Router Analysis Enterprise Edge Router Upgrade Guide

RA-070112-02 Enterpr ise Edge Router Upgrade Guide July 2012

Copyright © 2012 Router Analysis 1"

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Enterprise Edge Router Upgrade Guide Sample Report

Report RA-070112-02 July 2012

RA-070112-02 Enterpr ise Edge Router Upgrade Guide July 2012

Copyright © 2012 Router Analysis 2"

"

Don’t Just Test. Analyze. "

Enterpr ise Edge Router Upgrade Guide

(Sample Report) !

REPORT RA-070112-02

Upgrading your WAN to 10G: A Guide to Midrange Enterprise

Routers. 7200VXR to ASR1000

The Cisco 7200VXR Series routers have long been the standard for providing the necessary link between enterprises and the Internet.

As an Enterprise Edge Router, the 7200VXR

provides reliable software forwarding across interfaces up to one Gigabit in size.

But what do you do when you need to upgrade your

WAN link to something larger such as 10 Gigabit? What options do you have, and which option is the most cost effective while still offering the flexibility to stay usable for five plus years?

In this report Router Analysis tests the Cisco

ASR1000 Series, specifically the ASR1004. With the latest RP2 processor and ESP40 Fabric,

can the ASR1004 handle the needs of enterprises into the next decade?

What about the competitors to the ASR1000 Series,

how do they compare?

Devices covered in this report: Cisco: 7200VXR NPE-G2 ASR1004 RP2 / ESP40 ARR1006 RP2 / ESP40 Juniper: MX80 Huawei: NE40E-X1/X2/X3 How we test: Utilizing state-of-the-art testing technology from vendors such as IXIA and MU Dynamics (now Spirent), Router Analysis has a world class testing lab.

RA-070112-02 Enterpr ise Edge Router Upgrade Guide July 2012 !

Copyright © 2012 Router Analysis !3

Results Summary The Cisco ASR1004 performed within Cisco’s claimed specifications when

tested at the Router Analysis test lab. Featureless IPv4 forwarding performed better than advertised: forwarding at

27 Million packets per second (Mpps) versus the claimed 23Mpps. Featureless IPv6 forwarding was tested at 21Mpps. Enabling features such as ACLs and uRPF dropped the routers forwarding

performance down to 23.4Mpps for IPv4 and 11.7Mpps for IPv6. Both numbers are above the 10.4Mpps minimum forwarding rate of the system advertised by Cisco.

QoS functioned as expected, protecting streams as configured and no head

of line blocking was observed.

Figure 1 - Cisco ASR1004 IPv4 and IPv6 Forwarding

As a replacement for the 7200VXR, the ASR1004 performs well. Providing

the features, bandwidth and interfaces needed. !

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IPv4!Base! IPv4!ACL! IPv6!Base! IPv6!ACL!

Claimed!Observed!w!uRPF!



History of the Cisco 7200 !

The Cisco 7200 Series routers have been at the Enterprise Edge for almost two decades. Even though the first 7200 Series router came out in 1996. Cisco has kept the 7200 Series routers up to date by releasing a new chassis (The 7200VXR in 2002) and continuing to release new Network Processing Engines (NPEs).

The current NPE-G2 processor (released in 2006) for the 7200VXR Series

offers forwarding rates up to 2Mpps, 1.8 Gigabits backplane fabric bandwidth and a maximum of one million routes in the forwarding table. The 7200VXR Series with the NEP-G2 is acceptable for links with up to 500Mbps of traffic.

!Figure 2 - Cisco 7204VXR Router

!

Figure 3 - Cisco 7200 NPE-G2

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7200 Replacement Option One – The Cisco ASR1000 !

With the latest generation Route Processor 2 (RP2) and Embedded Services Processor 40 (ESP40), Cisco claims, and we have verified, forwarding rates of 23Mpps (10x the 7200 platform). The latest hardware also supports up to four million IPv4 prefixes, four times that of the 7200.

