An Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Streaming

Contents

Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Streaming

NI peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming technology uses PCI Express to enable direct, point-to-point transfers between multiple instruments without sending data through the host processor or memory. This enables devices in a system to share information without burdening other system resources. NI P2P technology is supported on particular models of PXI Express FlexRIO FPGA modules, FlexRIO coprocessor modules, oscilloscopes/digitizers,  arbitrary waveform generators, vector signal analyzers,  vector signal generators, vector signal transceivers, high-speed serial modules, and R Series devices.

In the system depicted in Figure 1, a PXIe-5622 digitizer in a PXIe-1075 chassis uses peer-to-peer data streaming to send data directly to a PXIe-7966R FlexRIO FPGA module. The FPGA module then sends data to another FPGA module for additional processing. Because the chassis backplane switches provide direct links to the slots occupied by the modules, you do not need to transfer data through the host controller or use system resources such as the CPU or host memory.

A PXIe-5622 digitizer streams data to two PXI Express FlexRIO FPGA modules

Figure 1. A PXIe-5622 digitizer streams data to two PXI Express FlexRIO FPGA modules.

 

Peer-to-Peer Application Example

One common need in RF applications is a real-time frequency domain trigger. While most RF instruments trigger on a power level, this trigger is independent of frequency. However, with peer-to-peer data streaming and processing using the LabVIEW FPGA Module, you can create a frequency-domain trigger. In the application depicted in Figure 2, the PXIe-5663 vector signal analyzer uses peer-to-peer streaming to send data to the FlexRIO FPGA module, where it is windowed, converted to the frequency domain, and then compared against a mask. When the data exceeds this mask, the FPGA module asserts a digital trigger on the PXI backplane. Once the PXIe-5663 receives this trigger, it uses its normal acquisition memory to capture a record of data, including pretrigger samples. You can then access this record from the host through the NI-RFSA driver for additional processing or storage.

In this application, a FlexRIO FPGA module adds a frequency-domain trigger to the PXIe-5663 vector signal analyzer

Figure 2. In this application, a FlexRIO FPGA module adds a frequency-domain trigger to the PXIe-5663 vector signal analyzer.

 

Programming Peer-to-Peer Systems with the LabVIEW FPGA Module

Programming peer-to-peer data streaming is greatly simplified by the NI-P2P driver. In the application depicted in Figure 3, FPGA No. 1 sends data directly to FPGA No. 2. In LabVIEW FPGA, simple peer-to-peer reader and writer nodes provide a first-in-first-out (FIFO) based interface for data exchange. These nodes are similar to DMA and local FPGA FIFOs. Before data exchange is possible, the host must connect the writer stream on FPGA No. 1 to the reader stream on FPGA No. 2 through the NI-RIO and NI-P2P APIs on the host (shown in Figure 3). Depending on the configuration, you need only one or two VIs to connect the peer-to-peer streams so that data exchange takes place.

Diagram showing the LabVIEW FPGA code for peer-to-peer streaming with two FlexRIO FPGA modules.

Figure 3. Peer-to-peer streaming between two FlexRIO FPGA modules and the associated software.

 

Benchmarking Peer-to-Peer Systems

With NI peer-to-peer technology, data streaming rates of up to 7 GB/s are possible in a single direction.  Maximum throughput is dependent on the streaming modules, chassis, and, if the configuration warrants it, the controller. Generally, the lowest of these rates is the maximum possible P2P bandwidth.

Peer-to-peer transfers are designed to have a very low latency, but it will vary depending on the system configuration.  When streaming only through FIFOs and the PCIe bus the typical latency is around 2-4 μs, though this will likely have an occasional spike into the tens of μs due to other bus traffic.  When streaming from a digitizer we can usually expect around 5 μs of latency and when streaming to an arbitrary waveform generator around 10-20 μs of latency due to onboard buffering.

When streaming to/from devices with onboard signal processing, such as the PXIe-5622 digitizer, the additional filters and other processing can add up to hundreds of μs of latency.  Finally, it is important to also consider the latency of the user code operating on the FlexRIO FPGA module when evaluating the performance of a system.

Chassis

All data must pass through a chassis to stream from one module to another, so the chassis plays a critical role in determining bandwidth. The PCI Express switches on the chassis backplane route data through the chassis and provide the high-bandwidth point-to-point connections that enable peer-to-peer data streaming. When modules are in chassis slots that are directly connected to the same PCI Express switch, as in Figure 4, the bandwidth is dependent on the switch.

Module placement in the chassis routes all data through a single PCI Express switch

Figure 4. Module placement in the chassis routes all data through a single PCI Express switch.

