Click vs. Linux: Two Effcient Open-Source IP Network Stacks for Software Routers

A. BIANCO, R. BIRKE, D. BOLOGNESI, J. M. FINOCHIETTO, G. GALANTE, M. MELLIA, PRASHANT M.L.N.P.P.Z, F. NERI

Hong Kong, China

Conferencia; IEEE Workshop on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR); 2005

Software routers based on off-the-shelf hardwareand open-sourcc operating systems ate gaining more and moremomentum. The reasons are manifold: first, personal computer(PC) hardwarc is broadly available at low cost; second, largescaleproduction and the huge market spur the manufacturers toclosely track the improvements made available by Moore's Law;third, open-source software leaves the freedom to study the sourcecode, learn from it, modify it to improve the performance, andtailor its operation to one's own needs. In this paper we focusonly on the data plane performance and compare the defaultLinux IF stack with the Click modular IP stack in terms ofthe forwarding throughput. The results are surprising and showthat a high-end PC is easily able to fit into the multi-gigabit-persecondrouting segment, for a price much lower than commercialrouters.