When replacing a 7204, we suggest using the ASR1004. If you have a

7206, or need hardware redundancy, you will have to go with the ASR1006. The ASR1006 is a highly flexible router with 3 SIP carrier slots, space for up

to 12 SPAs and redundant RPs and ESPs. For this report we focused on the ASR1004’s performance and features.

!Figure 4 - Cisco ASR1004

7200 Replacement Option Two: Huawei NE40E-X1 & X2 The Huawei NE40E-X1 and X2 are the lower end of the NE40E series

routers from Huawei. They are focused on Ethernet Metro, but also suitable for the Enterprise Edge. The NE40E-X1 offers up to 20G of mix-and-match interfaces while the X2 offers up to 40G. If you are looking for redundancy, you will need to go with the X2.

Another option from Huawei is the NE40E-X3, which is a more direct

competitor to the ASR1004/ASR1006. The NE40E-X3 offers compatibility with the Linecard Processing Units (LPUs) used in the higher end NE40E-X8 and X16. The



NE40E-X8 offers line-rate forwarding of 40 byte packets with minimal features enabled on the system.

!Figure 5 - Huawei NE40E-X1/X2

Juniper MX40/80 The Juniper MX40/80 is the smallest router of the group, being only 2RU,

but offers big performance: up to 55Mpps of forwarding and 40/80Gbps of fabric bandwidth depending on which model you purchase.

The MX80 router is a single-board router with a built-in Routing Engine and

one Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE), which can have up to two Modular Interface Cards (MICs). The PFE has two Flexible PIC Concentrators (FPC 0 and FPC1), which use the same PFE for both ingress and egress forwarding.

The main limitation of the MX40/80 is the lack of hardware redundancy. To have redundancy you need at least two routers which increases cost.

Figure 6 - Juniper MX80 3D

!!



Test Lab Setup The Router Analysis test lab utilizes the latest in IXIA testing hardware. The

tests in this report were performed using an IXIA testing chassis with 22 Gigabit Ethernet ports, two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports along with IXIAs IxNetwork, IxLoad and IxAutomate software.

The ASR1004 was configured with one RP2, one ESP40 and two SIP40

carrier cards. Each carrier card had three five port Gigabit Ethernet v2 SPAs and one Single Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet v2 SPA.

Figure 7 – Cisco ASR1004

Tests Carried Out

• IP forwarding rate o Minimum Packet Size (64 bytes)

! With ACLs (permit any any) ! With uRPF ! With QoS ! With Netflow

o Packet IMIX o 1500 Byte Packets (Fabric Throughput)

• MPLS forwarding rate o Minimum Packet Size o Packet IMIX o Maximum Packet Size

• Oversubscription o One to Many (HOLB Test) o Many to One o QoS



Sample Testing Results IPv4 and IPv6 Forwarding Results

Figure 8 - Cisco ASR1004 IPv4 and IPv6 Forwarding

The main takeaway from the results is that the ASR1004 performed above

the quoted specifications for featureless IPv4 based forwarding. IPv4 + uRPF also came in above the stated 23Mpps specification. IPv4 forwarding with ACLs was 21.3Mpps (about the same as IPv6 base which is 21Mpps).

While testing the ASR1004, the worst performance appeared while

executing the “IPv6 forwarding with ACLs and uRPF” test case. The ASR1004 did just 11.75Mpps.

Both the IMIX and Fabric Bandwidth tests were above the minimum

threshold and able to be done at full fabric bandwidth (40G). The Fabric numbers are uni-directional, if traffic is counted both directions we exceeded 80G across the system.

We did not observe any head of line blocking or QoS issues. QoS protected

the streams even when the system was overload (where available forwarding rate was being exceeded).

For more detailed results contact the Router Analysis team at

[email protected]

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IPv4!Base! IPv4!ACL! IPv6!Base! IPv6!ACL!

