imx6UL ethernet switching performance

[vladislavkasik]

Hello,

Does i.MX6 Ultralite support any kind of hardware acceleration of Ethernet switching on its two Ethernet interfaces? And if yes how to enable it?

If I compile and use the Linux Ethernet bridge module, then system load at maximum 100Mbit throughput is approximately 50% when 1500 byte packets are used. If smaller packets are used then the system load goes easily to 100%.

Platform used: IMX6UL-EVK

Part: PCIMX6G2CVM05AA

Kernel/BSP: Linux imx6ulevk 3.14.38-6UL_ga+ge4944a5 (compiled with bridge module)

Traffic generator: iperf -s / iperf -c

Load test: sar -u 5 100

Thank you very much beforehand.

Vladislav

[bpe · Accepted solution]

i.MX6UL Ethernet controllers offer certain acceleration to the OS

network stack, but these features mostly offload above-L2 tasks, such

as header recognition, checksum calculation, header alignment, etc.

Kernel bridge does not directly interact with these features.

If you wish an ARM-based processor with on-chip L2 switching capabilities,

consider i.MX287. See i.MX28 Reference Manual, Chapter 29 and

i.MX28 EVK Linux Reference Manual, Chapter 16 for more

details.

Have a great day,
Platon

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