I decided to do some testing today while I had the time, and wanted to see if my results are typical for speed differences between IPsec and OpenVPN.
I have 4 routers, all virtual machines on an esxi server test environment, with gigabit virtual networks. All virtual routers were running RouterOS x86 6.34 stable, with 1 processor and 256mb RAM.
Drawing1.jpg
Router1 and Router2 had the L2TP/IPsec and OpenVPN connections
Router3 had the bandwidth test server, and speed tests were done from Router4.
Here’s my results…
Direct Routes (no tunnel) - avg TX - 3.1Gbps and Router2 avg cpu load %80
avg RX - 3.3Gbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %100
L2TP (no IPsec) - avg TX - 1.7Gbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %95
avg RX - 1.8Gbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %100
L2TP w/IPsec -avg TX - 260Mbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %100
avg RX - 255Mbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %100
OpenVPN -avg TX - 180Mbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %95
avg RX - 170Mbps and Router 2 avg cpu load %95
Do my findings go along with other tests you guys might have done in the past? It looks as if OpenVPN is significantly slower, yet easier on the CPU by a small margin?