Is greater than 1 gigabit throughput possible?

Jules123

Jules123

Jules123

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Hi,

I need to save high def image files from one pc to another. I calculate that what is required is a 6MB file at 25 frames per sec, that is 150MB (1.2Gbit) needs to be transferred from one PC to the other per second.

Both my PCs feature 2x Gigabit LAN built in on the motherboard and run Windows 7. The PC I'm saving the images to has an SSD drive.

Is it possible to connect all network ports from both machines (2 Ethernet cables from one PC and 2 cables from the other) to the same gigabit switch to increase maximum possible throughput to 2 Gigabit per sec from one PC to the other on the same LAN network?

Overclockers sells the TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch (TL-SG1008D) here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-012-TP

Would this be a good switch to get for my needs to achieve this?

Thanks for any help,
Jules
 
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It's possible but not on the cheap. I guess the only options are to look into 10 gigabit kit which will be outrageously expensive since it's not for home users or to get a proper gigabit switch and some decent NICs which will let you do link aggregation/teaming.

You're not going to do it with a 25 quid switch and 2 ethernet cables though, that won't do anything for you. You'll need a few hundred quid for a decent switch and NICs. Basically how much are you willing to pay? :)

Also, I assume also that not only the destination PC has an SSD, but the source does too?
 
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bremen1874 said:
Teaming the NICs won’t help for what you’re doing (and just connecting both ports via an unmanaged switch wouldn’t work anyway).
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Actually yes, it'd only benefit if you were doing at least two transfers at the same time wouldn't it?

So 10 gig kit is pretty much the only option and that'll be a lot of cash. Not worth it for a home user.
 
Thanks for all the quick replies.

The source PC indeed has an SSD drive where the images are queued up. I could save two files at the same time if that helps. Would then a managed gigabit (more expensive) switch help?

Both machines are close together. Or could I connect one PC to the other via a crossover cable as well as the normal connection to each other via a switch? Would that not overcome the teaming (unmanaged) switch issue? Not sure how I would set that up in Windows though, but if theoretically possible then I'd give it a go.

Jules
 
It is possible - You need to make sure that your NIC's support 802.3ad. However it is unusual for motherboard NIC's to support 802.3ad. There are NIC available from Intel and the like that will work, you will then need a switch that also supports 802.3ad. This should* allow a greater than gigabit throughput.

Syngress

*Make sure the NIC's support per-packet load balancing and not just per flow, if it just per flow you will only get a maximum of 1Gb/s per transfer, but multiple simultaneous transfers will go above 1Gb/s
 
Have you tried it over gigabit?

I find streaming 1080p blu-rays rips (circa 45MB/sec) fine on a cat6 network, so you really have to ask what are you doing that requires the bandwidth you're after?

10GB switching is available, but not cheap (+fiddly to install).
 
Well PhillyDee, lots and very fast is the answer to the question.

I'm transferring uncompressed video (sequence of frame images) from the source computer at 150MB/sec to another computer where it is mixed with some computer graphics and then displayed on a monitor in real-time. It's a personal project of mine.

Frustrating to find that a 10 Gigabit solution is so expensive. I can conceivably buy 2x10 Gigabit NICs; one in each machine and link them directly. Can a crossover cable work still (can't afford any of those industrial 10Gbit switches)?

Or is there another cheaper solution? Syngress came up with an interesting solution. Anyone had any real-world experience, would it work in my case? I wouldn't want to fork out for the kit and find practical problems like dropped frames.

Jules
 
Jules123 said:
Well PhillyDee, lots and very fast is the answer to the question.

I'm transferring uncompressed video (sequence of frame images) from the source computer at 150MB/sec to another computer where it is mixed with some computer graphics and then displayed on a monitor in real-time. It's a personal project of mine.

Frustrating to find that a 10 Gigabit solution is so expensive. I can conceivably buy 2x10 Gigabit NICs; one in each machine and link them directly. Can a crossover cable work still (can't afford any of those industrial 10Gbit switches)?

