SD-WAN Throughput Performance

Across XE SD-WAN & vEdge Platforms

Technical Marketing Engineering

July 2021
Our Test Methodology is Well Defined
Established
1 Traffic Profiles

The Defined Methodology is to

Defined Testbed drive Benchmark Performance
2 and Test Criteria Numbers

3 Identified Multi-D
Feature Profiles

Cisco Defined Test Methodology is Adopted by Large Customers & MSPs

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Let’s Understand Throughput Performance
“For the Purpose of this Unified Test Methodology and Benchmark Numbers, throughput
is the total amount of aggregated traffic processed by a Device”

10 Gbps • To achieve this throughput, you need Cisco

5 Gbps 5 Gbps
DNA 5Gbps BW license.
5 Gbps 5 Gbps
• Most vendors have 10Gbps BW licenses to
5Gbps Unicast Eastbound + 5Gbps Unicast Westbound
achieve the same throughput.
Total Aggregated Throughput 5Gbps + 5Gbps = 10Gbps
Cisco Public

All posted results are aggregated throughput.

For example, a platform is measured with 10Gbps throughput, that is aggregated throughput
which could be 5Gbps eastbound + 5Gbps westbound or any other combination

All Posted Throughput Numbers are Aggregate Throughput

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 Traffic Profile – Unicast Flows
Validation with 3 Frame Sizes
Emulating 1000 clients to 100 servers
1000 Bi-directional Flows
1 to Many Flows 1. Cisco IMIX – Avg Frame Size 352B
(64B/72B, 594B, 1400B - 7:4:1 ratio)
Check Avg Packet Size of other Vendors when comparing

100 1000 2. Large Frame – 1400B Frames

Servers …
… Clients (Best Case Scenario)
(Randomized IP) … (Randomized IP)

3. Smallest Frame – 64B/72B Frames

(Worst Case Scenario)
…
…
…
Bi Directional Traffic Generally the Larger the Packet Size
the better the Performance

All Benchmark Performance Tests use the same Traffic Profiles

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 SD-WAN Testbed Topology & Test Criteria
Tgen
Both Head End & Branch/Site
Devices are running same
software version Tu
l1 nn
ne el2
NDR (No Drop Rate) = Zero Packet Drop
un
C8500-12X4QC
T
vManage
vBond Test Duration – 120 Seconds

MPLS INET Based on RFC 2544

vSmart

Ensure No Bottleneck on
Supporting Devices
For Cloud & Virtual Platforms we use PDR (Partial Drop Rate) of 0.01% to allow
DUT hosting environment inefficiencies

Tgen

Cisco’s Robust Standard of Test and Validation is Maintained at All Times

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Common Feature Combination Profiles
Most Commonly Asked Profiles:

Profile 1: SDWAN with IPSec Encryption Enabled

Profile 3: SDWAN with Commonly Deployed Services

(IPSec + QoS + Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) + Netflow/cFlow)

Different Feature Combination can result in Different Performance Numbers

© 2020 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Partner Confidential
SD-WAN (IPSec) Throughput Performance
16 00
1411
14 00

12 00 1110 1108
1042

10 00
Low Range 791 763 780
833
Mbps

80 0
Access 641
499 499 499 499
60 0 429 399 428 399
378
297 293 291 327
40 0 231 245
201 203 165
20 0 94

0
ISR 43 21 ISR 42 21 ISR 11 61 X-8 P ISR 11 21 X-8 P ISR 11 11 X-8 P ISR 11 11 -4P ISR 11 01 -4P ISR 11 09 -4P ISR 11 00 X-6 G ISR 11 00 X-4 G ISR 11 00 -6G ( XE) ISR 11 00 -4G ( XE) ISR 11 00 -4G vEd ge1 00
(V ipte la OS)

20 00 0

18 00 0
18800

16400
All Results are based on
16 00 0
15407
Cisco’s Unified Throughput
Test Methodology
14 00 0
Mid-High 12 00 0

Range
Mbps

10 00 0
7300

Access
80 00

60 00 4517 4800
3655
40 00 2542
2000 1750 2000 1750 1479 1528 1970
1000 780 1281
Ø BiDirectional 1 to Many Flows
20 00 728 532 485 631 855
233

Ø NDR = Zero Packet Drop

0
ISR 44 61 C83 00- 2N2S - C83 00- 1N1S - C83 00- 2N2S -6T C83 00- 1N1S -6T C82 00- 1N-4T ISR 44 51 ISR 44 31 ISR 43 51 ISR 43 31 ISR 11 00 -6G vEd ge1 000
4T 2X 4T 2X (V ipte la OS)
Tolerance
170
Ø Based on RFC 2544
18 0

