UDP packets frozen with at least I219-V, I219-LM and I217-LM

[KMari1]

Hello,

I am new to this community. I subscribed to ask a question here because I am really stuck.

My company makes electronic devices that use UDP 100 MB Ethernet communication with a PC (under Windows 7, 8.1 or 10).

It works perfectly with other brands of Ethernet adapters; but there is a strange behavious with the Intel NICs we tried (at least I219-V, I219-LM and I217-LM).

Basically, our electronic devices can be considered as cameras capturing about 150 images per second.

We send a small command on one socket via UDP to tell it to capture an image, then we receive the compressed image as a set of UDP packets on another socket.

Each packet contains up to 1444 bytes of data (to which one can add the data from the different layers of protocols, which in the end does not exceed the standard packet size => no need to use Jumbo packets).

The problem is that, sometimes (this varies from as often as every 5 seconds to as rarely as only once within a 10-mn period), I am waiting forever (until the defined UDP time out) for the data to arrive while it has been sent (I can see it by sniffing the data from another computer connected to the same switch). I could believe that the UDP packet was lost by the Intel NIC, but it has not been lost. If I send a new image capture command, the packets that I was waiting finally arrive, followed by the packets of the new image.

Why are those packets stuck?

Is there any advanced parameter that I could modify from the device driver's configuration window or from a Registry key?

Note that I tried updating the Intel driver to recent versions (last one is 22.4.0.1). It seems to perform a little better that some other versions I tried (like the one installed by default in Windows), but none of the versions I tried work perfectly.

Many thanks in advance if you can help me understand what is wrong (either from me or from the driver). I have been struggling on this problem for months and we have to equip our customers who own a laptop with an Intel NIC with USB adapters with a NIC made by another brand to bypass the problem.

Karl

[idata]

Hi Karl,

Thank you for the updates and glad the error is minimized, hope to hear another good news from you.Regards,sharon

[idata]

Hi Karl,

Please feel free to update me if further assistance needed? Thanks. Regards,Sharon

[KMari1]

Hi Sharon,

I recently installed the latest driver 22.7.1 released on September 26th 2017.

Because Windows can store several drivers (its generic one, some WHQL ones, and the ones I download and install from your website), I listed them with "pnputil -e" and removed all the drivers related to Intel network adapters with "pnputil -f -d oem??.inf", just to be sure that Windows would really use the latest one I install.

Surprisingly, after installing it, the Device Manager tells me the driver is version 12.15.26.6 from March 21st 2017.

I do not understand the way you number driver versions and the time difference between driver version and release date. So, please confirm that the driver I am currently testing is really the latest one.

Anyway, I like this driver version! It is still sensitive to the ITR parameter, but much less.

Low ITR still produce a lot stuck packets, but Variable ITR looks quite stable and the excellent news is that there is no performance drop-off with the rock stable "Extreme" ITR (value 3600)!

Therefore, I will continue using "Extreme" ITR and will recommend this particular driver version to our customers.

Best regards,

Karl

[idata]

HI Karl,

Thank you so much for the update and glad the driver work well. Yes, the latest driver version is 12.15.26.6 dated March 21, 2017. Regards,Sharon