Effects of high router cpu on your network

[loveroots]

Hi Expert I wanted to know what effects a router with high cpu will have on a network. effects such as performance with application. Also what are the effects a network with high bandwidth usage

 

[burtsbees]

High CPU utilization could result in slower throughput, slower processing of packets (queueing, acl's, firewall, QoS, etc.). All of this really depends on the platform. As far as actual software apps, the throughput has nothing to do with the processing of the software---that is all done on the server or workstation...the router simply forwards the packets (based on its own rules). High bandwidth means it's time to upgrade the circuit...lol
High bandwidth will result in slower throughput, obviously. This will also tax the CPU fairly well.

Burt

 

[silverhairb]

I agree with Burt. If you try to run some apps on your PC when its performing a virus scan, the impact of the higher CPU and disk utilization is obvious.

What kind of router? What bandwidth? Will a firewall be used? If so, will it be on the router or a separate platform?

Here's a reference table to review Cisco router throughput. Its my experience that the numbers provided seem to err on the conservative side.

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf

Its kind of intuitive that if a router is going to provide firewall and other services, it would have a higher CPU utilization. Given a heavy CPU load, a lot of traffic and a big pipe, router throughput may be impacted (depending on the size of the router's CPU.)

[the other] Bill