Table 1 shows the maximum bandwidths of the PCI Express switches in a given chassis. This bandwidth is achievable through any two slots connected to the same switch, and multiple connections per switch are supported at the given rate.  Chassis backplane architectures and bandwidths can be found in their respective specifications documents.

 

Chassis

Slots

Maximum Peer-to-Peer Rate (One-Way)

PXIe-1062Q

3-5

Dependent on controller

PXIe-1065/1066DC7, 8

Dependent on controller

PXIe-1065/1066DC9-14

Just under 800 MB/s

PXIe-1071

All

Dependent on controller

PXIe-1073

All

>200 MB/s

PXIe-1075

All

>800 MB/s

PXIe-1078

2, 3, 4

Dependent on controller

PXIe-1078

5-9

>200 MB/s

PXIe-1082Q

All

>800 MB/s

PXIe-1083All

460 MB/s

PXIe-1084

All

500 MB/s

PXIe-1085

All

3.6 GB/s

PXIe-1085 Gen 3

All

7.2 GB/s

PXIe-1086

All

3.6 GB/s

PXIe-1088

4,6,8

Dependent on Controller

PXIe-1088

2,3,5,7,9

500 MB/s

PXIe-1090All

895 MB/s

PXIe-1092

All

7.2 GB/s

PXIe-1095

All

7.2 GB/s

Table 1. PXI Express chassis P2P bandwidth

Controller

When modules in a P2P streaming system are not both connected to the same PCI Express switch on a chassis backplane, then data must pass through the host controller’s onboard switch or chipset, but not through its CPU or memory. This configuration is shown in Figure 5.

Module placement in the chassis routes data through the host controller

Figure 5. Module placement in the chassis routes data through the host controller.

Table 2 lists the maximum bandwidths of PCI Express switches or chipsets for a given controller. Note that this number represents the aggregate bandwidth through a certain segment into and out of the controller. If multiple peer-to-peer streams exist over these same segments, they must share bandwidth. Additionally, the chassis PCIe generation and number of lanes will also affect the maximum bandwidth. The values below assumes the chassis is of the same PCIe generation as the controller or newer.

ControllerMaximum Rate Between SwitchesNotes
PXIe-81353.4 GB/s 
PXIe-81331.6 GB/s 
PXIe-8130>600 MB/sLimited by chipset
PXIe-8106>800 MB/sFourth link not supported (to/from rightmost switch on NI PXIe-1075 and NI PXIe-1082 chassis)
PXIe-8105Just under 800 MB/sLimited by switch
PXIe-8101/8102/8108Not supportedP2P behind switches still works
PXIe-83016.4 GB/s (gen 3 x8)
3.2 GB/s (gen 3 x4)
 
PXIe-8360/8370Just under 800 MB/sLimited by switch
PXIe-8375>800 MB/s 
PXIe-83813.2 GB/s (gen 2 x8)
1.6 GB/s (gen 2 x4)
 
PXIe-8398/83996.4 GB/s (gen 3 x8)
3.2 GB/s (gen 3 x4)
 
PXIe-8821500 MB/s 
PXIe-88402 GB/s 
PXIe-88616.4 GB/s (gen 3 x8)
3.2 GB/s (gen 3 x4)
 
PXIe-8880/88816 GB/s (gen 3 x8)
3 GB/s (gen 3 x4)
 

Table 2. PXI Express controller P2P bandwidth

Modules

Provided the chassis and controller configuration supports a certain bandwidth, the PXI Express modules themselves can determine the maximum bandwidth achievable. Below are benchmarks and configuration details for various P2P-capable devices.

PXIe-7976R, PXIe-7975R, PXIe-7972R, PXIe-7971R FlexRIO FPGA Modules: These PXI Express FlexRIO FPGA modules are capable of streaming data at 1.5 GB/s into or out of the module. The number of streams and their bandwidths are determined by the configuration and programming of the FPGA on the device. The PXIe-7976 uses a PCIe Gen 2 x8 interface, allowing it to stream up to 3.2 GB/s into or out of the module.

PXIe-7966R, PXIe-7965R, PXIe-7962R, PXIe-7961R FlexRIO FPGA Modules: These PXI Express FlexRIO FPGA modules are capable of streaming data at more than 800 MB/s into or out of the module. When streaming in both directions simultaneously, the FPGA modules can achieve rates of more than 700 MB/s per direction, or a more than 1.4 GB/s aggregate data rate. This data may consist of a single stream, or up to 16 separate streams, one for each DMA channel of the device. The number of streams and their bandwidths are determined by the configuration and programming of the FPGA on the device.

