How to interpret Total Simultaneous measurement

[EricJH]

Hello. First timer at this forum. First of my compliments for the SmallNetBuilder web site. It is a mère a boire of very usueful reviews and facts.

I have a question on how to interpret the "Total Simultaneous" measurement in the router performance table. Unfortunately I could not find the answer in the How We Test Hardware Routers - Revision 3 article.

For example the Cisco 4200 has a total simultaneous throughput of 726 Mb/s. Does that means it is capable of routing 726 Mb/s up and 726 Mb/s down at the same time? Or is is the total of the upload and download speed combined: let's say 363 Mb/s up and 363 Mb/s down?

 

[thiggins]

From the How We Test article:

• WAN to LAN - Data flows from the WAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the LAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router download speed.
• LAN to WAN - Data flows from the LAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the WAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router upload speed.
• Simultaneous - A combination of the previous two tests. This test is run to see how the router handles simultaneous traffic.

What is not clear so that I can reword it?

 

[EricJH]

From the How We Test article:

• WAN to LAN - Data flows from the WAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the LAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router download speed.
• LAN to WAN - Data flows from the LAN-side IxChariot endpoint to the WAN-side endpoint. This is a test of router upload speed.
• Simultaneous - A combination of the previous two tests. This test is run to see how the router handles simultaneous traffic.

What is not clear so that I can reword it?

Hello Tim thank you for taking your time for me.

I am most certainly willing to help with thinking about the formulation. But before I can help to rephrase I need to fully understand the situation. That's why I formulated the question with the numbers. Can tell which of the two interpretations I gave is the right one? The first or the second one?

Here is how came to my question.

My initial assumption was that 726 Mb/s for simultaneous means 726 Mb/s to be handled for both the up and downstream at the same time. Meaning it is able to handle symmetrical connection of a little over 700 Mb/s.

On second consideration I noticed that the number for the singular tests (687 and 689) are lower then for the simultaneous test (726) . Since the simultaneous test is a bigger load you would expect that number to be lower.

Building on the assumption that the simultaneous throughput must be lower, then that can only mean that the number being presented must be the addition of the upload and download speeds.

See my logic?

 

[EricJH]

A gentle bump.

The reason for asking is that I am looking for a router for an upcoming fiber optics connection with 100/100 Mb/s and want a router that can handle possible future speed upgrades .

 

[thiggins]

The simultaneous test is the individual tests (up and downlink) run at the same time and the throughput of each test added together.

I don't know how much clearer that I can make it.

 

[stevech]

A gentle bump.

The reason for asking is that I am looking for a router for an upcoming fiber optics connection with 100/100 Mb/s and want a router that can handle possible future speed upgrades .

I wonder if common consumer routers can do packet forwarding through the router processing, esp. with NAT rules and QoS, at 100Mbps on the WAN side?