STM32-E407 Ethernet performance!

[barthess]

I can. Are you talking about this page
http://chibios.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id ... :community
or any other?

[Giovanni]

Yes, that one. It would be nice to have an article explaining the community repository, how to submit, pull requests, rules and everything.

Giovanni

[chradev]

Hi Giovanni,

Attached are a small set of changes to the 2.6.7 LWIP-FATFS-USB demo that do the following:

• Adds automatic DHCP support
• adds "ifconfig" command to the shell to display IP and MAC addresses, link state, etc.
• adds "ping" command to shell
• adds comments to readme.txt to help user build the demo

I tested this with my rev B Olimex STM32-E407 and it worked nicely.

As time permits, I will figure out why the rev E hardware does not work and will submit a REV_E board file...this seems important since anyone buying a new STM32-E407 will receive rev E hardware that appears not to work with the REV_D board file.

Regards,
Dave

Hi Guys,

I make some tests with proposed changes using latest stable ChibiOS ver. 2.6.7 on rev B Olimex STM32-E407 and it is working well. In addition I add iperf (network performance measurement agent) and uHTTP (http://www.ethernut.de/en/documents/uhttplib.html) web server following publication on http://www.emb4fun.de/arm/lwipuhttp/index.html. Currently iperf has some problems to wok with more than 2 parallel connections and after fixing the problem I plan to publish it.



Meanwhile I am interested to add to this demo PPP network interface following David's blog http://www.dalbert.net/?p=259. My target is to use USB CDC for PPP connection so some help will be appreciated.

Best regards
Chris

[Giovanni]

Hi,

USB CDC is pretty straightforward in ChibiOS, can help there anyway.

Giovanni

[chradev]

Hi,

USB CDC is pretty straightforward in ChibiOS, can help there anyway.

Giovanni

Thanks Giovanni,

Yes, that is why I did not expect the problems starting from David's example https://github.com/wizhippo/stm32f4-chibios-lwip-pppos but after adding USB it did not work at all (not digging the problem). That is why I plan to add PPP or maybe SLIP to extended by me example ARMCM4-STM32F407-LWIP-FATFS-USB.

About the PPP / SLIP choice I am not sure which one is better (LwIP supports both).
Even I am thinking about RNDIS over CDC like in https://github.com/fetisov/lrndis.
In case of PPP / SLIP over USB connection initiation should be moved to the host as well.

On the other hand it is good idea to make possible to up and down PPP/SLIP interfaces by command.
The perfect solution will be if the media USB/Serial and interface ppp/slip can be set by up command.
The last my hesitation before starting is about ChibiOS version 2.6 or 3.0.

BTW is it possible Ethernet interface to be switched on and off by command / config file at run time?

PS: I made some preliminary performance tests using iperf agent with 2 parallel connection and get more than 37 Mbps transfer rate. Immediately after adding iperf I can see transfer rates more than 50 Mbps but after some changes and adding uHTTP the results become lower and it is verified that uHTTP is not the reason.

Best regards
Chris

[Giovanni]

Hi,

I recommend 3.0 at this point. The Ethernet driver can be started/stopped at will but I am not sure it is what you asked for.

Giovanni

[chradev]

Hi,

I recommend 3.0 at this point. The Ethernet driver can be started/stopped at will but I am not sure it is what you asked for.

Giovanni

Hi

Thanks for the advice. When 3.0 will be released?
Yes may question is about the interface but starting/stopping Ethernet driver can also be helpful to spare resources - is there any examples?

Chris

[Giovanni]

Hi,

I wish to release a 3.0 "preview" in 2 or 3 weeks. The official release will follow, mainly because I wish to renew the web site at the same time and that part is not yet complete.

Stopping drivers, in general, reduces consumption because clocks are stopped on the peripherals. There is not memory saved because in ChibiOS allocation is static.

Giovanni

[chradev]

Hi Guys,

Find attached the project extending RT-STM32F407-OLIMEX_E407-LWIP-FATFS-USB ChibiOS/RT ver. 3.0dev demo with:

• Micro HTTP library (https://github.com/aegiryy/uHTTP);
• LWIP-FATFS-USB_Changes proposed by David Albert;
• some modifications and extra staff added by me;
• and extended description in readme.txt

There are some problems with tree, ping and iperf commands and any help is welcome.

Best regards
Chris

[Giovanni]

Cool

I hope to find some time to put in 3.0 all this new stuff regarding lwIP and FatFS.

Giovanni