Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Marcus Sundberg]

Hi,

I'm seeing severe packet-loss with two different types of network
cards:
D-link DFE-580TX (DL10050B aka OEM:ed Sundance ST201 chip) and
SMC 9462TX (NS83820 chip)

The machine is an Athlon XP1800+ with VIA KT266 chipset and what
I'm doing is to send several bi-directional streams of small UDP
packets through the machine. Each stream consists of 50 UDP
packets per second in each direction, with 200 bytes payload.

Using either Intel 21143 based cards (tulip driver) or Intel 82559
(eepro100 driver) I can send 100 such streams through the machine
with no packet loss (the load generators starts walking on their
knees a bit over 100). This equals 10000 packets/second or about
19 Mbit/s.

However using either the Dlink cards or the SMC cards I start getting
severe packet loss at between 50 and 70 streams. After fixing the
sundance driver so it doesn't turn off interrupts for 3.2ms whenever
the boguscnt counter in the interrupt handler happens to reach zero
I can't find anything particularly bad neither in the driver nor
in the ST201 chip spec, but packets keep getting dropped.
(The 83820-driver I haven't looked at at all)

Before digging further into this I'd like to know if anyone have
had similiar problems, or are using any of these cards/drivers
without problems, or have an idea if it is the chips or the drivers
which are broken? Or can just tell me whether these cards are
exceptionally bad or if eepro100/tulip are exceptionally good?

I migh also take the opportunity to ask if anyone can recommend
another 4-port (or more) 100Mbit ethernet card than the DFE-580TX?

//Marcus
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------
  Marcus Sundberg <marcus@ingate.com>  | Firewalls with SIP & NAT
 Firewall Developer, Ingate Systems AB |  http://www.ingate.com/

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Benjamin LaHaise]

What version of ns83820.c are you using?  Version 0.17 of ns83820.c 
made significant improvements under load.  Other possibilities include 
cabling problems (watch the kernel logs for changes in link state).  
Try to find out where the packets are getting dropped by looking 
through /proc/net/snmp and other statistics counters in the kernel.

		-ben

On Wed, May 29, 2002 at 09:01:47PM +0200, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm seeing severe packet-loss with two different types of network
> cards:
> D-link DFE-580TX (DL10050B aka OEM:ed Sundance ST201 chip) and
> SMC 9462TX (NS83820 chip)
> 
> The machine is an Athlon XP1800+ with VIA KT266 chipset and what
> I'm doing is to send several bi-directional streams of small UDP
> packets through the machine. Each stream consists of 50 UDP
> packets per second in each direction, with 200 bytes payload.
> 
> Using either Intel 21143 based cards (tulip driver) or Intel 82559
> (eepro100 driver) I can send 100 such streams through the machine
> with no packet loss (the load generators starts walking on their
> knees a bit over 100). This equals 10000 packets/second or about
> 19 Mbit/s.
> 
> However using either the Dlink cards or the SMC cards I start getting
> severe packet loss at between 50 and 70 streams. After fixing the
> sundance driver so it doesn't turn off interrupts for 3.2ms whenever
> the boguscnt counter in the interrupt handler happens to reach zero
> I can't find anything particularly bad neither in the driver nor
> in the ST201 chip spec, but packets keep getting dropped.
> (The 83820-driver I haven't looked at at all)
> 
> Before digging further into this I'd like to know if anyone have
> had similiar problems, or are using any of these cards/drivers
> without problems, or have an idea if it is the chips or the drivers
> which are broken? Or can just tell me whether these cards are
> exceptionally bad or if eepro100/tulip are exceptionally good?
> 
> I migh also take the opportunity to ask if anyone can recommend
> another 4-port (or more) 100Mbit ethernet card than the DFE-580TX?
> 
> //Marcus
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------
>   Marcus Sundberg <marcus@ingate.com>  | Firewalls with SIP & NAT
>  Firewall Developer, Ingate Systems AB |  http://www.ingate.com/
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

-- 
"You will be reincarnated as a toad; and you will be much happier."

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Marcus Sundberg]

Benjamin LaHaise <bcrl@redhat.com> writes:

> What version of ns83820.c are you using?  Version 0.17 of ns83820.c 
> made significant improvements under load.  Other possibilities include 
> cabling problems (watch the kernel logs for changes in link state).  
> Try to find out where the packets are getting dropped by looking 
> through /proc/net/snmp and other statistics counters in the kernel.

0.17, but some more testing showed that the ns83820 actually works
just fine during this test when using just crossover cables and
running at gigabit speed. The original testing was done using
100Mbit hubs, so my guess would be that the 83820 chips (and/or
driver) doesn't handle collisions too well (which I don't have a
problem with, as afaik GE is always switched).

However the DFE-580TX problems remain regardless of using a hubbed
or switched network.

(As booth eepro100 and tulip-based cards works fine with the hubs
I'm quite certain there's nothing wrong with them.)