16 0

14 0

Aggregation 12 0

& 10 0
Large Packets
Gbps

68.4
DC
80
52.8 51.3
60
39.3
40 29.9
20.2 18.8
8.5
17.8 19.6
11.9 7.8
19.6
8.4
IMIX - Avg. 352Bytes
20 3.9 3.7 4.5 6.4 2.2
0
ASR 10 06- X C85 00- 12X 4QC C85 00- 12X C85 00L -8S 4X ASR 10 02- HX ASR 10 01- HX ASR 10 02- X ASR 10 01- X vEd ge5 000 vEd ge2 000

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SD-WAN (IPSec) Throughput Performance with
QoS, DPI and Netflow/cFlow
70 0
625 614
60 0 526
494 483 499 499 499 499
50 0
393
Low Range 40 0 340 338
Mbps

311 311
288
Access 30 0
203
166 164 164 173
20 0 141 130 128
106 88 88 74 80
10 0

0
ISR 43 21 ISR 42 21 ISR 11 61 X-8 P ISR 11 21 X-8 P ISR 11 11 X-8 P ISR 11 11 -4P ISR 11 01 -4P ISR 11 09 -4P ISR 11 00 X-6 G ISR 11 00 X-4 G ISR 11 00 -6G ( XE) ISR 11 00 -4G ( XE) ISR 11 00 -4G vEd ge1 00
(V ipte la OS)

All Results are based on

12 00 0 10900

Cisco’s Unified Throughput

10 00 0

Mid-High
80 00
6380
6000
Test Methodology
Range
Mbps

60 00

Access 40 00 2900 2677

1721 2000 2000
1600 1523 1531
20 00 1200 1200 1000 1138 986
310
725
416 323 268 400 595
158 Ø BiDirectional 1 to Many Flows
0
ISR 44 61 C83 00- 2N2S - C83 00- 1N1S - C83 00- 2N2S -6T C83 00- 1N1S -6T C82 00- 1N-4T ISR 44 51 ISR 44 31 ISR 43 51 ISR 43 31 ISR 11 00 -6G vEd ge1 000 Ø NDR = Zero Packet Drop
4T 2X 4T 2X (V ipte la OS)
Tolerance
12 0 Ø Based on RFC 2544
99.7
10 0

80
Aggregation
&
Gbps

60 52.7

40.1 39.1
Large Packets
DC 40
26.8
19.6
14 15.4
20 10.7
4
10.1
6.9
3.9 3.7
7.8
2.4
11.2
5 5.7
1.4
IMIX - Avg. 352Bytes
0
ASR 10 06- X C85 00- 12X 4QC C85 00- 12X C85 00L -8S 4X ASR 10 02- HX ASR 10 01- HX ASR 10 02- X ASR 10 01- X vEd ge5 000 vEd ge2 000

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SD-WAN (IPSec) Throughput Performance
SD-Branch Platform

2000 1889 1889 1889

1500 1133
1021 1076
Mbps

Low Range 832

1000
Access
All Results are based on
500 289
Cisco’s Unified Throughput
0 Test Methodology
C8200uCPE-2vCPU ENCS5406-2vCPU ENCS5408-2vCPU ENCS5412-2vCPU

Ø BiDirectional 1 to Many Flows

1889 1889 1889 1889 Ø PDR = 0.01% Packet Drop

2000 Tolerance
1627 1627
1430
1500
Mid-High Ø Based on RFC 2544
Mbps

Range 1000
Access 545
500

0
Large Packets
C8200uCPE-4vCPU ENCS5406-4vCPU ENCS5408-4vCPU ENCS5412-4vCPU

IMIX - Avg. 352Bytes

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SD-WAN (IPSec) Throughput Performance with
QoS, DPI and Netflow/cFlow
SD-Branch Platform

2000 1731 1792

1500 1346
Mbps

Low Range 1000

Access 637 671 All Results are based on
490 486
500 133 Cisco’s Unified Throughput
0 Test Methodology
C8200uCPE-2vCPU ENCS5406-2vCPU ENCS5408-2vCPU ENCS5412-2vCPU
Ø BiDirectional 1 to Many Flows

Ø PDR = 0.01% Packet Drop

2000 1889 1889 1889 Tolerance
1500 1132
1054 Ø Based on RFC 2544
Mid-High 966
Mbps

1000 837
Range
Access
500 255

0 Large Packets
C8200uCPE-4vCPU ENCS5406-4vCPU ENCS5408-4vCPU ENCS5412-4vCPU

IMIX - Avg. 352Bytes

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VT