Re: genet0 speeds under NetBSD/aarch64 on Rpi4 8 GB using UEFI/ACPI v1.17 firmware

[Jason Mitchell <jmitchel%bigjar.com@localhost>]

On 7/23/20 11:53 AM, Paul Mather wrote:
> On Jul 23, 2020, at 1:36 AM, Mark Millard <marklmi%yahoo.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> > Something is odd with your context? Or things have changed since
> > I installed from armbsd.org back in late May or so? (I've updated
> > uefi software but not NetBSD.) RPi4 8 GiByte RAM model against a
> > FreeBSD iperf3 server (a threadripper system), just the -R
> > direction:
> >
> > # iperf3 -R -c 192.168.1.120 --get-server-output --repeating-payload -t 20 -O 5
> > Connecting to host 192.168.1.120, port 5201
> > Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.1.120 is sending
> > [  5] local 192.168.1.131 port 65529 connected to 192.168.1.120 port 5201
> > [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
> > [  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  70.2 MBytes   589 Mbits/sec                  (omitted)
> > [  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  79.9 MBytes   671 Mbits/sec                  (omitted)
> > [  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  56.2 MBytes   471 Mbits/sec                  (omitted)
> > [  5]   3.00-4.01   sec  44.1 MBytes   365 Mbits/sec                  (omitted)
> > [  5]   4.01-5.01   sec  43.2 MBytes   362 Mbits/sec                  (omitted)
> > [  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  28.5 MBytes   239 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  54.4 MBytes   456 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   2.00-3.01   sec  38.0 MBytes   315 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   3.01-4.00   sec  55.4 MBytes   469 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  56.3 MBytes   472 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   5.00-6.01   sec  45.0 MBytes   374 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   6.01-7.00   sec  70.1 MBytes   594 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  53.6 MBytes   450 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   8.00-9.01   sec  49.4 MBytes   410 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]   9.01-10.01  sec  36.4 MBytes   305 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  10.01-11.00  sec  40.2 MBytes   341 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  11.00-12.00  sec  71.0 MBytes   597 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  12.00-13.00  sec  37.4 MBytes   314 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  13.00-14.01  sec  42.2 MBytes   350 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  14.01-15.00  sec  15.5 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  15.00-16.01  sec  20.7 MBytes   172 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  16.01-17.01  sec  23.0 MBytes   193 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  17.01-18.00  sec  45.8 MBytes   388 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  18.00-19.00  sec  55.0 MBytes   461 Mbits/sec
> > [  5]  19.00-20.00  sec  25.4 MBytes   213 Mbits/sec
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> > [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
> > [  5]   0.00-20.21  sec   869 MBytes   361 Mbits/sec  4604             sender
> > [  5]   0.00-20.00  sec   863 MBytes   362 Mbits/sec                  receiver
> >
> > Server output:
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> > Server listening on 5201
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> > Accepted connection from 192.168.1.131, port 65530
> > [  5] local 192.168.1.120 port 5201 connected to 192.168.1.131 port 65529
> > [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
> > [  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  55.0 MBytes   461 Mbits/sec  162   28.3 KBytes       (omitted)
> > [  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  79.5 MBytes   667 Mbits/sec  156   38.3 KBytes       (omitted)
> > [  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  57.3 MBytes   480 Mbits/sec  214   14.3 KBytes       (omitted)
> > [  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  56.9 MBytes   478 Mbits/sec  245   19.8 KBytes       (omitted)
> > [  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  39.2 MBytes   329 Mbits/sec  154   19.8 KBytes       (omitted)
> > [  5]   0.00-1.01   sec  28.6 MBytes   238 Mbits/sec  162   21.4 KBytes
> > [  5]   1.01-2.00   sec  46.3 MBytes   391 Mbits/sec  207   32.7 KBytes
> > [  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  51.8 MBytes   435 Mbits/sec  328   11.4 KBytes
> > [  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  40.3 MBytes   338 Mbits/sec  157   24.1 KBytes
> > [  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  69.1 MBytes   577 Mbits/sec  317   14.3 KBytes
> > [  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  43.8 MBytes   369 Mbits/sec  184   17.0 KBytes
> > [  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  57.6 MBytes   483 Mbits/sec  224   42.7 KBytes
> > [  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  54.7 MBytes   459 Mbits/sec  294   15.6 KBytes
> > [  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  55.5 MBytes   466 Mbits/sec  266   26.9 KBytes
> > [  5]   9.00-10.01  sec  44.2 MBytes   367 Mbits/sec  234   8.55 KBytes
> > [  5]  10.01-11.00  sec  27.2 MBytes   230 Mbits/sec  205   29.8 KBytes
> > [  5]  11.00-12.00  sec  69.4 MBytes   582 Mbits/sec  415   18.5 KBytes
> > [  5]  12.00-13.00  sec  37.8 MBytes   317 Mbits/sec  200   17.0 KBytes
> > [  5]  13.00-14.00  sec  56.5 MBytes   474 Mbits/sec  274   28.4 KBytes
> > [  5]  14.00-15.00  sec  14.8 MBytes   123 Mbits/sec   85   11.4 KBytes
> > [  5]  15.00-16.00  sec  21.9 MBytes   185 Mbits/sec  173   38.4 KBytes
> > [  5]  16.00-17.00  sec  18.9 MBytes   159 Mbits/sec  123   19.8 KBytes
> > [  5]  17.00-18.00  sec  35.8 MBytes   300 Mbits/sec  227   4.24 KBytes
> > [  5]  18.00-19.00  sec  55.1 MBytes   462 Mbits/sec  277   25.5 KBytes
> > [  5]  19.00-20.00  sec  35.4 MBytes   297 Mbits/sec  230   19.9 KBytes
> > [  5]  20.00-20.21  sec  4.60 MBytes   184 Mbits/sec   22   7.13 KBytes
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> > [ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
> > [  5]   0.00-20.21  sec   869 MBytes   361 Mbits/sec  4604             sender
> >
> >
> > iperf Done.
>
> After my original message I posted an addendum (https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-arm/2020/07/23/msg006887.html) that was an iperf3 session run against a different iperf3 server (my pfSense gateway).  That one got similar speeds to yours above.
>
> It's not clear to me why receiving from a quiescent laptop was a lot slower than from my pfSense gateway, but there you go.  (Note: receiving speed was not slow on the Raspberry Pi OS system.)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul.
I don't know enough to comment authoritatively, but through trial and 
error I've found that certain chipsets and adapters perform better than 
others when using iPerf. An good example of poor performing chips are 
those from Realtek. They're cheap, but it seems like they require a lot 
of processing power. Meaning if you have loads of CPU, they're fine, but 
otherwise they are slower than a better chipset (Intel for example). I'm 
not certain about the why, this is just what I've found.

Also, OS can make a difference. Windows is quite bad at iPerf 
performance, unsurprisingly. I'd be curious to know what kind of chipset 
the laptop is using and how that chipset is attached to the CPU (e.g. 
PCIe, USB, etc.)

Finally, adding -w 227k can cause a big difference in performance. 
Testing right now I've seen everything from .3% (342Mbit vs 341Mbit) to 
roughly a 33% increase (410Mbit vs 310Mbit) when adding -w 227k on the 
client side. That's a large a window as you can set on NetBSD, FreeBSD, 
and Linux (maybe 227k is the largest the application supports, I don't 
know).

Hope this helps,

*---*
*
*
*Jason Mitchell*