Jumbo Frames and Jumbo Packets Notes
Content Type: Install & Setup | Article ID: 000006639 | Last Reviewed: 03/25/2019
Solution:
Intel® Ethernet adapters and network connections support jumbo frames or jumbo packets (very large packets with size set by user).
Devices with limited or no jumbo frame support are listed below.
Limited jumbo frame size
Some Intel® Ethernet gigabit adapters and connections that support jumbo frames have a frame size limit of 4K bytes. The following devices have this limitation:
No jumbo frame support
The following devices do not support jumbo frames:
| Notes | Jumbo frames and MACSec are not compatible on the Intel® 82579LM and Intel® 82579V Network Connections. If MACSec is enabled on a platform containing either part, you will not be able to enable jumbo frames on the connection. |
| The Intel® PRO/1000 PL Network Connection supports jumbo frames in Microsoft Windows* operating systems only when Intel® PROSet for Windows Device Manager is installed. | |
| Using jumbo frames at 10 or 100 Mbps is not supported and may result in poor performance or loss of link. | |
| If you have a 10GbE adapter installed in an Intel I/OAT capable system with direct cache access enabled, do not enable 9K jumbo frames on Windows Server 2008*. Doing so may cause the system to reboot under normal to heavy receive traffic. | |
| You must not lower Receive_Buffers or Transmit_Buffers below 256 if jumbo frames are enabled on an Intel® 10GbE Device. Doing so will cause loss of link. |
Jumbo frames on the network
All devices on the network must be configured to handle the maximum size frames sent and received or jumbo frames will be blocked. Enable jumbo frames only if devices across the network support them and are configured to use the same frame size.
When setting up jumbo frames on other network devices, note that different network devices calculate jumbo frame sizes differently. Some devices include the header information in the frame size while others do not. Intel adapters do not include header information in the frame size.
When configuring jumbo frames on a switch, set the frame size four bytes higher for CRC, plus four bytes if using VLANs or QoS packet tagging.
In Linux*, set the switch 22 bytes higher. The switch may be configured for a larger size as long as the setting is at least 22 bytes higher.