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Wired Network

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

Wired Network​

Connect the board's Gigabit Ethernet port to your router using an Ethernet cable. Once connected, the router will automatically assign an IP address to the board.

To view detailed network connection information, enter the following command in the terminal:

radxa@device$
ip a

The terminal will display output similar to the following. The IP address assigned by the router (e.g., 192.168.2.186) will be shown in the output:

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

Testing Network Bandwidth Performance​

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

Prerequisites​

  • Hardware Requirements

You will need two devices:

  • Server: A PC or server device

  • Client: The device to be tested (e.g., Cubie A7A)

  • Network Requirements

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

Installing iperf​

Install iperf on both the server and client devices.

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

Testing Procedure​

Server (PC)​

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

Linux@host$
iperf -s

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

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

Client (Board)​

  1. Upload Test

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

radxa@device$
iperf -c <server_ip> -t <time>
# Example
iperf -c 192.168.2.104 -t 60

Parameters:

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

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

radxa@device$
iperf -c <server_ip> -t <time> -R
# Example
iperf -c 192.168.2.104 -t 60 -R

Parameters:

  • <server_ip>: The IP address of the server
  • <time>: Test duration in seconds
  • -R: Reverse test (client receives, server sends)