Note they cite higher numbers as the current status than the Cloudfare article. In the LWN article it says &quot;The kernel, today, can only forward something between 1M and 2M packets per core every second&quot;<p>Also eg. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;vger.kernel.org&#x2F;netconf2009_slides&#x2F;LinuxCon2009_JesperDangaardBrouer_final.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;vger.kernel.org&#x2F;netconf2009_slides&#x2F;LinuxCon2009_Jespe...</a> from 6 years ago show forwarding at 4 Mpps.<p>(Forwarding is, of course, receiving AND sending instead of just receiving so these should translate to higher RX-only numbers.)