Packets Per Second (PPS) Calculator
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Understanding Packets Per Second (PPS)
In network engineering, throughput isn't just about bits per second. The Packets Per Second (PPS) metric is critical for evaluating the performance of routers, switches, and firewalls. While bandwidth defines how much data can flow, PPS defines how many individual headers and routing decisions the hardware must process every second.
The PPS Formula
To calculate the PPS rate for a specific link speed, we use the following mathematical logic:
Why Overhead Matters
Every Ethernet frame includes overhead that isn't part of the "Packet Size" usually reported by software. This typically includes the Preamble (7 bytes), Start Frame Delimiter (1 byte), and the Inter-packet Gap (12 bytes), totaling 20 bytes. When calculating the theoretical maximum PPS, ignoring this overhead leads to inaccurate results.
Practical Example
If you have a 1 Gbps connection (1,000,000,000 bits) and you are sending small 64-byte packets:
- Total Size per Packet: 64 (Data) + 20 (Overhead) = 84 Bytes.
- Total Bits per Packet: 84 × 8 = 672 Bits.
- PPS Calculation: 1,000,000,000 / 672 = 1,488,095 PPS.
This is why high-performance firewalls are often rated by their "Small Packet" performance, as processing millions of small packets is much more CPU-intensive than processing a few large packets at the same total bandwidth.