Jumbo Frame Support (Custom MTU) for NI Products

Issue Details

Which NI Products with ethernet ports have the ability to use Jumbo Frames or custom MTU sizes?

Solution

To find out if the network adaptor on your PC can support Jumbo Frames perform the following steps:

1. Open up your network card properties in Device Manager, and select the Advanced tab.
2. Under the property list box, select Jumbo Frames. If this is not present, you most likely do not have the ability to use Jumbo Frames on the card.
3. After selecting Jumbo Frames, you should see a pull-down menu to the right specifying the size of packets. Select a packet size of 9014. Your PC will now be able to receive the large Jumbo Frames packets.

If any trouble is encountered during this process, please reference How to Acquire from GigE Vision Cameras with Vision Acquisition Software .

In general, NI hardware support for jumbo frames is determined by three factors: operating system, the network adapter chipset and the network adapter driver.  If you are unsure what operating system your Real-Time controller is running, please see Real-Time Controllers and Real-Time Operating System Compatibility.

The first requirement for jumbo frames is that the network adapter be a Gigabit ethernet port.  Any non-Gigabit ports will not support jumbo frames regardless of operating system or driver.  Additionally, all hardware on a particular network must support Jumbo frames in order for the data to be transferred in that manner.

In general, NI hardware does not support changing the MTU at this time (this includes not supporting Jumbo Frames). Most PXI Controllers and ENET devices do not have this capability. However, Ethernet cDAQ-918x supports jumbo frames with MTU sizes up to 9000*.  In addition to the Ethernet cDAQ, some NI Image Acquisition (IMAQ) devices support MTU customization for high data rates. You should check into these devices on a case-by-case basis to determine Jumbo Frame support. Any NI card that supports the GigE standard will support Jumbo Frames.
 

Additional Information

*Ethernet cDAQs that are TSN Enabled (i.e. cDAQ 9185 & cDAQ 9189) do not support Jumbo Frames.  This is due to Jumbo Frames not being supported by the TSN protocol.

Typically, ethernet devices transmit packets which are 1500 bytes in size. This has been an accepted standard since 1980. As faster data rates began to emerge, like 100Mbits/s, this standard was kept in place in order to have backward compatibility. However, with higher data rates, it is more efficient to be able to increase the packet size. Some commercially available devices support Jumbo Frames which are increases in the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU). However, all hardware in a particular system must support Jumbo Frames in order for the data to be transferred in that manner. 

For hardware not listed in this article, refer to that product's documentation for information on Jumbo Frame support.