PXIe-5622 IF Digitizer: The PXIe-5622 is a 150 MS/s, 16-bit digitizer that can produce data at up to 300 MB/s. For peer-to-peer streaming, the digitizer has a single writer endpoint that is located on a parallel data path to the onboard memory. You can write the acquired data to this endpoint to stream to an FPGA target as well as send it to the host through onboard memory. A key feature of the PXIe-5622 is the onboard signal processing (OSP) with quadrature digital downconversion (DDC), which provides up to 60 MHz of IF bandwidth in the form of complex I/Q data at 75 MS/s, or 150 MB/s. In this mode, the samples are interleaved by sample in the peer-to-peer stream, with the I sample followed by the Q sample.

Figure 6. Peer-to-peer streaming with the PXIe-5622 IF digitizer

PXIe-5122 High-Resolution Digitizer: The PXIe-5122 is a 100 MS/s, two-channel, 14-bit digitizer that can produce data at up to 200 MB/s per channel per stream. For peer-to-peer streaming, the digitizer has two writer endpoints that are located on parallel data paths to the onboard memory. You can write acquired data to these endpoints as well as send them to the host through onboard memory. 

Peer-to-peer streaming with the PXIe-5122 high-resolution digitizer

Figure 7. Peer-to-peer streaming with the PXIe-5122 high-resolution digitizer

Examples of valid streaming configurations are shown in Table 3:

Valid streaming configurations

Table 3. Valid streaming configurations

Note that it is possible to configure the module to generate data at rates that exceed, for example, the PXI Express Gen 1 x4 bus bandwidth, which can result in data overflow. The last configuration of Table 3 results in 400 MB/s per stream when sampling at the full rate (800 MB/s total). If you also send data to the host PC, you exceed the bus bandwidth. Decreasing the digitizer sampling rate can prevent data overflow.

ModulesModelsMaximum Peer-to-Peer Rate 
Arbitrary Waveform Generators
 PXIe-5450 (Rev. C and later)>800 MB/s
 PXIe-5451>800 MB/s
 PXIe-57457 GB/s
Scopes/Digitizers
 PXIe-5122**800 MB/s
 PXIe-5160800 MB/s
 PXIe-5162800 MB/s
 PXIe-5164***3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-5170***3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-5171***3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-5172***3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-5622**800 MB/s
 PXIe-56243.2 GB/s
 PXIe-57637 GB/s
 PXIe-57647 GB/s
 PXIe-57747 GB/s
 PXIe-57757 GB/s
RF Signal Analyzers
 PXIe-5663* 
 PXIe-5663E* 
 PXIe-5665* 
 PXIe-5667 
 PXIe-5668R 
RF Signal Generators
 PXIe-5673* 
 PXIe-5673E* 
RF Vector Signal Transceivers
 PXIe-5644R*** 
 PXIe-5645R*** 
 PXIe-5646R*** 
 PXIe-5840*** 
FlexRIO FPGA Modules
 PXIe-7961R>800 MB/s
 PXIe-7962R>800 MB/s
 PXIe-7965R>800 MB/s
 PXIe-7966R>800 MB/s
 PXIe-7971R1.5 GB/s
 PXIe-7972R1.5 GB/s
 PXIe-7975R1.5 GB/s
 PXIe-7976R3.2 GB/s
FlexRIO Coprocessor Modules
 PXIe-79117 GB/s
 PXIe-79127 GB/s
 PXIe-79157 GB/s
High-Speed Serial Modules
 PXIe-6591R3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-6592R3.2 GB/s
 PXIe-79023.2 GB/s
NI R Series Devices
 PXIe-7820R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7821R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7822R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7846R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7847R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7856R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7857R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7858R500 MB/s
 PXIe-7861500 MB/s
 PXIe-7862500 MB/s
 PXIe-7865500 MB/s
 PXIe-7866500 MB/s
 PXIe-7867500 MB/s
 PXIe-7868500 MB/s
IF Transceivers
 PXIe-57857 GB/s

 

Table 4. Maximum peer-to-peer bandwidth of the supported PXI Express Modules.

 

* The above mentioned RF Signal Analyzers are composed of three components: a RF downconverter, a local oscillator, and a digitizer. The digitizer is the component that does the P2P streaming. The digitizer that is used in these RF Signal Analyzers is the PXIe-5622. Similarly, the arbitrary waveform generator performs the P2P streaming for the RF Signal Generators.

 

** The PXIe-5122 and PXIe-5622 must have a current firmware version to enable peer-to-peer streaming, which was enabled as of NI-SCOPE 3.6. Follow the steps in the NI-SCOPE 3.6 Readme to learn how to update the firmware on your PXIe-5122 or PXIe-5622 device.

