Network Performance Evaluation Between Virtual/Native Nodes Running on ARM-based SBCs Using KVM as Hypervisor

Abstract

Single-Board Computers (SBCs) are increasingly being used due to their small form factor, reduced energy consumption, versatility, affordability, and increasing computational power. Therefore, they are now used in projects where they were not initially contemplated, such as running a Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). In this work, two ARM-based SBCs were selected (Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and ODROID-N2+) and an empirical evaluation was carried out to evaluate the network performance between two nodes running in the same SBC, or in different SBCs directly connected through WiFi or Ethernet. Although several hypervisors are suitable for these SBCs, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) was chosen since it seems to be the most active project that is developed for the ARM-based architecture. The metrics reported in this study include the TCP latency, UDP latency, TCP throughput, and HTTP latency. In general, the network performance of the ODROID-N2+ exceeded the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. However, the latter has an indisputable advantage over the former with a much larger and more active community, making the development and deployment of applications much faster and straightforward. Hence, selecting the suitable SBCs should be done cautiously, considering the required software and additional hardware that the project is planning to connect to the SBCs.