Hello,
I have been using the bpi-r2 as the base platform for prototyping our company’s 60GHz wifi module for a while now and since the very beginning, I’ve been struggling with a throughput drop issue. I would really appreciate If you could share your thoughts on this with me.
Our 60GHz Wifi module throughput reaches 1.3Gbps at its best. ~1Gbps is normally what I get in my day-to-day work. The module also has a 1-lane mini-pcie interface with the transfer rate of up to 2Gbps (i.e., PCIe 1.1 standard). You can think of it as one of off-the-shelves mini-pcie Wifi modules working on 60GHz frequency range rather than 2.4/5GHz. It is connected to bpi-r2 board through the mini-pcie slot, it supports 4-addr frames and will become part of the br-lan bridge after the boot up.
The typical use case is connecting two bpi-r2 boards using the 60GHz radio, one acting as an AP and the other one as a station. The bpi-r2 boards are also connected to a PC through one of the lan ports. My setup is like this:
PC #1, running iperf server <------ Ethernet cable -------> bpi-r2 board #1 <----------------- 60GHz Wifi ------------------> bpi-r2 board #2 <---------------- Ethernet cable ----------> PC #2, running iperf client
In this setup, the Wifi throughput between bpi-r2 boards is ~ 1Gbps (I use iperf for throughput test). But the max throughput that I can achieve between PC #1 and PC #2 is around 700Mbps and that’s what puzzles me. Replacing the wireless link with an Ethernet cable will result in 1Gbps throughput as well. So, I am left to believe that the throughput drop is due to data transfer rate between the mini-pcie slot and either the on-chip Ethernet frame engine or the on-board mt7530 switch, or maybe both. Is there anything I can try to confirm/pinpoint or even resolve this issue? Have any of you experienced similar behavior or I am simply doing something wrong…
Thanks a lot