specific to the SUT tested.
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89 Current LF FD.io SUTs are based on Intel XEON E5-2699v3 2.3GHz CPUs. SUTs with
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90 other CPUs are likely to yield different results. A good rule of thumb, that
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91 can be applied to estimate VPP packet thoughput for Phy-to-Phy (NIC-to-NIC,
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92 PCI-to-PCI) topology, is to expect the forwarding performance to be
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93 proportional to CPU core frequency, assuming CPU is the only limiting factor
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94 and all other SUT aspects equal to FD.io CSIT environment. The same rule of
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95 thumb can be also applied for Phy-to-VM-to-Phy (NIC-to-VM-to-NIC) topology,
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96 but due to much higher dependency on very high frequency memory operations and
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97 sensitivity to Linux kernel scheduler settings and behaviour, this estimation
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98 may not always yield good enough accuracy.
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100 Detailed LF FD.io test bed specification and physical topology are described
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101 in `wiki CSIT LF FDio testbed <https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/CSIT_LF_testbed>`_.
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103 Performance Tests Coverage
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104 --------------------------
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106 Performance tests are split into the two main categories:
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108 - Throughput discovery - discovery of packet forwarding rate using binary search
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109 in accordance to RFC2544.
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111 - NDR - discovery of Non Drop Rate packet throughput, at zero packet loss;
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112 followed by packet one-way latency measurements at 10%, 50% and 100% of
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113 discovered NDR throughput.
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114 - PDR - discovery of Partial Drop Rate, with specified non-zero packet loss
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115 currently set to 0.5%; followed by packet one-way latency measurements at
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116 100% of discovered PDR throughput.
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118 - Throughput verification - verification of packet forwarding rate against
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119 previously discovered throughput rate. These tests are currently done against
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120 0.9 of reference NDR, with reference rates updated periodically.
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122 CSIT |release| includes following performance test suites, listed per NIC type:
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124 - 2port10GE X520-DA2 Intel
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126 - **L2XC** - L2 Cross-Connect switched-forwarding of untagged, dot1q, dot1ad
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127 VLAN tagged Ethernet frames.
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128 - **L2BD** - L2 Bridge-Domain switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames
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129 with MAC learning; disabled MAC learning i.e. static MAC tests to be added.
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130 - **IPv4** - IPv4 routed-forwarding.
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131 - **IPv6** - IPv6 routed-forwarding.
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132 - **IPv4 Scale** - IPv4 routed-forwarding with 20k, 200k and 2M FIB entries.
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133 - **IPv6 Scale** - IPv6 routed-forwarding with 20k, 200k and 2M FIB entries.
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134 - **VM with vhost-user** - switching between NIC ports and VM over vhost-user
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135 interfaces in different switching modes incl. L2 Cross-Connect, L2
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136 Bridge-Domain, VXLAN with L2BD, IPv4 routed-forwarding.
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137 - **COP** - IPv4 and IPv6 routed-forwarding with COP address security.
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138 - **iACL** - IPv4 and IPv6 routed-forwarding with iACL address security.
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139 - **LISP** - LISP overlay tunneling for IPv4-over-IPV4, IPv6-over-IPv4,
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140 IPv6-over-IPv6, IPv4-over-IPv6 in IPv4 and IPv6 routed-forwarding modes.
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141 - **VXLAN** - VXLAN overlay tunnelling integration with L2XC and L2BD.
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142 - **QoS Policer** - ingress packet rate measuring, marking and limiting
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145 - 2port40GE XL710 Intel
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147 - **L2XC** - L2 Cross-Connect switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames.
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148 - **L2BD** - L2 Bridge-Domain switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames
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150 - **IPv4** - IPv4 routed-forwarding.
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151 - **IPv6** - IPv6 routed-forwarding.
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152 - **VM with vhost-user** - switching between NIC ports and VM over vhost-user
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153 interfaces in different switching modes incl. L2 Bridge-Domain.
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155 - 2port10GE X710 Intel
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157 - **L2BD** - L2 Bridge-Domain switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames
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159 - **VM with vhost-user** - switching between NIC ports and VM over vhost-user
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160 interfaces in different switching modes incl. L2 Bridge-Domain.
