Performance

Catsplash is designed to operate with minimal resources on legacy hardware or embedded routers.

Test hardware

Component	Detail
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.79 GHz (2 cores)
RAM	3.58 GiB
Disk	ext4, 100 GiB
OS	Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), kernel 6.12

Concurrency test: 100 simultaneous clients

Resource usage

State	% CPU	Real RAM (RSS)	Virtual RAM (VIRT)
Initial idle	0.0%	~8.7 MB	~1.7 GB
Peak load	13.6%	~24.8 MB	~3.1 GB
Post-cleanup	0.0%	~14.7 MB	~2.4 GB

Response times

Metric	Burst #1	Burst #2
Successful requests	100/100	100/100
Minimum time	0.19 s	0.42 s
p50	1.34 s	4.70 s
p95	1.94 s	5.32 s
p99/maximum	2.34 s	5.72 s

Soak test (60 minutes)

Metric	Idle	Peak (100 clients)	Post-cleanup
RAM RSS	8.7 MB	24.8 MB	14.7 MB
NAT rules	9	108	9
Filter rules	10	208	10
DB size	12 KB	12 KB	12 KB
HTTP errors	0%	0%	0%

Key results

• No memory leaks: RSS stabilizes at ~14.7 MB after cleanup.
• 0% orphaned rules: All iptables rules are cleaned on session expiration.
• Stable database: SQLite in WAL mode maintains 12 KB with no growth.
• 100% HTTP success: All concurrent requests return HTTP 200.
• Deterministic formula: NAT rules = 8 + active clients, Filter rules = 8 + (2 × active clients).

Running your own tests

# 1. Create topology with 50 simulated clients
sudo ./tests/test_catsplash_multiclient.sh up -n 50

# 2. In another terminal, start Catsplash
sudo ip netns exec ns_router ./bin/catsplash

# 3. Run authentications
sudo ./tests/test_catsplash_multiclient.sh run

# 4. Clean up
sudo ./tests/test_catsplash_multiclient.sh down

# Or long-duration soak test
sudo ./tests/soak_test.sh -n 10 --hours 1