Re: Sierra Wireless (MC8780) HSDPA speed issue

From: Ralf Nyren
Date: Mon Mar 16 2009 - 08:48:19 EST


Thanks Rory,

I have tried changing OBUFSIZE in ppp_async.c (still kernel 2.6.28.7), first
512 and then 4096. However the speed "limit" of about 100KB/s remains the same.
So perhaps there's some setup/firmware issue with the hardware. If I understand
things correctly the Windows driver uses a proprietary protocol to init the card
while in Linux you use the AT command interface. Could be something there which
makes a difference I guess.

Best regards, Ralf

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009, Greg KH wrote:

On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 03:30:54PM -0700, Rory Filer wrote:
Hi Ralf

Using the driver we sent you on a call-box (i.e. with a "perfect"
simulated network connection) on Ubuntu 8.04 we were seeing ~4 Mbps on
the downlink. So I would rule out any problem with the driver and
conclude it must be something in either PPP/Linux or in the modem. In
order to rule out the modem, I've got a question into one of our UMTS
engineers and will send you a reply when we get the answer.

We did play around a little with 2.4 kernels of Linux and discovered
there is a buffer in PPP_ASYNC.C which, when its size is increased,
doubled the throughput. If you are savvy enough with Linux, you might
want to try playing with that. We stopped short of any thorough
testing of changing this array size, but were pleased with the result.
If I recall properly, the size of this array is (was, in 2.4) 256
bytes. Doubling it gave an immediate improvement. We were guessing
that the small size of this buffer was fine in the "old days" when
modems peaked at ~56 kbps. Even 8 years ago that was the fastest you
could go with a GPRS product, now our new HSPA+ products yields 21
Mbps on Telstra's network! Quite a difference.

Ah, the OBUFSIZE #define in drivers/net/ppp_async.c?

Anyone care to bump this size up and see if that helps out?

thanks,

greg k-h

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