The limitation you see on the number of pps is mostly due to software and hardware artifacts. With careful tuning (interrupt affinities, etc.), or bypassing a

The limitation you see on the number of pps is mostly due to software and hardware artifacts. With careful tuning (interrupt affinities, etc.), or bypassing a bunch of software layering (e.g. Netmap), or special stacks (e.g. Intel DPDK) you should be able to hit "line rate" packet processing.