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162 - 2port10GE VIC1227 Cisco
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164 - **L2BD** - L2 Bridge-Domain switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames
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167 - 2port40GE VIC1385 Cisco
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169 - **L2BD** - L2 Bridge-Domain switched-forwarding of untagged Ethernet frames
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172 Execution of performance tests takes time, especially the throughput discovery
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173 tests. Due to limited HW testbed resources available within FD.io labs hosted
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174 by Linux Foundation, the number of tests for NICs other than X520 (a.k.a.
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175 Niantic) has been limited to few baseline tests. Over time we expect the HW
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176 testbed resources to grow, and will be adding complete set of performance
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177 tests for all models of hardware to be executed regularly and(or)
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180 Performance Tests Naming
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181 ------------------------
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183 CSIT |release| introduced a common structured naming convention for all
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184 performance and functional tests. This change was driven by substantially
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185 growing number and type of CSIT test cases. Firstly, the original practice did
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186 not always follow any strict naming convention. Secondly test names did not
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187 always clearly capture tested packet encapsulations, and the actual type or
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188 content of the tests. Thirdly HW configurations in terms of NICs, ports and
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189 their locality were not captured either. These were but few reasons that drove
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190 the decision to change and define a new more complete and stricter test naming
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191 convention, and to apply this to all existing and new test cases.
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193 The new naming should be intuitive for majority of the tests. The complete
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194 description of CSIT test naming convention is provided on `CSIT test naming wiki
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195 <https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/csit-test-naming>`_.
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197 Here few illustrative examples of the new naming usage for performance test
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200 #. **Physical port to physical port - a.k.a. NIC-to-NIC, Phy-to-Phy, P2P**
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202 - *PortNICConfig-WireEncapsulation-PacketForwardingFunction-
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203 PacketProcessingFunction1-...-PacketProcessingFunctionN-TestType*
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204 - *10ge2p1x520-dot1q-l2bdbasemaclrn-ndrdisc.robot* => 2 ports of 10GE on
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205 Intel x520 NIC, dot1q tagged Ethernet, L2 bridge-domain baseline switching
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206 with MAC learning, NDR throughput discovery.
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207 - *10ge2p1x520-ethip4vxlan-l2bdbasemaclrn-ndrchk.robot* => 2 ports of 10GE
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208 on Intel x520 NIC, IPv4 VXLAN Ethernet, L2 bridge-domain baseline
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209 switching with MAC learning, NDR throughput discovery.
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210 - *10ge2p1x520-ethip4-ip4base-ndrdisc.robot* => 2 ports of 10GE on Intel
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211 x520 NIC, IPv4 baseline routed forwarding, NDR throughput discovery.
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212 - *10ge2p1x520-ethip6-ip6scale200k-ndrdisc.robot* => 2 ports of 10GE on
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213 Intel x520 NIC, IPv6 scaled up routed forwarding, NDR throughput
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216 #. **Physical port to VM (or VM chain) to physical port - a.k.a. NIC2VM2NIC,
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217 P2V2P, NIC2VMchain2NIC, P2V2V2P**
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219 - *PortNICConfig-WireEncapsulation-PacketForwardingFunction-
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220 PacketProcessingFunction1-...-PacketProcessingFunctionN-VirtEncapsulation-
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221 VirtPortConfig-VMconfig-TestType*
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222 - *10ge2p1x520-dot1q-l2bdbasemaclrn-eth-2vhost-1vm-ndrdisc.robot* => 2 ports
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223 of 10GE on Intel x520 NIC, dot1q tagged Ethernet, L2 bridge-domain
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224 switching to/from two vhost interfaces and one VM, NDR throughput
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226 - *10ge2p1x520-ethip4vxlan-l2bdbasemaclrn-eth-2vhost-1vm-ndrdisc.robot* => 2
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227 ports of 10GE on Intel x520 NIC, IPv4 VXLAN Ethernet, L2 bridge-domain
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228 switching to/from two vhost interfaces and one VM, NDR throughput
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230 - *10ge2p1x520-ethip4vxlan-l2bdbasemaclrn-eth-4vhost-2vm-ndrdisc.robot* => 2
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231 ports of 10GE on Intel x520 NIC, IPv4 VXLAN Ethernet, L2 bridge-domain
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232 switching to/from four vhost interfaces and two VMs, NDR throughput
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235 Methodology: Multi-Thread and Multi-Core
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236 ----------------------------------------
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238 **HyperThreading** - CSIT |release| performance tests are executed with SUT
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239 servers' Intel XEON CPUs configured in HyperThreading Disabled mode (BIOS
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240 settings). This is the simplest configuration used to establish baseline
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241 single-thread single-core SW packet processing and forwarding performance.
