TCP/IP Offload Engine

[Kuba Ober]

On Thursday 03 May 2007, Hank wrote:
> Here's good (but somewhat slanted) discussion why TOE is not supported on
> Linux:
>
> http://linux-net.osdl.org/index.php/TOE

It's pretty much dead-on. I can't say it's slanted. The problem is that TOE 
solutions are underdocumented and hard to fix, and their potential for 
security/RFC compliance fixes is limited. Using them with Linux makes little 
sense. In the long run it's cheaper to get an extra server, or an extra CPU, 
or whatnot, than to depend on a TOE.

Any decent system nowadays will support full traffic on two gigabit spans, 
with filtering and whatnot, for router-type applications. As for 10gb, with 
top-of-the-line hardware it should still be doable. Kernel profiling may 
identify bottlenecks, if they are in the software and not in the 
mainboard/nic/cpu combo.

Cheers, Kuba