Re: Udp sending performance in Gbit Ethernet



JTL wrote:
[..]
> I again kindly ask you to read the previous posts and check the previous
> threads from google. This phenomenon has been detected in multiple
> configurations and multiple windows versions.

Writing network drivers is my main job. I did that for various network
cards since 1988.

We always did a lot of testing and thinking wrt performance
optimization both for hardware and software. One thing you learn is
that the more complex your optimization approach gets, the less
efficient it usually also gets (paradoxal, I know). There are just too
many side effects one cannot think of.

So I am *not* actually suprised by the behaviour you describe. We often
saw a sudden drop of perfromance for certain packet (frame) sizes. And
there can be just so many reasons like interrupts and DMA.

If the number of interrupts increases by a factor of 3 as you describe,
then there is probably some limit reached in the driver or in the card
such as the maximum DMA block size or alike, which forces the driver to
split frames into several DMA transfers. Since some cards generate an
interrupt at the end of each DMA transfer, this would be an
explanation.

But this is just wild guessing. I am not familiar with the actual
architecture of neither the driver or card's hardware that you use.

All you can do is:

1. Try different versions of the driver for the card (even older ones).
2. Try some other card (different chipset) along with its driver.
3. Holler at the card vendor's support (don't expect too much).

BTW, which chipset does your GigE card use (Marvell, Broadcom, Intel,
etc.)?

HTH, Stephan

.



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