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242 Subsequent releases of CSIT will add performance tests with Intel
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243 HyperThreading Enabled (requires BIOS settings change and hard reboot).
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245 **Multi-core Test** - CSIT |release| multi-core tests are executed in the
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246 following VPP thread and core configurations:
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248 #. 1t1c - 1 VPP worker thread on 1 CPU physical core.
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249 #. 2t2c - 2 VPP worker threads on 2 CPU physical cores.
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250 #. 4t4c - 4 VPP threads on 4 CPU physical cores.
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252 Note that in quite a few test cases running VPP on 2 or 4 physical cores hits
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253 the tested NIC I/O bandwidth or packets-per-second limit.
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255 Methodology: Packet Throughput
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256 ------------------------------
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258 Following values are measured and reported for packet throughput tests:
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260 - NDR binary search per RFC2544:
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262 - Packet rate: "RATE: <aggregate packet rate in packets-per-second> pps
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263 (2x <per direction packets-per-second>)"
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264 - Aggregate bandwidth: "BANDWIDTH: <aggregate bandwidth in Gigabits per
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265 second> Gbps (untagged)"
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267 - PDR binary search per RFC2544:
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269 - Packet rate: "RATE: <aggregate packet rate in packets-per-second> pps (2x
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270 <per direction packets-per-second>)"
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271 - Aggregate bandwidth: "BANDWIDTH: <aggregate bandwidth in Gigabits per
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272 second> Gbps (untagged)"
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273 - Packet loss tolerance: "LOSS_ACCEPTANCE <accepted percentage of packets
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274 lost at PDR rate>""
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276 - NDR and PDR are measured for the following L2 frame sizes:
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278 - IPv4: 64B, IMIX_v4_1 (28x64B,16x570B,4x1518B), 1518B, 9000B.
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279 - IPv6: 78B, 1518B, 9000B.
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282 Methodology: Packet Latency
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283 ---------------------------
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285 TRex Traffic Generator (TG) is used for measuring latency of VPP DUTs. Reported
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286 latency values are measured using following methodology:
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288 - Latency tests are performed at 10%, 50% of discovered NDR rate (non drop rate)
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289 for each NDR throughput test and packet size (except IMIX).
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290 - TG sends dedicated latency streams, one per direction, each at the rate of
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291 10kpps at the prescribed packet size; these are sent in addition to the main
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293 - TG reports min/avg/max latency values per stream direction, hence two sets
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294 of latency values are reported per test case; future release of TRex is
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295 expected to report latency percentiles.
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296 - Reported latency values are aggregate across two SUTs due to three node
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297 topology used for all performance tests; for per SUT latency, reported value
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298 should be divided by two.
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299 - 1usec is the measurement accuracy advertised by TRex TG for the setup used in
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300 FD.io labs used by CSIT project.
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301 - TRex setup introduces an always-on error of about 2*2usec per latency flow -
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302 additonal Tx/Rx interface latency induced by TRex SW writing and reading
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303 packet timestamps on CPU cores without HW acceleration on NICs closer to the
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307 Methodology: KVM VM vhost
\r
308 -------------------------
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310 CSIT |release| introduced environment configuration changes to KVM Qemu vhost-
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311 user tests in order to more representatively measure VPP-17.01 performance in
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312 configurations with vhost-user interfaces and VMs.
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314 Current setup of CSIT FD.io performance lab is using tuned settings for more
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315 optimal performance of KVM Qemu:
\r
317 - Default Qemu virtio queue size of 256 descriptors.
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318 - Adjusted Linux kernel CFS scheduler settings, as detailed on this CSIT wiki
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319 page: https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/csit-perf-env-tuning-ubuntu1604.
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321 Adjusted Linux kernel CFS settings make the NDR and PDR throughput performance
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322 of VPP+VM system less sensitive to other Linux OS system tasks by reducing
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323 their interference on CPU cores that are designated for critical software
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324 tasks under test, namely VPP worker threads in host and Testpmd threads in
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325 guest dealing with data plan.
\r