PPPoE + Gigabit Performance Issues?

[sbaugher]

I'm currently running pfSense 2.4 (DEV) on their SG-2440 box (dual core Atom C2358 1.7 Ghz).  I recently upgraded my internet connection to gigabit fiber through CenturyLink.  Unfortunately, CenturyLink requires the use of PPPoE.  Because of that requirement, I've run into the issue documented here:

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/4821

The issue is apparently only present (or at least most pronounced) when using IGB based network cards.  Unfortunately for me, that is what the SG-2440 box uses.

I am considering switching over to OpnSense.  However, knowing that OpnSense is a fork of pfSense, I want to confirm the above issue hasn't been inherited by OpnSense, before undertaking the effort to make the switch.  Does anyone have experience with PPPoE at gigabit speeds with IGB cards on OpnSense?  If so, what has your experience been?

[Taomyn]

I ran the check on my box, they have IGBs though my fibre connection, also PPPoE, is currently only up-to 200MBit, and this is what I get:

Code Select Expand


dev.igb.0.queue1.rx_packets: 0
dev.igb.0.queue1.tx_packets: 2053481
dev.igb.0.queue0.rx_packets: 224843513
dev.igb.0.queue0.tx_packets: 236700320


Not sure if this answers your question, but what I can also add is that Suricata IDS/IPS does not work at all for my set-up which I attribute to the PPPoE, but I am still waiting on a fix. It was reported to FreeBSD I believe.

[sbaugher]

Thank you. It seems like the issue is present with OpnSense as well then.  The fact that it only uses one receive queue is what causes the slow download speeds.  Slow is of course relative, but on my SG-2440 box, with just PF rules (no Suricata or anything else), I max out around 525 Mbit/sec.

I know FreeBSD did some fixes to correct this issue, in 11.0, but my guess is there's still more to be done to make pfSense/OpnSense work at full speed.