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Appendix A – Sample Test Cases

The following two test cases represent a sample from the set of 40 performed in the Router Analysis lab. Test Case One – IP Forwarding Synopsis: When testing systems which have a set PPS or Fabric Bandwidth which is lower then the combined interfaces available; it is necessary to validate the best-case base forwarding rate. Once the rate has been determined, it is possible to judge other test cases against the best-case forwarding rate. Goal of Test: To confirm best-case IPv4 or IPv6 forwarding rate using the minimum and maximum packet size accepted by the system. Procedure: Configure the minimum number of links between the tester and the system under test (SUT) to provide either a.) More than the maximum PPS or b.) More than the maximum fabric bandwidth as claimed by the vendor. For example: The ASR1004 ESP40 claims a maximum of 23Mpps or 40Gbps. To test 23Mpps, you could use two 10GE interfaces running 64 byte packets at line rate (14.8Mpps x 2). To test the maximum fabric bandwidth you run large packets such as 1500 bytes and would need at least 42G of interfaces such as four 10GE and two GE (due to packet overhead which would be stripped before it reached the fabric). Data to Col lect: Maximum PPS for IPv4, IPv6 and a 50/50 mix of IPv4 and IPv6 Maximum fabric bandwidth for IPv4, IPv6 and a 50/50 mix of IPv4 and IPv6



Test Case Two – IP Forwarding with Features Synopsis: Once the best-case forwarding rate for IP has been determined, it is important to start enabling features to see what impact they may have on the forwarding rate. Goal of Test: To determine which features if any impact the forwarding rate of the SUT. Procedure: ACLs: Using your best-case setup from test one, apply a simple “allow all” access list to one interface inbound. Once you have recorded the data, swap the access list to outbound on the same interface. Next apply the access list both in and out on the same interface. The final steps are to apply the access list in and out on the other interfaces observing if the impact is the same or greater. When you have completed the testing you should have the access list applied to all interfaces inbound and outbound. (If no impact is seen even with all interfaces running ACLs, you may need to configure a bigger ACL using multiple Access List Entries (ACEs) with random source/destination addresses and ports blocked before an allow all statement.) If ACLs have no impact on forwarding performance it is possible that the SUT does all access list actions in hardware and no impact will be seen. Consult with your vendor to discuss. uRPF: For uRPF follow the same concept as with ACLs: apply uRPF to one interface at a time, log the results and then continue.

!



Appendix B – Sample Test Result Tables The following tables represent a sample of the data collected during testing in the Router Analysis Lab. IPv4 Forwarding Results Data

IPv4 + uRPF Forwarding Results Data

IPv6 Forwarding Results Data

Test Claimed Test Result Pass/Fail IPv6 PPS no ACL 10,400,000 21,000,000 Pass IPv6 PPS with ACL 10,400,000 14,900,000 Pass IPv6 Fabric BW 40G 40G Pass IPv6 Fabric BW with ACL 40G 40G Pass

IPv6 + uRPF Forwarding Results Data

Test Claimed Test Result Pass/Fail IPv6 + uRPF 10,400,000 17,500,000 Pass IPv6 ACL + uRPF 10,400,000 14,900,000 Pass IPv6 Fabric + uRPF 40G 40G Pass IPv6 Fabric ACL + uRPF 40G 40G Pass

!

Test Claimed Test Results Pass/Fail IPv4 PPS no ACL 23,000,000 26,600,000 Pass IPv4 PPS with ACL 10,400,000 21,774,000 Pass IPv4 Fabric BW 40G 40G Pass IPv4 Fabric BW ACL 40G 40G Pass

Test Claimed Test Results Pass/Fail IPv4 + uRPF 10,400,000 23,450,000 Pass IPv4 ACL + uRPF 10,400,000 18,140,800 Pass IPv4 Fabric + uRPF 40G 40G Pass IPv4 Fabric ACL + uRPF 40G 40G Pass



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