3.2. HTTP-Test

We did perform the HTTP-Test in order to be able to compare the performance characteristics of the ip-stacks with values raised by a
test on the same application layer level as FTP. In fact HTTP is a protocol on top of tcp which is in top of ip. So the values can be compared
with the ones raised by the FTP test which is also a protocol on top of tcp.

Realization:

We transmitted the same files like we did in the FTP-test, but in this case we only considered transmission over 100 MB/s ethernet LAN. The realization was the same like in the FTP-test: Each file was transmitted 10 times and a mean value was computed out of these values. The source host was yui.fh-regensburg.de and the destination host was rfhnt8004.fh-regensburg.de.
We compiled apache 1.3.28 out of its patched source code using the KAME-patch apache-1.3.28-v6-20030912.diff.gz in order to make it IPv6 enabled
and then installed it on yui. Because we wanted apache to run on a non privilleged port (8000) we had to include "listen 0.0.0.0 8000" in the httpd.conf file.
On the client side we used wget 1.7 in its IPv6-ready patched version using wget-17-v6-20010716a.diff.gz from KAME.
Wget was used because we didn`t want to use only one client programm throughout the whole test. If we had done so, we would possibly not recognize a performance effect which reasons are in the implementation of the client.

 

3.2.1 NetBSD 1.6 --> WinXP

A precompiled binary version of wget 1.7 for Windows XP with built in IPv6 support is availible at http://win6.jp and was used for this test. The guys at http://win6.jp have compiled several applications for the Microsoft plattform using Cygwin and the patches from KAME. Also in the case of wget it was done in this way, so we can assume to use nearly the same sources as we do in the UNIX-environment.

For the exact values please refer to: HTTPPerfOutIP4WIN.html and HTTPPerfOutIP6WIN.html

IPv6 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 4.25
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 4.03
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 4.12
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 3.98
800MB 873342064 832,88 3.86
600MB 655006548 624,66 3.74
400MB 436671032 416.44 3.40
300MB 327503274 312.33 2.94
200MB 218335516 208.22 2.58
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 2.75
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 3.62
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 3.96
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 3.89
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 3.92
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 3.76
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 4.17

 

IPv4 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 3.49
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 3.34
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 3.20
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 3.06
800MB 873342064 832,88 2.95
600MB 655006548 624,66 2.98
400MB 436671032 416.44 2.95
300MB 327503274 312.33 2.79
200MB 218335516 208.22 2.49
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 2.54
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 3.30
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 3.71
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 3.54
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 3.98
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 3.83
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 4.08

 

3.2.2 NetBSD 1.6 --> SuSE Linux 8.2

In order to get wget 1.7 compiled with IPv6 support using the above mentioned KAME-patch, we had to modify the Makefile of wget in the following way:
The DEFS statement of the makefile had to be extended by the definition "-DINET6". This is necessary to tell the compiler to use the #define INET6 preprocessor command.

For the exact values please refer to: HTTPIP4OutLinux.html and HTTPIP6OutLinux.html

 
IPv6 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 8.46
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 8.47
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 8.54
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 8.61
800MB 873342064 832,88 8.64
600MB 655006548 624,66 8.73
400MB 436671032 416.44 9.25
300MB 327503274 312.33 8.94
200MB 218335516 208.22 8.79
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 9.47
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 9.46
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 9.31
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 9.57
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 9.11
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 9.63
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 9.67

 

IPv4 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 8.34
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 8.51
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 8.90
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 8.47
800MB 873342064 832,88 8.56
600MB 655006548 624,66 8.60
400MB 436671032 416.44 9.27
300MB 327503274 312.33 8.88
200MB 218335516 208.22 8.83
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 9.31
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 9.77
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 9.56
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 9.36
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 9.57
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 9.81
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 9.92

 

3.2.3 NetBSD 1.6 --> NetBSD

For the exact values please refer to: HTTPPerfOutIP4BSDYUI.html and HTTPPerfOutIP6BSDYUI.html


IPv6 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 8.02
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 8.10
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 8.16
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 8.14
800MB 873342064 832,88 8.23
600MB 655006548 624,66 8.22
400MB 436671032 416.44 8.27
300MB 327503274 312.33 7.91
200MB 218335516 208.22 8.30
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 8.57
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 8.58
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 8.61
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 8.64
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 8.56
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 8.67
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 8.44

 

IPv4 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 7,36
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 7,28
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 7,35
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 7,13
800MB 873342064 832,88 7,19
600MB 655006548 624,66 7,28
400MB 436671032 416.44 7,40
300MB 327503274 312.33 7,48
200MB 218335516 208.22 7,49
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 7,61
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 7,76
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 7,76
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 7,79
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 7,74
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 7,76
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 7,81

 

3.2.4 NetBSD 1.6 --> SuSE Linux 8.2 Kernel 2.6.0 test 9
IPv6 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 8,16
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 8,16
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 8,13
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 7,90
800MB 873342064 832,88 8,18
600MB 655006548 624,66 7,92
400MB 436671032 416.44 8.02
300MB 327503274 312.33 8.03
200MB 218335516 208.22 8.32
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 8.64
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 9.29
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 9.04
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 9.31
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 9.38
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 9.50
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 9.45

 

IPv4 100 Mbit /s      
File     Performance
Name Size in Byte Size in MB in MB / s
1600MB 1746684128 1669,12 8.38
1400MB 1528348612 1454,08 8.21
1200MB 1310013096 1249,28 8.28
1000MB 1091677580 1044,48 8.01
800MB 873342064 832,88 8.27
600MB 655006548 624,66 8.03
400MB 436671032 416.44 8.08
300MB 327503274 312.33 8.28
200MB 218335516 208.22 8.53
oo_641_src.tar.bz2 109167758 104.11 8.73
ns-src-2.1b9a.tar.gz 41592248 39.67 9.40
mozilla-source-1.4.tar.bz2  31867608 30.39 9.62
MozillaFirebird-source-0.6.1.tar.bz2  29793828 28.41 9.60
emacs-21.3.tar.gz 20399831 19.45 9.76
binutils-2.14.tar.gz  14269432 13.61 9.75
xorp-0.3.tar.gz  5879824 5.61 9.56

 

 

3.2.5 Summary

The following plots show the HTTP-Performance of all tested operating systems in one picture:

Conclusion

  • In the case of the UNIX-like operating systems, the performance throughput falls as the file size rises. With Windows XP it behaves exactly the other way round

  • Microsoft Windows XP is significantly slower than the tested UNIX-like operating systems - independent of the regarded IP-stack version

  • Linux is faster than NetBSD when using IPv4 as well as when using IPv6

  • The IPv6-stack of every tested operating system is faster than the IPv4-stack