AWS Performance Testbeds¶
CSIT implements two virtual machine topology types running in AWS EC2:
2-Node Topology: Consists of one EC2 instance as a System Under Test (SUT) and one EC2 instance acting as a Traffic Generator (TG), with both instances connected into a ring topology. Used for executing tests that require frame encapsulations supported by TG.
3-Node Topology: Consists of two EC2 instances acting as a Systems Under Test (SUTs) and one EC2 instance acting as a Traffic Generator (TG), with all instances connected into a ring topology. Used for executing tests that require frame encapsulations not supported by TG e.g. certain overlay tunnel encapsulations and IPsec.
AWS EC2 Instances¶
CSIT is using AWS EC2 C5n instances as System Under Test and TG virtual machines. C5n instances got selected to take advantage of high network throughput and packet rate performance. C5n instances offer up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth and increased memory over comparable C5 instances. For more information, see Instance types.
C5n features:
3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Platinum (Skylake) processors with Intel AVX-512 instructions.
Sustained all core Turbo frequency of up to 3.4GHz, and single core turbo frequency of up to 3.5 GHz.
Requires HVM AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) that include drivers for ENA and NVMe. See CSIT Amazon Machine Images for more information.
Network bandwidth to up to 100 Gbps.
Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor.
Model |
vCPU |
Memory (GiB) |
Instance Storage (GiB) |
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)*** |
EBS Bandwidth (Mbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
c5n.large |
2 |
5.25 |
EBS-Only |
Up to 25 |
Up to 4,750 |
c5n.xlarge |
4 |
10.5 |
EBS-Only |
Up to 25 |
Up to 4,750 |
c5n.2xlarge |
8 |
21 |
EBS-Only |
Up to 25 |
Up to 4,750 |
c5n.4xlarge |
16 |
42 |
EBS-Only |
Up to 25 |
4,750 |
c5n.9xlarge |
36 |
96 |
EBS-Only |
50 |
9,500 |
c5n.18xlarge |
72 |
192 |
EBS-Only |
100 |
19,000 |
c5n.metal |
72 |
192 |
EBS-Only |
100 |
19,000 |
CSIT is configured by default to use c5n.4xlarge in eu-central-1 AWS region due to allocation stability issues with c5n.9xlarge in eu-central-1 region.
AWS EC2 Networking¶
CSIT EC2 instances are equipped with AWS Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) supporting AWS enhanced networking. Enhanced networking uses single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) to provide high-performance networking capabilities. For more information, see Elastic Network Adapter.
For more information about the current advertised AWS ENA performance limits, see Computed optimized instances.
CSIT DUTs make use of AWS ENA DPDK driver supplied by AWS and specified in amzn drivers dpdk.