Performance Benchmark Report

Performance comparison of rtp2httpd, msd_lite, udpxy, and tvgate — four multicast-to-unicast conversion programs.

Test Environment

• Platform: Ubuntu 24.04 on Apple M3 Max (Parallels Desktop virtual machine)
• Architecture: aarch64 (all programs compiled natively as arm64 binaries)
• Kernel: Linux 6.8.0-90-generic
• Test duration: 10 seconds per test
• Measurement methodology:
  • CPU: Sampled using top -b -n 2
  • Memory: USS (Unique Set Size) read from /proc/[pid]/smaps_rollup
  • For processes with forked children, CPU and memory are summed across all parent and child processes
• Tested versions:
  • rtp2httpd: v3.8.3
  • msd_lite: commit 79a6c62 (2025-05-02)
  • udpxy: commit 56fc563 (2026-01-26)
  • tvgate: v2.1.8

Test Scenarios

Test	Description
Multi-stream test	8 clients, each requesting different multicast addresses, ~40 Mbps per stream (simulating 4K IPTV bitrate)
Single-stream test	8 clients, all requesting the same multicast address, ~40 Mbps per stream
High-bandwidth test	1 client, single stream ~400 Mbps

Test Results Summary

CPU Usage (%)

Test Scenario	rtp2httpd	msd_lite	udpxy	tvgate
Multi-stream (8 different addresses)	🏆 17.00%	25.80%	106.00%	331.00%
Single-stream (8 same address)	🏆 14.00%	14.20%	85.00%	51.45%
High-bandwidth (400 Mbps)	🏆 26.73%	39.50%	30.85%	89.53%

Memory Usage (MB)

Test Scenario	rtp2httpd	msd_lite	udpxy	tvgate
Multi-stream (8 different addresses)	🏆 4.50	10.25	12.53	182.00
Single-stream (8 same address)	4.88	🏆 2.62	12.53	33.25
High-bandwidth (400 Mbps)	3.88	🏆 2.62	3.21	47.38

Detailed Test Results

Test 1: Multi-stream Scenario (8 clients, different addresses, ~40 Mbps each)

Each client requests a different multicast address (239.81.0.1-8), testing the server's ability to handle multiple independent streams.

Metric	rtp2httpd	msd_lite	udpxy	tvgate
CPU Avg	🏆 17.00%	25.80%	106.00%	331.00%
CPU Peak	🏆 18.00%	30.00%	116.00%	332.00%
Mem Avg	🏆 4.50 MB	10.25 MB	12.53 MB	182.00 MB

Test 2: Single-stream Scenario (8 clients, same address, ~40 Mbps)

All 8 clients request the same multicast address, testing the server's multicast reuse efficiency.

Metric	rtp2httpd	msd_lite	udpxy	tvgate
CPU Avg	🏆 14.00%	14.20%	85.00%	51.45%
CPU Peak	18.00%	🏆 15.00%	108.00%	52.90%
Mem Avg	4.88 MB	🏆 2.62 MB	12.53 MB	33.25 MB

Test 3: High-bandwidth Scenario (1 client, ~400 Mbps)

Single client receiving a high-bandwidth stream (50x speed playback ≈ 400 Mbps).

Metric	rtp2httpd	msd_lite	udpxy	tvgate
CPU Avg	🏆 26.73%	39.50%	30.85%	89.53%
CPU Peak	🏆 29.40%	40.00%	46.00%	96.00%
Mem Avg	3.88 MB	🏆 2.62 MB	3.21 MB	47.38 MB

Conclusions

rtp2httpd demonstrates excellent overall performance in the benchmark tests:

• Highest CPU efficiency: Achieved the lowest CPU usage across all three test scenarios. In the multi-stream scenario, it used only 66% of msd_lite's CPU, 16% of udpxy's, and 5% of tvgate's
• Outstanding multi-stream processing capability: When simultaneously handling 8 independent 4K multicast streams, both CPU and memory usage were the lowest, making it ideal for multi-channel IPTV gateway scenarios
• Stable high-bandwidth performance: At 400 Mbps high bitrate, CPU usage was only 27%, leaving ample performance headroom
• Reasonable memory footprint: Approximately 4 MB memory usage (with all default parameters), stable across all scenarios, suitable for resource-constrained embedded devices

Compared to udpxy's fork-per-client model, rtp2httpd uses a more efficient event-driven architecture, showing significant advantages in high-concurrency scenarios. Compared to msd_lite, rtp2httpd excels in CPU efficiency, especially in multi-stream concurrent scenarios.

Running the Benchmark

See tools/README.md for testing tools and methodology.

Quick run:

cd tools
./benchmark.sh

Test results are saved to benchmark_results_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.txt.