Performance evaluation of packet capturing systems for high-speed networks

ABSTRACT

Using commodity systems for capturing packets in a Gigabit environments is a challenging task. This applies especially to a full capture of packet headers along with their data. Today's commodity PC systems come in different flavors in terms of processor hardware as well as in terms of operating systems. In this paper we describe a methodology for evaluating different systems with respect to their maximum capture rate and present our preliminary results of comparing Intel Xeon against AMD Opteron based systems running either Linux or FreeBSD.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.3 Network Operations
          Subjects: Network monitoring

General Terms:
Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
freeBSD, linux, packet capturing