I did some testing of the DLA Etherdongle with a test tool from another developer, my set up was this:
I have DLA Etherdongle. I connect to my lights in the following way:
PC connected via Cat 4 ethernet -> Router -> Etherdongle -> 16 Port Active Hub - > Smart String controllers -> LED Flexstrip
The Etherdongle supports upto 16,384 channels and I'm using it in Multicast mode
I used a E131Test file that basically stresses the Flexstrips, Etherdongle and hubs. The test program sends Multicast E1.31 packets to the lights at different speeds and can vary the number of universes to see whether we have bottlenecks in the Software (I'm using Light Show Pro 2.5)
The test starts with the default rate of 26mS multicast, to the first 4096 channels cycling through chase, ramp, ramp fast, shimmer. The chase, ramp, fast ramp and shimmer are tested at different speeds, the testing revealed that LSP 2.5 cannot generate the effects fast enough to keep up with the sequences and hardware. The Etherdongle, hubs and SSC can run at full speed at 26mS framing with a full 4096 channel count.
Here's the results below:
I selected all 8 Universes (4096 channels)
All respond correctly:
8 Universes at 26mS
All effects working ok and respond exactly, at all speeds (26mS, 52mS and 78mS)
CPU Utilization <1% (can't even measure it)
Network Utilization 1.6%
8 Universes at 10mS
All effects working ok and respond exactly, at all speeds (26mS, 52mS and 78mS)
CPU Utilization <1%
Network Utilization 4%
8 Universes at 5mS
All effects working ok and respond exactly, at all speeds (26mS, 52mS and 78mS)
CPU Utilization <1%
Network Utilization 7%
8 Universes at 1mS
All effects working ok and respond exactly, at all speeds (26mS, 52mS and 78mS)
CPU Utilization <1%
Network Utilization 22%
Based on extrapolation, if we are running 32 Universes ( or 16,384 channels) at 26mS, I'd expect the network utilization to be around 7% or so, so even with overheads, the network traffic would probably be less than 15%