NCP and CLI

[dheryta]

I have 2 NRF52840-MDK chips configured in NCP mode and other in CLI mode.
They are not able to ping each other.
Their mesh prefix are different.
I tried to make them same with config-gateway and add-prefix commands.
But it does not seem to help.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

[jwhui]

Did you try the Thread Border Router codelab? If you want the latest features, I suggest RCP mode (instead of NCP mode).

[dheryta]

1. I don’t need internet access or access to other IP networks, do I still need a border router? Pinging link local address works fine but mesh local doesn’t, which is kind of obvious too, given their prefix are different routing us not working the v way it should. 2. I was planning to use iperf with NCP mode to do some benchmarking tests. I have not worked with RCP, Will it allow using iperf? If not what options do we have for benchmarking tests?

On Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 11:39 PM Jonathan Hui ***@***.***> wrote: Did you try the Thread Border Router codelab <https://openthread.io/codelabs/openthread-border-router>? If you want the latest features, I suggest taking a look at RCP mode (instead of NCP mode). — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#8347 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABLSMKOEGCUFHGL5YNJFRWLWGCNHFANCNFSM6AAAAAARTWN3PA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- -- Regards Dheryta

[jwhui]

1. I don’t need internet access or access to other IP networks, do I still need a border router? Pinging link local address works fine but mesh local doesn’t, which is kind of obvious too, given their prefix are different routing us not working the v way it should.

You don't strictly need a Thread Border Router, but the codelab is relatively straightforward. The codelab also walks you through the proper way to configure a Thread network that avoids the issues you are running into.

2. I was planning to use iperf with NCP mode to do some benchmarking tests. I have not worked with RCP, Will it allow using iperf? If not what options do we have for benchmarking tests?

Yes, you can use iperf. On OTBR, the Thread network is simply exposed as a standard network interface.

[dheryta]

Thanks, it works the way I needed. Now, what do we do if I want these nodes to auto join the existing thread network whenever they power up?

…

-- Regards Dheryta

On Tue, Nov 1, 2022 at 11:25 AM Jonathan Hui ***@***.***> wrote: 1. I don’t need internet access or access to other IP networks, do I still need a border router? Pinging link local address works fine but mesh local doesn’t, which is kind of obvious too, given their prefix are different routing us not working the v way it should. You don't strictly need a Thread Border Router, but the codelab is relatively straightforward. The codelab also walks you through the proper way to configure a Thread network that avoids the issues you are running into. 1. I was planning to use iperf with NCP mode to do some benchmarking tests. I have not worked with RCP, Will it allow using iperf? If not what options do we have for benchmarking tests? Yes, you can use iperf. On OTBR, the Thread network is simply exposed as a standard network interface. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#8347 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABLSMKPSWNW4JJPOFJDMYLTWGE76TANCNFSM6AAAAAARTWN3PA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jwhui]

It is important to start with a complete operational dataset. The following command will create one for you:

sudo ot-ctl dataset init new

It is possible to customize individual parameters before the dataset commit active command. So you can set the other values as you like.

[dheryta]

Got it.
I started with dataset init new.
and followed earlier steps for RCP where I set network key and thread start - it creates its own network
and CLI chip is joining the border router network but it has a different mesh prefix.

[jwhui]

On the CLI node, only set the network key. Do not set any of the other operational dataset parameters.

The problem you had in both cases is that you were configuring a partial operational dataset. You should either configure the entire dataset or none of it. Anything in between, you will run into the issues you observe.

[dheryta]

All is working now.
I am now working on benchmarking.
I tried iperf and iperf3.
With iperf, UDP works fine but for TCP, connection is refused. With iperf3 both TCP and UDP are not working, connection is refused.
While using iperf I also set bandwidth less than 250K and packet size < 1232 with UDP.

I also tried the tcp benchmark as per https://github.com/openthread/openthread/blob/main/src/cli/README_TCP.md#benchmark-size but I keep running into error - "TCP Benchmark Failed". I am unable to send hello packet as well.

Do I need to set any flag for TCP to work or I am doing something wrong?

[jwhui]

If you are running OpenThread on Linux, you'll want to disable the TCP feature to avoid conflicting with Linux's TCP stack. OTBR disables this by default: https://github.com/openthread/ot-br-posix/blob/22bcc573ebb99ea0695ab73dc83ff36081d95935/third_party/openthread/CMakeLists.txt#L102