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Ethernet Usage

This guide explains how to connect to a wired network and test network bandwidth.

Connect to Wired Network​

To establish a wired network connection, simply connect the Ethernet port on your motherboard to the Ethernet port on your router using an Ethernet cable.

After a successful connection, you can check the network connection details by opening a terminal and entering the ip a command.

radxa@device$
ip a

The terminal will display output similar to the following, where 192.168.2.186 is the IP address assigned by the router:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: sit0@NONE: <NOARP> mtu 1480 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/sit 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0
3: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:e8:ec:f4:6f:8b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.2.186/24 brd 192.168.2.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
valid_lft 3212sec preferred_lft 3212sec
inet6 240e:3b7:3240:6e00::b09/128 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 3210sec preferred_lft 3210sec
inet6 fdaa::b09/128 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 3210sec preferred_lft 3210sec
inet6 fdaa::7ebe:84a2:306f:4271/64 scope global noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 240e:3b7:3240:6e00:9f8b:e83d:3c56:18e5/64 scope global dynamic noprefixroute
valid_lft 219073sec preferred_lft 132673sec
inet6 fe80::f69d:bf6f:3d68:cef1/64 scope link noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 76:13:0d:bc:43:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff permaddr 2c:c6:82:85:8d:fe

Network Bandwidth Testing​

Use the iperf tool to test network bandwidth (throughput) performance. It's recommended to run multiple tests and calculate the average for more accurate results.

Prerequisites​

  • Hardware Requirements

You will need two devices: one to act as the server and another as the client.

Server: PC, server, or similar device.

Client: Radxa board.

  • Same Local Network

Both the server and client must be on the same local network and able to ping each other.

Install iperf​

Both the server and client need to have iperf installed.

radxa@device$ & Linux$
sudo apt update
sudo apt install iperf

Testing Procedure​

Server Setup​

Open a terminal on the server and start the iperf server with the following command:

Linux
iperf -s

Upon successful startup, the terminal will display output similar to:

---

## Server listening on 5201 (test #1)
tip

If you see the error iperf3: error - unable to start listener for connections: Address already in use, it means port 5201 is already in use by another iperf3 process.

To resolve this:

  1. Check for running iperf3 processes:
Linux$
ps -ef | grep iperf3
  1. Terminate the iperf3 process by replacing <PID> with the actual process ID:
Linux$
sudo kill <PID>

Client Testing​

  1. Upload Test

Open a terminal on the client and run the following command to test upload bandwidth. Replace <server_ip> with the actual server IP address (which you can find using the ip a command).

radxa@device$
iperf -c <server_ip> -t <time>

# Example

iperf -c 192.168.2.186 -t 60

Parameters:

  • <server_ip>: The server's IP address.
  • <time>: Test duration in seconds.
  1. Download Test

To test download bandwidth, use the following command (again replacing <server_ip> with the actual server IP address):

radxa@device$
iperf -c <server_ip> -t <time> -R

# Example

iperf -c 192.168.2.186 -t 60 -R

Parameters:

  • <server_ip>: The server's IP address.
  • <time>: Test duration in seconds.
  • -R: Reverse test mode (client acts as server, server acts as client).