Intel's IGC Linux Network Driver For 2.5G Ethernet Speeds Up By ~7%

Wiring up an additional feature for Intel's IGC Linux network driver that is for their 2.5G Ethernet devices is allowing data to be sent up to 7% or so faster.

Landing within Intel's Linux networking next-queue is TSO support for IGC. The TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO) functionality is what's providing this latest Intel Linux performance optimization.

TCP segmentation offload allows a device to segment a single frame into multiple frames with a data payload size specified in socket buffer. As a result we can now send data approximately up to seven percents fast than was previously possible on my system.

TCP Segmentation Offload is also known as Generic Segmentation Offload and Large Send Offload. Punting this work off to the Intel NIC can also help in lower CPU overhead.

The IGC driver in the next queue has also added support for the i225-based "blank NVM SKU" with no other details on that part yet.

These IGC improvements and more should still make it into net-next in time for the Linux 5.6 cycle opening in a few weeks. Performance optimizations are always appreciated.