Isn't this mainly because Tailscale relies on userspace WG (wireguard-go)? I'd imagine the perf ceiling is much higher for kernel WG, which I believe is what Netbird uses.
Tailscale however, although it derives from WireGuard libraries and the protocol, is really not WireGuard at all- so comparing it is a bit apples to oranges. With that said, it is still entirely userspace and its performance is less than stellar.
I'm interested in this because I'm working on a small hobby project to learn eBPF. The idea is to implement a "Tailscale-lite" that eliminates context switches by keeping both Wireguard and L3 and L4 policy handling in kernel space. To me, the bulk of Tailscale's overhead comes from the fact that the dataplane is running between user and kernel space.
> "To me, the bulk of Tailscale's overhead comes from the fact that the dataplane is running between user and kernel space."
Yes and no, it's more complicated. DPDK is the industry standard library for fast packet processing, and it is in entirely user space. The Linux kernel netstack is just not very fast.
I think kernel networking is the only option for Tailscale (or any similar mesh VPN solution). Given this key constraint, the best you can do is do more work in kernel space and reduce context switches.