More Sun Ray Bandwidth

I've been doing some testing this morning with Bandwidth over Sun Ray's.  YOUR RESULTS WILL VARY, THESE ARE JUST AN EXAMPLE, USING MY APPLICATIONS.

First, I forced Sun Ray to 1024x768@60hz

/opt/SUNWut/sbin/utresadm -a -c -t default 1024x768@60

the -t default means no matter what token is put in, default the resolution to 1024x768@60

using SRSS 4.1.

Test 1:  forced UTTSC with -A 8 to force 8 bit windows mode

 lost      0/00% pkts     93 cpu   0% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 1.5(2.0) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     97 cpu   0% kbytes     36 0.014 Mbps 2.0(2.0) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     92 cpu   0% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 1.4(1.7) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     94 cpu   0% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 1.7(1.7) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     95 cpu   0% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 1.5(1.6) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     93 cpu   0% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 1.5(1.5) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     93 cpu   3% kbytes     35 0.014 Mbps 2.1(1.8) ms

Test 2: Forced UTTSC with a -A 15 No Compression forced on the DTU

lost      0/00% pkts    873 cpu   0% kbytes    779 0.060 Mbps 5.1(5.1) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    158 cpu   4% kbytes    144 0.056 Mbps 2.0(3.5) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    157 cpu   0% kbytes    144 0.056 Mbps 2.0(2.8) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    130 cpu   0% kbytes    135 0.053 Mbps 1.5(2.2) ms

Test 3: Forced UTTSC with a -A 15 and Forced compression on the DTU

 lost      0/00% pkts     60 cpu   0% kbytes     34 0.013 Mbps 4.5(4.5) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts     60 cpu   0% kbytes     34 0.013 Mbps 1.9(3.2) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    106 cpu   0% kbytes     39 0.016 Mbps 2.2(2.7) ms
-------
 lost      0/00% pkts    458 cpu   0% kbytes    203 0.016 Mbps 1.6(1.6) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    104 cpu   0% kbytes     38 0.015 Mbps 1.6(1.6) ms

Test 4: Forced UTTSC with a -A 16 and Forced Compression on the DTU

 lost      0/00% pkts    107 cpu   0% kbytes     38 0.015 Mbps 2.0(2.0) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    104 cpu   0% kbytes     38 0.015 Mbps 1.5(1.7) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    106 cpu   4% kbytes     38 0.015 Mbps 1.5(1.6) ms
-------
 lost      0/00% pkts    592 cpu   1% kbytes    254 0.019 Mbps 1.5(1.5) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    106 cpu   0% kbytes     38 0.015 Mbps 1.5(1.5) ms

Test 4: Forced UTTSC with a -A 16 and No compressions on the DTU

lost      0/00% pkts    100 cpu   0% kbytes     98 0.038 Mbps 3.4(2.7) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    101 cpu   4% kbytes     98 0.038 Mbps 2.9(2.8) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    100 cpu   0% kbytes     98 0.038 Mbps 1.9(2.3) ms
 lost      0/00% pkts    110 cpu   0% kbytes     94 0.037 Mbps 2.1(2.0) ms

I stopped here, as I would never do 24 bit unless you twisted my arm, I feel there is very little need for an average user to use 24bit color depth.

 What does this all mean?  The protocol that's being used with the Sun Ray's is an adaptive protocol.  I like to describe it with a toll booth.  Let's say I have 8 lanes to pay the toll's and no one else on the toll way.  I can use all 8 lanes if necessary, but as more traffic is added to the toll way, the ability to use all 8 lanes decrease, so the protocol adapts itself to it's current setting. 

The problem with this is 2 fold: 1) if you are testing on a private LAN, you will typically always have higher bandwidth numbers than if your LAN was being fully utilized.  In other words, when test a couple of Sun Ray's and you see 38Kbps, you can't take that number and mutiple it by the number of Sun Ray's being used at once, because our protocol will adapt as the network get's more utilized. 2) if you have a SRSS server on the other side of a WAN from your Sun Ray, the Protocol has a tendency not to approximate the bandwidth correctly, because it may see a very quick LAN and not the slow WAN.

 Solution: in the 4.1SRSS DTU firmware, there is a force compression option in the advanced menu.  You can also force from the params file, but I don't know how to do that yet, and is next on the list.