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 board 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

2. 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.

2. 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).