Tags: faq realtime matlab memory

How fast is the FieldTrip buffer for realtime data streaming?

For real-time use of the buffer it is relevant to know how fast it can handle read and write requests. For a write request, the time depends on the number of channels and on the number of samples in the data block.

The following benchmarks have been run using the rt_benchmark script in the realtime directory on the following computer

  • fcdc334: Dell PC with Windows XP, P4 2.8 GHz, 1GB RAM
  • mentat204, mentat205, mentat232: 64-bit Linux, Core 2 Quad 2.8 GHz, 8GB RAM
  • laptop: 32-bit Linux, 1.6Ghz Pentium M, 512 MB RAM

The first name in the legend always refers to the machine where the rt_benchmark script was run from, whereas the other name behind the dash refers to the machine that contained the buffer, with the exception of dma, which means that the buffer was kept in the same MATLAB instance, thus involving no TCP/IP communication.

The dramatic dip for the mentat2xx-localhost connections needs further investigation.

Update 19-08-2010: After implementing an alternative communication channel using local UNIX domain sockets, here is an updated figure for a single 64-bit Linux machine. Communication over local domain sockets is generally faster, but most importantly, it is more consistent across blocksizes and scales linearly like the DMA throughput.

Older comparisons involving Apple computers

The benchmarking results presented in the table below were determined with the demo_buffer and the test_benchmark command-line executables, both present in the directory fieldtrip/realtime/buffer/test. Both applications were running on the same computer, i.e. using the local TCP stack. The blocksize below is the number of channels times the number of samples per block in each write request. The result is expressed in samples per second, and was measured over multiple seconds. Each sample is 4 bytes.

The tests have been performed on and between the following computer

  • powerbook: Apple PowerBook G4 PPC 1.33GHz, 1.25GB RAM, macOS 10.4.11
  • manzana: Apple Mac Pro 2x 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 2GB RAM, macOS 10.5.8
  • fcdc273: Dell PC with Windows XP, P4 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM

Writing to localhost on powerbook

chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
32*16=512 70400 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*64=2048 265625 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*256=8192 883097 localhost, tcp, stateless
64*256=16384 1330380 localhost, tcp, stateless
128*256=32768 1441792 localhost, tcp, stateless
256*256=65536 1907097 localhost, tcp, stateless
chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
256*256=65536 1736704 localhost, tcp, statefull
chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
32*256=8192 7747584 dma
64*256=16384 8894464 dma
128*256=32768 7766016 dma
256*256=65536 7818444 dma

The best result above for statefull tcp corresponds with 60 kHz @ 32 channels or 15 kHz @ 128 channels.

Writing to localhost on manzana

chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
32*16=512 127522 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*32=1024 247466 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*64=2048 498048 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*128=4096 1027373 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*256=8192 2039808 localhost, tcp, stateless
64*256=16384 3952267 localhost, tcp, stateless
128*256=32768 167936 (?) localhost, tcp, stateless
256*256=65536 327680 (?) localhost, tcp, stateless

Writing to localhost on fcdc273

chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
32*16=512 10490 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*32=1024 20813 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*64=2048 41660 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*128=4096 76082 localhost, tcp, stateless
32*256=8192 125106 localhost, tcp, stateless
64*256=16384 172153 localhost, tcp, stateless
128*256=32768 223288 localhost, tcp, stateless
256*256=65636 crash! localhost, tcp, stateless

Writing from fcdc273 to manzana

chans*samples=blocksize samples/sec details
32*16=512 10925 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless
32*32=1024 21943 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless
32*64=2048 43370 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless
32*128=4096 10445 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless
32*256=8192 20894 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless
64*256=16384 41785 remote host (100Mbps), tcp, stateless

Determine the bandwidth/throughput in MATLAB

You can replicate this benchmark within MATLAB using the following lines of cod

nchan      = 128;
blocksize  = 32;
dat        = randn(nchan, blocksize); % generate some random data

hdr        = [];
hdr.Fs     = 1200;
hdr.nChans = nchan;

target     = 'buffer://localhost:1972';

duration   = 10*hdr.Fs;               % total number of samples to write

ft_write_data(target, [], 'header', hdr, 'append', false);

tic; t0 = toc;
for i=1:round(duration/blocksize)
  ft_write_data(target, dat, 'header', hdr, 'append', true);
end
t1 = toc;

fprintf('nchan = %d, blocksize = %d: wrote %f samples per second\n', nchan, blocksize, (duration*hdr.nChans)/(t1-t0));

Note that the MATLAB interface to the buffer does not allow you to use a statefull connection or a DMA connection, it only provides the stateless TCP connection.

Determine the time of a single write operation in MATLAB

The following code can be used to determine the time of a single write operation.

nchan      = 32;
% target     = 'buffer://manzana:1972';
target     = 'buffer://localhost:1972';

blocksize  = [1:20 30:5:100 200:200:1000];
repeat     = 2;

hdr        = [];
hdr.Fs     = 256;
hdr.nChans = nchan;

ft_write_data(target, [], 'header', hdr, 'append', false);

stopwatch = tic;
for i=1:length(blocksize)
  disp(i)
  dat = randn(nchan, blocksize(i)); % generate some random data
  begtime(i) = toc(stopwatch);
  for j=1:repeat
    ft_write_data(target, dat, 'header', hdr, 'append', true);
  end
  endtime(i) = toc(stopwatch);
end

delay = (endtime-begtime)/repeat;
figure
plot(blocksize, delay, '.');