Overview of IP Performance

IPv4 Performance

You can achieve better performance by adjusting parameters of some IPv4 features in different application scenarios.

IPv4 performance optimization can be performed only after a device is enabled with specific functions, such as the interface maximum transmission unit (MTU), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) function, and TCP attributes.

ICMP messages are used by either the IP layer or the higher layer protocol (TCP or UDP). ICMP error messages require your attention.

IPv6 Performance

Because 32-bit IPv4 addresses may be exhausted, 128-bit IPv6 addresses are increasingly used. Most IPv6 applications are the same as IPv4 applications. Only some commands, interface configurations, and parts of applications are different.

IPv6 PMTU

The problem that different networks have different maximum transmission units (MTU) can be solved in the following ways:

• Devices fragment packets as required. A source host only fragments packets. An intermediate router not only fragments packets but reassembles packets.
• A source host sends packets based on a proper MTU so that packets do not be fragmented on an intermediate router. This reduces packet processing burden on the intermediate router. During IPv6 packet transmission, only this way can be used because IPv6 intermediate routers do not support packet fragmentation.

The path MTU (PMTU) discovery mechanism aims to discover a proper MTU value on a path from between the source and destination nodes.