10GigE in Action: Setting Up a Single-Camera System

Hands-on experience with host system configuration, cabling, and camera setup.

Whether you are investigating how to use 10GigE or seeking advice on what to consider, this article provides practices to help ensure a smooth single-camera 10GigE vision system setup and good performance. We outline practices for host system configuration, cabling, and camera setup.

Best practices for host system configuration

CPU

On a modern PC, reassembling Ethernet packets into image data requires only a small fraction of the CPU's available processing power. However, most vision applications do much more than simply capture and store image data. To ensure you have enough processing power to analyze image data in real time, FLIR recommends using a 14th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 CPU or higher.

Large capacity storage

Streaming from an Oryx camera to disk requires mass storage to keep up with the 10GigE interface. Popular SATA 3.0 mass storage has a maximum bandwidth of 6 Gbit/s. To stream at full bandwidth using SATA hard drives or solid-state drives (SSDs), a RAID array of two or more SATA 3.0 disks is required.

Most new motherboards support M.2 SSDs. The M.2 standard uses a PCIe 2.0 x4 or PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, which theoretically provides enough bandwidth to match 10GigE cameras. Sequential write speeds are still limited by flash technology. As of early 2018, the M.2 SSD with the fastest write speed is the Samsung NVMe SM951 series, which has a sequential write speed of 5.2 Gbit/s.

Memory bandwidth

10 Gbit/s means a lot of data; sufficient memory bandwidth is critical for reliable operation of 10GigE cameras. A dual-channel memory configuration ensures that there is enough bandwidth to receive incoming packets, assemble them into an image, and process them in the vision application.

Figure 1. Dual-channel memory provides higher performance than a single-channel configuration.

Rather than using one large DIMM, use two smaller DIMMs that add up to the desired memory capacity. By installing system memory in a dual-channel configuration, memory bandwidth is doubled. The motherboard is color-coded for memory channels, simplifying setup. Memory modules used in a dual-channel configuration should match in speed and capacity. Many memory manufacturers sell dual-channel kits.

Your system should automatically detect and enable a dual channel memory configuration. However, it is recommended that you confirm and enable this configuration in the BIOS if necessary.

Figure 2. Example of a valid dual-channel memory configuration.

Systems supporting three- and four-channel configurations are also available. While the additional memory bandwidth of these systems will not improve the performance of 10GigE cameras, it may speed up memory and CPU-intensive vision processing applications. The current DDR4 memory standard is preferred because it provides greater memory bandwidth than older technologies.

SDK

It is recommended to use the latest version of Spinnaker to ensure that your system always has the latest features and performance enhancements.

Increasing the number of stream default buffers creates more software buffers. This improves system performance at the expense of system memory. The buffer size is proportional to the image size, so stream buffers for high-resolution cameras require more memory.

PCIe slot configuration

The PCIe slot where the network interface card (NIC) is installed can have a significant impact on system performance. The rule of thumb is to insert a 10GigE network interface card into the PCIe slot closest to the CPU. Not all motherboards are capable of providing full bandwidth to all PCIe slots. PCIe slots may share bandwidth with other peripherals such as USB ports or other PCIe slots. To determine which PCIe slots are running at full bandwidth, refer to the detailed specifications in the motherboard user guide.

Figure 3. Common locations of PCIe, memory, and storage connectors on an ATX form factor motherboard.

NIC Settings

Jumbo frames reduce the load on the CPU by reducing the number of packets that must be reassembled into an image. Network interface cards and switches used to connect 10GigE cameras should support 9K Jumbo Frames.

As 10GBASE-T is increasingly used in consumer products, a variety of network interface cards are appearing on the market. Third-party testing has shown that not all 10GBASE-T network interface cards can provide the full bandwidth of 10GigE. The ACC-01-1106 or ACC-01-1107 sold by FLIR have been fully tested and verified for use with our Oryx cameras.

Wiring method

Coiling Ethernet cables longer than they need to be may cause connectivity issues or degradation of the link between the camera and host from 10GigE to GigE. This is due to interference between adjacent coils. The effect will be more pronounced with CAT5e than with CAT6A due to the additional shielding of CAT6A. Sharp bends in CAT5e cables may also cause signal quality issues. RJ45 connectors should not be used.

For distances less than 30 meters, CAT5e will support 10GigE link speeds. For distances greater than 30 meters, CAT6A should be used. CAT6A cable has stronger shielding than CAT5e and may work better over short distances in environments susceptible to electromagnetic interference.

FLIR Camera Setup Instructions

Oryx can be used in multi-camera systems with other Oryx 10GigE cameras or GigE cameras such as the FLIR Blackfly S. To ensure reliable performance, the available interface bandwidth must be shared between the cameras. Exceeding the interface bandwidth between the switch and the host will result in dropped packets and frames.

Figure 4. Setting device link throughput limits to allocate interface bandwidth

The recommended way to set the bandwidth limit for the camera is to use the Device Link Throughput Limit control. Once the Device Link Throughput is set, the camera will limit the maximum frame rate to ensure that it does not exceed the allocated bandwidth.

Figure 5. Device Link Throughput Limit settings in the Spinview GUI

In the SpinView GUI, the Device Link Throughput Limit setting can be found under the Device Control section of the Function Browser, or using the search bar.