 

*** Software designed instruments may not support P2P streaming in their instrument drivers, but this capability is available through instrument driver FPGA extensions, and when programming with the devices’ Instrument Design Libraries. See the device-specific documentation for more details.

Calibration

Peer-to-peer data streams are in the raw binary format, which does not include scaling or calibration. The normalization coefficients can be queried by NI-SCOPE and applied to calibrate the binary data without scaling to volts. The normalized data adheres to the following criteria, so you can later interpret the binary information or scale it to volts.

  • The maximum positive binary value maps to the maximum positive voltage of the vertical range.
  • The maximum negative binary value maps to the maximum negative voltage of the vertical range.
  • The vertical range is divided evenly across the possible binary values.

Note: The maximum and minimum binary values span the NI-SCOPE programmed vertical range (e.g. ±11 V) even if the user has specified ±10 V.  This is to capture overshoots, even though the user set the range to be less than the overshoots.

Alternatively, you can query and apply the scaling coefficients to calibrate and scale the data in a single step. Refer to the High-Speed Digitizers Help for details.

 

Supported Devices

The following list of NI hardware supports P2P streaming:

Chassis
 PXIe-1062Q
 PXIe-1065/1066DC
 PXIe-1071
 PXIe-1073
 PXIe-1075
 PXIe-1078
 PXIe-1082
 PXIe-1083
 PXIe-1084
 PXIe-1085
 PXIe-1085 Gen 3
 PXIe-1086
 PXIe-1088
 PXIe-1090
 PXIe-1092
 PXIe-1095
Controllers
 PXIe-8105
 PXIe-8106
 PXIe-8130
 PXIe-8133
 PXIe-8135
 PXIe-8821
 PXIe-8840
 PXIe-8861
 PXIe-8880/8881
Remote Controllers
 PXIe-8301
 PXIe-8360 (PCIe-8361/8362)
 PXIe-8370 (PCIe-8371/8372)
 PXIe-PCIe-8375
 PXIe-PCIe 8381
 PXIe-PCIe 8398/8399
Arbitrary Waveform Generators
 PXIe-5450 (Rev. C and later)
 PXIe-5451
 PXIe-5745
Scopes/Digitizers
 PXIe-5122**
 PXIe-5160
 PXIe-5162
 PXIe-5164***
 PXIe-5170***
 PXIe-5171***
 PXIe-5172***
 PXIe-5622**
 PXIe-5624R
 PXIe-5763
 PXIe-5764
 PXIe-5774
 PXIe-5775
RF Signal Analyzers
 PXIe-5663*
 PXIe-5663E*
 PXIe-5665*
 PXIe-5667
 PXIe-5668R
RF Signal Generators
 PXIe-5673*
 PXIe-5673E*
RF Vector Signal Transceivers
 PXIe-5644R***
 PXIe-5645R***
 PXIe-5646R***
 PXIe-5840***
NI FlexRIO FPGA Modules
 PXIe-7961R
 PXIe-7962R
 PXIe-7965R
 PXIe-7966R
 PXIe-7971R
 PXIe-7972R
 PXIe-7975R
 PXIe-7976R
NI FlexRIO Coprocessor Modules
 PXIe-7911
 PXIe-7912
 PXIe-7915
NI High-Speed Serial Modules
 PXIe-6591R
 PXIe-6592R
 PXIe-7902
NI R Series Devices
 PXIe-7820R
 PXIe-7821R
 PXIe-7822R
 PXIe-7846R
 PXIe-7847R
 PXIe-7856R
 PXIe-7857R
 PXIe-7858R
 PXIe-7861
 PXIe-7862
 PXIe-7865
 PXIe-7866
 PXIe-7867
 PXIe-7868
IF Transceivers
 PXIe-5785

Table 5.  NI P2P supported hardware

 

* The above mentioned RF Signal Analyzers are composed of three components: a RF downconverter, a local oscillator, and a digitizer.  The digitizer is the component that does the P2P streaming.  The digitizer that is used in these RF Signal Analyzers is the PXIe-5622.  Similarly, the arbitrary waveform generator performs the P2P streaming for the RF Signal Generators.
 

** The PXIe-5122 and PXIe-5622 must have a current firmware version to enable peer-to-peer streaming, which was enabled as of NI-SCOPE 3.6. Follow the steps in the NI-SCOPE 3.6 Readme to learn how to update the firmware on your PXIe-5122 or PXIe-5622 device.
 

*** Software designed instruments may not support P2P streaming in their instrument drivers, but this capability is available through instrument driver FPGA extensions, and when programming with the devices’ Instrument Design Libraries. See the device-specific documentation for more details.

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