{"id":3016,"date":"2010-08-16T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=3016"},"modified":"2015-09-26T11:11:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T18:11:03","slug":"measuring-network-performance-with-iperf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/measuring-network-performance-with-iperf\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring network performance with iperf"},"content":{"rendered":"

My new place in Austin came with a huge perk for a tech geek like me – it came pre-wired for ethernet in every room. \u00a0(Well, technically not every<\/em> room is wired. \u00a0The laundry room, bathrooms, and garage are not, an understandable oversight.)<\/p>\n

After installing a new D-Link Gigabit Ethernet Switch<\/a>\"\", I wanted to check the throughput to see if I was actually getting gigabit speeds – particularly because the house is wired with CAT-5e cable (and not the recommended CAT-6<\/a>).<\/p>\n

There are many ways to measure network throughput. \u00a0In the past I have usually copied a file across the network and used a stopwatch to get a relative sense of speed. \u00a0However, due to file sharing protocol overhead I always got disappointing results and never knew maximum capability of my network.<\/p>\n

This time, based on the advice of a more network-savvy friend, I decided to use a command-line tool called iperf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

iperf is a command-line tool to measure network performance. \u00a0It is very powerful, but also easy to use for simple tests. \u00a0For a more complete overview of what iperf is and what it can be used for, check out\u00a0this tutorial<\/a> or the iperf page on Wikipedia<\/a>. \u00a0iperf has a lot of options, and I won’t cover the majority of them here. \u00a0For more usage information, consult the iperf manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you run Debian or Ubuntu (Linux), iperf can be installed by executing<\/p>\n

sudo apt-get install iperf<\/strong><\/pre>\n
I did these tests with OS X on the Mac since both of my Macs have gigabit ethernet ports and my older PCs don’t. \u00a0A package for iperf is\u00a0conveniently\u00a0available from Macports<\/a>. \u00a0It can be installed via the graphical package manager Porticus<\/a> or opening a Terminal window and typing<\/p>\n
sudo port install iperf<\/strong><\/pre>\n
In my case, all I wanted was a quick test of TCP\/IP network performance. \u00a0This is easy to do, but it\u00a0requires two computers, a client and a server, both connected to the network under test. \u00a0Ideally, there should be no other network traffic during the test, as this will affect the results.<\/p>\n
On the first computer, launch the iperf server by executing<\/p>\n
iperf -s<\/strong><\/pre>\n
You should see something like this:<\/p>\n
------------------------------------------------------------\r\nServer listening on TCP port 5001\r\nTCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)\r\n------------------------------------------------------------<\/pre>\n
On the 2nd computer (the client), open a Terminal window and run<\/p>\n
iperf -c <\/strong><IP address or hostname of server> -i 1<\/strong><\/pre>\n
Within a few seconds, you should start to see reports coming in on both the client and server terminal windows:<\/p>\n
------------------------------------------------------------\r\nClient connecting to mini.home, TCP port 5001\r\nTCP window size:   129 KByte (default)\r\n------------------------------------------------------------\r\n[  3] local 192.168.24.135 port 65142 connected with 192.168.24.77 port 5001\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  0.0- 1.0 sec    110 MBytes    924 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  1.0- 2.0 sec    101 MBytes    850 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  2.0- 3.0 sec    109 MBytes    914 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  3.0- 4.0 sec    100 MBytes    841 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  4.0- 5.0 sec    111 MBytes    927 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  5.0- 6.0 sec    102 MBytes    853 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  6.0- 7.0 sec    110 MBytes    923 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  7.0- 8.0 sec    102 MBytes    858 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  8.0- 9.0 sec  79.4 MBytes    666 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  9.0-10.0 sec  93.6 MBytes    785 Mbits\/sec\r\n[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth\r\n[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1018 MBytes    854 Mbits\/sec<\/pre>\n
The last report (for the interval 0.0-10.0 sec) is the average throughput for the entire test. \u00a0I’m more than happy with 854 Mbits (927 Mbits\/sec peak!) given my fairly long runs of CAT-5e cable and other machines using the network. \u00a0 Contrast this with my results over 802.11g wireless:<\/p>\n
[ ID] Interval \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Transfer \u00a0 \u00a0 Bandwidth\r\n[ \u00a03] \u00a00.0-10.0 sec \u00a024.9 MBytes \u00a020.9 Mbits\/sec<\/pre>\n
Ouch.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My new place in Austin came with a huge perk for a tech geek like me – it came pre-wired for ethernet in every room. \u00a0(Well, technically not every room is wired. \u00a0The laundry room, bathrooms, and garage are not, an understandable oversight.) After installing a new D-Link Gigabit Ethernet Switch, I wanted to check … Continue reading Measuring network performance with iperf<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[443],"tags":[335,240,334,66,336,82],"class_list":["post-3016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects-2","tag-computers","tag-ethernet","tag-iperf","tag-linux","tag-networking","tag-wifi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-ME","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2024,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/microchip-internet-radio-demonstration-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":3016,"position":0},"title":"Microchip Internet Radio Demonstration Board","author":"Jeff","date":"June 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Microchip Technology, makers of the PIC microcontroller, have released a demo board for the 8-bit PIC18F67J60 that is pre-programmed to function as an internet radio receiver. Anyone familiar with the blog knows that I have a special love for internet streaming radio, so it shouldn't be a surprise that this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Microchip Internet Radio Demonstration Board","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/95837-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1872,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-9-a-few-odds-and-ends\/","url_meta":{"origin":3016,"position":1},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio – Part 9, A Few Odds and Ends","author":"Jeff","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the ninth part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio based on the ASUS WL-520gU Wireless Router.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out the previous parts (see the links at the end of this article) for some background about the project.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.ftjcfx.com\/image-3238164-10440897","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":516,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-4-installing-openwrt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3016,"position":2},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio – Part 4, Installing OpenWrt","author":"Jeff","date":"November 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the fourth part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out parts one, two, and three for some background about the project. 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Can Open Source Hardware Work?","rel":"","context":"In "Microcontrollers"","block_context":{"text":"Microcontrollers","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/microcontrollers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":480,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu\/","url_meta":{"origin":3016,"position":4},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio – Part 3, Hacking the Asus WL-520GU","author":"Jeff","date":"October 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out part one and part two for some background about the project. 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