[RPi] Measuring RPi Zero USB Network Speed with iperf

As I saw Jeff Geerlings Website and his iperf Benchmarks of different RPis (Link), I wondered how the RPi Zero would perform by using the USB Virtual Ethernet Interface on my Windows 7 x64 PC.

So I got the latest iperf 2 Version (iPerf 2.0.5-3) from the iperf Website at https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php, installed iperf from the Raspbian Jessie Packages and launched the iperf Server on my Windows 7 x64 PC via iperf -s. The PC was attached to an Gigabit Switch via an Gigabit Ethernet Interface - so no bottleneck here.

Then I started the iperf tests via iperf -c IP -t 20 -i 2.
And these are results:

RPi Modell B Version pre 2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.2.4, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 43.8 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.2.98 port 37217 connected with 192.168.2.4 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 2.0 sec 13.9 MBytes 58.2 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 4.0 sec 13.9 MBytes 58.2 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 6.0 sec 13.6 MBytes 57.1 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 6.0- 8.0 sec 14.4 MBytes 60.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 8.0-10.0 sec 14.5 MBytes 60.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 10.0-12.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 12.0-14.0 sec 14.5 MBytes 60.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 14.0-16.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 16.0-18.0 sec 14.5 MBytes 60.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 18.0-20.0 sec 14.5 MBytes 60.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 0.0-20.0 sec 143 MBytes 60.0 Mbits/sec

60 MBit/s? Well... That is not as good as thought...

RPi Modell B v2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.2.4, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 43.8 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.2.161 port 55453 connected with 192.168.2.4 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 2.0 sec 14.1 MBytes 59.2 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 4.0 sec 14.1 MBytes 59.2 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 6.0 sec 14.0 MBytes 58.7 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 6.0- 8.0 sec 14.8 MBytes 61.9 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 8.0-10.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 10.0-12.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 12.0-14.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 14.0-16.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 16.0-18.0 sec 14.5 MBytes 60.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 18.0-20.0 sec 14.6 MBytes 61.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 0.0-20.0 sec 145 MBytes 60.7 Mbits/sec

60.7 MBit/s - ok, the RPi Modell B v2.0 got double the RAM (512 MB) than the old version - but that did not have impact on the network speed.

RPi 2 Modell B
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.2.4, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 43.8 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.2.111 port 38411 connected with 192.168.2.4 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 2.0 sec 22.6 MBytes 94.9 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 4.0 sec 22.4 MBytes 93.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 6.0 sec 22.5 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 6.0- 8.0 sec 22.5 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 8.0-10.0 sec 22.4 MBytes 93.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 10.0-12.0 sec 22.5 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 12.0-14.0 sec 22.4 MBytes 93.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 14.0-16.0 sec 22.5 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 16.0-18.0 sec 22.4 MBytes 93.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 18.0-20.0 sec 22.5 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 0.0-20.0 sec 225 MBytes 94.2 Mbits/sec

94.2 Mbits/s is a good value, the matches with Jeff ones - so I am feeling a bit better after the bad measurements of the RPi 1 B pre/2.0's...

RPi Zero
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.7.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 43.8 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.7.2 port 37992 connected with 192.168.7.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 2.0 sec 21.9 MBytes 91.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 4.0 sec 22.1 MBytes 92.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 6.0 sec 22.2 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 6.0- 8.0 sec 22.1 MBytes 92.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 8.0-10.0 sec 22.1 MBytes 92.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 10.0-12.0 sec 22.2 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 12.0-14.0 sec 22.2 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 14.0-16.0 sec 22.2 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 16.0-18.0 sec 22.1 MBytes 92.8 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 18.0-20.0 sec 22.2 MBytes 93.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 0.0-20.0 sec 222 MBytes 92.9 Mbits/sec

Finally - and that does come in as a surprise: I though the Pi Zero - attached via USB Ethernet would give me any value between some Mbit and some really odd numbers - but it closely matches an really solid 100 MBit Interface - so... Thats cool :)!

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