Inkra 4000 Virtual Service Switch Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Firewall Throughput and Scalability Evaluation

Abstract

Inkra Networks commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate its Inkra 4000 Virtual Service Switch (VSS), a 14-slot chassis-based device that supports multiple virtual services, including firewall, VPN, intrusion detection, load balancing and SSL processing. Inkra Networks asked The Tolly Group to validate the single-rule firewall throughput, scalability and latency of the Inkra 4000 VSS. Testing was performed in September 2003.

Tolly Group engineers tested the Inkra 4000 VSS aggregate zero-loss (<0.001%) throughput when using 1,518-byte frames. Tests were also conducted using three different configurations in order to demonstrate the linear slope of the product’s scalability. Finally, Tolly Group engineers measured the latency introduced by the Inkra 4000 VSS as data traverses the switch backplane.