Or is there another cheaper solution? Syngress came up with an interesting solution. Anyone had any real-world experience, would it work in my case? I wouldn't want to fork out for the kit and find practical problems like dropped frames.

Jules
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Wait a few more months for Intel Light-Peak (aka Apple Thunderbolt) add in cards. They are destined for the mass market and should be pretty cheap (<£30 each i'd guess) and you'll be able to do 10Gb/s over three meters or so with the current copper cables. Eventually there will be optical cables too which will work with the same cards and allow for cables hundreds of meters in length.

Thinking about it, you might be able to do something with USB 3.0, you used to be able to get usb 2.0 bridge cables for creating simple networks between two PC's, Maybe there's something out for USB 3.0 - which should do 5Gb/s.
 
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Jules, What speed disks do you have? If you are not using SSDs (or a massive RAID array), then you won't manage to fill much more than a 1Gbps network link anyway.

The disk performance at each end would have to be better than 125MBps read/write to make an upgrade worth while.

EDIT: should learn to read, you do have SSDs

You can connect 2 10G adapters back to back, and crossover cables are not required (do not exist) for 1000Base-T or 10GBase-T. You need at least 8 lanes of PCIe1 to support the bandwidth of a single 10G ethernet port.
 
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Zarf, Intel Light Peak seems incredible. I want it now! I hope it doesn't stay in development for too much longer.

Thanks HazardO, I do have PCI-E x8/x16 slots.

Which one to go for? I don't need to make a decision right away. May wait a couple more months or so to see if Intel's offering becomes buyable products in PC land.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Jules
 
Jules123 said:
Zarf, Intel Light Peak seems incredible. I want it now! I hope it doesn't stay in development for too much longer.

Thanks HazardO, I do have PCI-E x8/x16 slots.

Which one to go for? I don't need to make a decision right away. May wait a couple more months or so to see if Intel's offering becomes buyable products in PC land.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Jules
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It's out on Macbooks now, and PC's in April apparently.
The optical cables will take longer unfortunately, they were more expensive and fragile, and since 3M copper ones are long enough for most people work on the optical ones has been put on the back burner. With my current room arrangement 3M should be plenty to link my server and gaming comp, and daisy-chaining devices is no problem.
 
In answer to your questions re crossover cables on multiple NIC's yes this would work.

I have had some real world experience of this, although when doing it on desktops it was with 100Mb NIC's before Gige became affordable, much like 10Gb is at the moment. I have also set this up in a network environment (Between routers) quite a few times with success

Syngress
 
Syngress said:
In answer to your questions re crossover cables on multiple NIC's yes this would work.

I have had some real world experience of this, although when doing it on desktops it was with 100Mb NIC's before Gige became affordable, much like 10Gb is at the moment. I have also set this up in a network environment (Between routers) quite a few times with success

Syngress
Click to expand...

1000Base-T and 10GBase-T do not require crossover cables. 100Base-T is different in this regard.

IIRC 100Base-T has specific TX and RX pairs, hence the need to connect a TX pair from one adapter to an RX input on the other with a crossover.

With 1000Base-T and 10GBase-T each pair carries signals simultaneously in each direction, hence no crossover cable required.
 
Thanks Syngress and HazardO on present day 10Gb networking info.

Made up my mind now, I think I will wait a little longer. Found more info on Thunderbolt on Ars Technica here.

Zarf mentioned the Thunderbolt daisy-chaining (reminds me of good old scsi days). Does that mean the effective throughput when communicating between one end of the chain to the other is divided by the number of devices connected in between?


Jules
 
In my brief readings Thunderbolt appears to have more similarities with Firewire than it does with SCSI.

Hopefully there will be peer-to-peer Thunderbolt implementations in the future, but I haven’t come across anything planned for release in the immediate future.
 
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