//Marcud
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------
  Marcus Sundberg <marcus@ingate.com>  | Firewalls with SIP & NAT
 Firewall Developer, Ingate Systems AB |  http://www.ingate.com/

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[nick]

There are at least some gigabit ethernet hubs on the market.  How badly
does it handle collisions?
	Nick

On 3 Jun 2002, Marcus Sundberg wrote:

> Benjamin LaHaise <bcrl@redhat.com> writes:
> 
> > What version of ns83820.c are you using?  Version 0.17 of ns83820.c 
> > made significant improvements under load.  Other possibilities include 
> > cabling problems (watch the kernel logs for changes in link state).  
> > Try to find out where the packets are getting dropped by looking 
> > through /proc/net/snmp and other statistics counters in the kernel.
> 
> 0.17, but some more testing showed that the ns83820 actually works
> just fine during this test when using just crossover cables and
> running at gigabit speed. The original testing was done using
> 100Mbit hubs, so my guess would be that the 83820 chips (and/or
> driver) doesn't handle collisions too well (which I don't have a
> problem with, as afaik GE is always switched).
> 
> However the DFE-580TX problems remain regardless of using a hubbed
> or switched network.
> 
> (As booth eepro100 and tulip-based cards works fine with the hubs
> I'm quite certain there's nothing wrong with them.)
> 
> //Marcud
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------+--------------------------
>   Marcus Sundberg <marcus@ingate.com>  | Firewalls with SIP & NAT
>  Firewall Developer, Ingate Systems AB |  http://www.ingate.com/
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Donald Becker]

On Mon, 3 Jun 2002 nick@snowman.net wrote:
> On 3 Jun 2002, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
> > running at gigabit speed. The original testing was done using
> > 100Mbit hubs, so my guess would be that the 83820 chips (and/or
> > driver) doesn't handle collisions too well (which I don't have a
> > problem with, as afaik GE is always switched).
> There are at least some gigabit ethernet hubs on the market.  How badly
> does it handle collisions?

Huh?
Packet Engines used to sell FDRs -- "Full Duplex Repeaters", but (as the
name implies) FDRs were not collision based.  I don't know of any Gb
Ethernet collision-based repeaters.

Any collision-based operations will take place at 10 or 100Mbps.  Anyone
still using a repeater obviously doesn't need performance.

...
> > 0.17, but some more testing showed that the ns83820 actually works
> > just fine during this test when using just crossover cables and

You might compare against my ns820.c driver.  (Note: It was initially
released before the ns83820.c driver was written, although the ns83820.c
driver was the one put into the kernel.)


-- 
Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[ET Sales]

At 07:56 PM 6/3/02 -0400, you wrote:

Uh..aren't those 32-bit cards? There isn't enough bus bandwidth on a 32bit 
PCI bus to do gigabit, so its more likely that the cards are overrunning 
their buffers....

Dennis

>There are at least some gigabit ethernet hubs on the market.  How badly
>does it handle collisions?
>         Nick
>
>On 3 Jun 2002, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
>
> > Benjamin LaHaise <bcrl@redhat.com> writes:
> >
> > > What version of ns83820.c are you using?  Version 0.17 of ns83820.c
> > > made significant improvements under load.  Other possibilities include
> > > cabling problems (watch the kernel logs for changes in link state).
> > > Try to find out where the packets are getting dropped by looking
> > > through /proc/net/snmp and other statistics counters in the kernel.
> >
> > 0.17, but some more testing showed that the ns83820 actually works
> > just fine during this test when using just crossover cables and
> > running at gigabit speed. The original testing was done using
> > 100Mbit hubs, so my guess would be that the 83820 chips (and/or
> > driver) doesn't handle collisions too well (which I don't have a
> > problem with, as afaik GE is always switched).
> >
> > However the DFE-580TX problems remain regardless of using a hubbed
> > or switched network.
> >
> > (As booth eepro100 and tulip-based cards works fine with the hubs
> > I'm quite certain there's nothing wrong with them.)
> >
> > //Marcud
> > --
> > ---------------------------------------+--------------------------
> >   Marcus Sundberg <marcus@ingate.com>  | Firewalls with SIP & NAT
> >  Firewall Developer, Ingate Systems AB |  http://www.ingate.com/
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> >
>
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Benjamin LaHaise]

On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 09:21:50AM -0400, ET Sales wrote:
> At 07:56 PM 6/3/02 -0400, you wrote:
> 
> Uh..aren't those 32-bit cards? There isn't enough bus bandwidth on a 32bit 
> PCI bus to do gigabit, so its more likely that the cards are overrunning 
> their buffers....

32 bit cards are okay for most applications that don't use all bandwidth 
in both directions.  Also, if overruns occur, recent versions of ns83820.c 
do update the error counts in /proc/net/dev.

		-ben

Re: Loosing packets with Dlink DFE-580TX and SMC 9462TX

[Ben Greear]

Isn't the DFE-580tx a 4-port 10/100bt NIC?  If so, why the
talk about Gigabit speed?

ET Sales wrote:

> At 07:56 PM 6/3/02 -0400, you wrote:
> 
> Uh..aren't those 32-bit cards? There isn't enough bus bandwidth on a 
> 32bit PCI bus to do gigabit, so its more likely that the cards are 
> overrunning their buffers....
> 
> Dennis


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear