Intel Corp. IXP425 Network Processors, Performance Analysis of VPN Devices

Abstract

Intel Corp. commissioned The Tolly Group to benchmark the performance of several commercially available VPN gateways that utilize the Intel® IXP425 network processor, and compare the performance of those devices against other, generally available products based upon alternative chipsets.

The Tolly Group conducted performance tests to validate the Layer 2 throughput of various VPN devices focusing on the CPU/NPU performances using Spirent’s SmartFlow and TeraVPN applications running on a SmartBits 6000B. As expected, the two SmartBits applications reported slightly different throughput results, but they both produced very consistent and similar performance trends for all the devices under test. The best performers in the SmartFlow test were also the best ones in the TeraVPN test. This also proves the integrity and validity of the test.

Among the devices tested, the Intel IXP425-based products outperformed the alternative chipset-based devices (Broadcom BCM4702, Motorola MPC860P, etc) in every scenario.