Intel AS/400 RISC Server, 170 Servers, 7xx Servers manual Communications Performance

Chapter 5. Communications Performance

There are many factors that affect System i performance in a communications environment. This chapter discusses some of the common factors and offers guidance on how to help achieve the best possible performance. Much of the information in this chapter was obtained as a result of analysis experience within the Rochester development laboratory. Many of the performance claims are based on supporting performance measurement and analysis with the NetPerf and Netop workloads. In some cases, the actual performance data is included here to reinforce the performance claims and to demonstrate capacity characteristics. The NetPerf and Netop workloads are described in section 5.2.

This chapter focuses on communication in non-secure and secure environments on Ethernet solutions using TCP/IP. Many applications require network communications to be secure. Communications and cryptography, in these cases, must be considered together. Secure Socket Layer (SSL), Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Virtual Private Networking (VPN) capacity characteristics will be discussed in section 5.5 of this chapter. For information about how the Cryptographic Coprocessor improves performance on SSL/TLS connections, see section 8.4 of Chapter 8, “Cryptography Performance.”

Communications Performance Highlights for IBM i Operation System 5.4:

yThe support for the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) has been enhanced. The new IPv6 functions are consistent at the product level with their respective IPv4 counterparts.

ySupport is added for the 10 Gigabit Ethernet optical fiber input/output adapters (IOAs) 573A and 576A. These IOAs do not require an input/output processor (IOP) to be installed in conjunction with the IOA. Instead the IOA can be plugged into a PCI bus slot and the IOA is controlled by the main processor. The 573A is a 10 Gigabit SR (short reach) adapter, which uses multimode fiber (MMF) and has a duplex LC connector. The 573A can transmit to lengths of 300 meters. The 576A is a 10 Gigabit LR (long reach) adapter, which uses single mode fiber (SMF) and has a duplex SC connector. The 576A can transmit to lengths of 10 kilometers. Both of these adapters support TCP/IP, 9000-byte jumbo frames, checksum offloading and the IEEE 802.3ae standard.

yThe IBM 5706 2-Port 10/100/1000 Base-TX PCI-X IOA and IBM 5707 2-Port Gigabit Ethernet-SX PCI-X IOA supports checksum offloading and 9000-byte jumbo frames (1 Gigabit only). These adapters do not require an IOP to be installed in conjunction with the IOA.

yThe IBM 5701 10/100/1000 Base-TX PCI-X IOA does not require an IOP to be installed in conjunction with the IOA.

yThe IBM Cryptographic Access Provider product, 5722-AC3 (128-bit) is no longer required. This is a new development for the 5.4 release of IBM i Operation System. All 5.4 systems are capable of the function that was previously provided in the 5722-AC3 product. This is relevant for SSL communications.

Communications Performance Highlights for IBM i Operation System 5.4.5:

yThe IBM 5767 2-Port 10/100/1000 Based-TX PCI-E IOA and IBM 5768 2-Port Gigabit Ethernet-SX PCI-E IOA supports checksum offloading and 9000-byte jumbo frames (1 Gigabit only). These adapters do not require an IOP to be installed in conjunction with the IOA.

IBM i 6.1 Performance Capabilities Reference - January/April/October 2008
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