A survey of analytical modeling of network interfaces in the era of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet

Analytical models can help to understand a system in ways that simulation does not and they can also model the expected impact of future hardware modifications, thereby avoiding unnecessary costs associated with more detailed simulation models or actual implementations. A network interface allows a computer system to send and receive packets over a network. Different factors (hardware and software) influence communication performance and a variety of optimizations have been proposed. In this paper we survey analytical approaches for performance evaluation of network interfaces over the period 2003-2009.