CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB

MIB Reference — IPNetwork Monitor · Updated October 05, 2026

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Organization: Cisco System, Inc.

Last Updated: 2002-11-27

Category: Cisco Devices, Hardware and Environment

Description: Manages Cisco Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) hardware entities, monitoring forwarding plane performance and resource utilization.

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What Is CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB?

CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB is a Cisco enterprise MIB used to monitor the performance of Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) network processors — Cisco-developed hardware accelerators that offload certain forwarding functions for better performance. It exposes performance-history data for each active PFE pipeline (identified via the standard ENTITY-MIB's entPhysicalTable) across multiple measurement periods — 1-minute, 5-minute, and 15-minute intervals — including configured utilization/efficiency thresholds in cePfePerfConfigTable and live values in cePfePerfCurrentTable. Its core use is hardware performance and load monitoring: tracking PFE utilization and efficiency over time reveals whether the forwarding hardware is approaching capacity or operating inefficiently, and threshold objects like cePfePerfConfigThld1MinUtilization support proactive alerting via cePfeMIBNotifications before a forwarding bottleneck causes packet loss. It explicitly depends on ENTITY-MIB (RFC 2737) for identifying which physical PFE entity each performance record belongs to. It is deployed on Cisco routers/switches equipped with PFE-based forwarding hardware, such as high-end routing and switching platforms, in networks needing forwarding-plane capacity monitoring. Engineers can download the CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB file directly to load it into their MIB browser.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.

Supported Devices

  • Cisco router/switch with Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) hardware

Monitoring Examples

An administrator would poll cePfePerfCurrentTable for current utilization and efficiency figures on each PFE pipeline (keyed to entPhysicalIndex), and compare against configured thresholds such as cePfePerfConfigThld5MinUtilization and cePfePerfConfigThld5MinEfficiency. If the 5-minute utilization value consistently exceeds its configured threshold while cePfePerfConfigValidIntervals shows sufficient sampling history, that indicates the forwarding engine is nearing capacity and may soon start dropping or delaying packets.

What Can Be Monitored

  • PFE utilization (1/5/15-minute)
  • PFE efficiency (1/5/15-minute)
  • utilization/efficiency threshold configuration
  • valid measurement interval count
  • PFE performance threshold-crossing notifications
Imported Objects

From CISCO-SMI

ciscoMgmtOBJECT-IDENTITY

From ENTITY-MIB

PhysicalIndex
entPhysicalIndexOBJECT-TYPE

From SNMPv2-CONF

MODULE-COMPLIANCE
NOTIFICATION-GROUP
OBJECT-GROUP

From SNMPv2-SMI

Gauge32
MODULE-IDENTITY
NOTIFICATION-TYPE
OBJECT-TYPE
Unsigned32

From SNMPv2-TC

DisplayString
TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
TimeStamp
OIDs

RFC description

Cisco Packet Forwarding Engine performance history and monitoring on active processors.

Start monitoring Cisco router/switch with Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) hardware with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

Download CISCO-ENTITY-PFE-MIB