FlexRadio > FLEX Signature Series Amateur Radio Products > SmartSDR-Win Tips & Tricks

Optimizing Ethernet Adapter

Settings for Maximum Performance
Tim Ellison
5 years ago · Updated

Follow

There are several things that you can do to optimize the throughput performance of your
Ethernet adapter to ensure maximum performance. These settings are not required to
operate your FLEX-6000 Signature Series SDR. Below is a collection of suggestions for
optimizing your network adapter.

1. Update Your Network Drivers

Making sure that your network adapter drivers are updated is the single most effective way to
ensure maximum performance. Check to see if your computer manufacturer has updated
network drivers for your PC. You can also update network drivers by identifying the adapter
manufacturer and model number and downloading the most current driver for your adapter and
installing it as per the manufacturer's instructions. A detailed description of how to do this is
beyond the scope of this HelpDesk article and is not an activity that our technical support team
supports.

2. Do Not Allow Windows to Power off the Network Adapter

Windows will power down hardware devices in order to save power. Powering down the Ethernet
adapter can result in the connection between the FLEX-6000 and the SmartSDR for Windows
client to lose connection. There is a device-level power management setting that will prevent this
from happening.

Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking
System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager.
Now expand Network Adapters, right click on the Ethernet device and click Properties.
Optimizing Ethernet Adapter Settings for Maximum Performance – Fle... https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/202118518-Optimizing-...

In the window that appears, click Power Management and un-check the option Allow the
computer to turn off this device to save power.

3. Green Ethernet or Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)

EEE also referred to as "Green Ethernet is a set of enhancements to the twisted-pair and
backplane Ethernet family of computer networking standards that will allow for less power
consumption during periods of low data activity. The intention was to reduce power consumption
by 50% or more while retaining full compatibility with existing equipment. The Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), through the IEEE 802.3az task force, developed the
standard. The IEEE ratified the final standard in September 2010.

Consumer Ethernet switches that support EEE will automatically adjust their respective power-
saving settings so that they match, but some Ethernet switches do not perform this mutual
adjustment properly, resulting in poor throughput performance and dropped packets.

If your Ethernet switch and Ethernet adapter support EEE, turning it off on both the PC NIC and
the Ethernet switch has shown to eliminate data errors and occasional device disconnects in
some cases.

In Windows, the EEE setting is associated with the network adapter hardware

1. Open Device Manager.

2. Double-click Network adapters.
3. Right-click the network adapter you want, and then click Properties.
4. On the Advanced tab, Look for energy-saving options and make the appropriate changes
you want.

For changing this setting on an Ethernet switch, refer to the Ethernet switch specific power saving
options and make the appropriate changes you want.

4. Ethernet Adapter Performance Settings

There are a variety of settings which may be available for your PC's network adapter that can
improve throughput performance. These settings are associated with the network adapter
hardware

1. Open Device Manager.

2. Double-click Network adapters.
3. Right-click the network adapter you want, and then click Properties.
4. On the Advanced tab, Look for energy-saving options and make the appropriate changes
you want.

Below is a description of these options and what they do.

Maximize all adapter buffers and descriptors - Set these values as high as possible for
maximum performance. On PCs with limited physical memory, this may have a negative impact
as send buffers consume system memory. On most systems, however, the maximum setting can
be applied without significantly reducing available memory.

Receive Buffers: The buffer size of system memory that can be used by the adapter for received

2 of 4 6/13/2022, 1:22 PM
Optimizing Ethernet Adapter Settings for Maximum Performance – Fle... https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/202118518-Optimizing-...

packets, which can be increased to help improve the performance of outgoing network traffic, but
it consumes system memory.

Transmit Buffers: The buffer size of system memory that can be used by the adapter for sending
packets, which can be increased to help improve the performance of outgoing network traffic, but
it consumes system memory.

Receive Descriptors: Sets the number of Receive Descriptors that are allocated in the host
memory and used to store the received packets. This can be increased if performance of
received traffic is lacking.

Transmit Descriptors: Sets the number of Transmit Descriptors that enable the adapter to track
transmit packets in the system memory. This can be increased if performance of transmission
traffic is lacking.

Settings and Parameters to Disable

Turn all "offload" options OFF - In almost all cases performance is improved only marginally
when enabling network interface offload features on a PC. Offloading tasks from the CPU to the
network adapter can help lower CPU usage on the PC at the expense of adapter throughput
performance.

Disable Interrupt Moderation / Set Interrupt Moderation Rate to OFF - This feature groups
packets together and sends them as a batch. It can be responsible for sluggish tuning of the
radio.

Disable Flow Control - It sounds counter-intuitive to disable flow control, but TCP has it's own
flow control mechanism and if an occasional UDP packet gets dropped, it has no appreciable
impact on the performance of the radio.

If your network adapter has the following adapter settings, set them as follows:

Disable Receive Side Scaling

Disable Adaptive Inter-Frame Spacing
Set Enable PME to DISABLED
Disable Packet Priority & VLAN
Disable Jumbo Packet

Was this article helpful?

Yes No

6 out of 6 found this helpful

Have more questions? Submit a request

3 of 4 6/13/2022, 1:22 PM