Intel Atom-based Puma 6 Modem Chipset has Severe Latency Issues, Many Cable Modems Affected

[R-T-B]

Why your gigabit broadband lags like hell – blame Intel's chipset
Software fix coming after Puma 6 code bug hits Virgin Media, Comcast, Arris and other boxes
3 Dec 2016
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/03/intel_puma_chipset_firmware_fix/

Right. Precisely one news media outlet, and one with a penchant for sensationalism (at least, that's how I feel about theregister). Pretty bad to be frank. I also had to use them as a source. Poor times.

Note also that the "software fix" did little.

 

[EarthDog]

It was mostly buried in forums sadly...

As I said though, I gave up and will be buying a new SB6183 here shortly. Problem solved.

 

[R-T-B]

As I said though, I gave up and will be buying a new SB6183 here shortly. Problem solved.

For those that have this option, I highly recommend it. Some ISPs do not allow you to choose outside their "wonderful" prebuilt gateways however, and they frequently are built from Puma 6 parts.

 

[Imsochobo]

For those that have this option, I highly recommend it. Some ISPs do not allow you to choose outside their "wonderful" prebuilt gateways however, and they frequently are built from Puma 6 parts.

'I have yet to see Intel based parts for gateways in my country.
It's all arm stuff up to gigabit++

Although, they do not use modem parts as it's ethernet in from a fiber converter.

 

[Squishy Tia]

'I have yet to see Intel based parts for gateways in my country.
It's all arm stuff up to gigabit++

Although, they do not use modem parts as it's ethernet in from a fiber converter.

We're talking cable modems and gateways here, not ONTs, which is what a fiber connection would use.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This is what they get for not using arm.

Uh, no, that's what they get for not using ASIC and MIPS64 processors that are purpose built for the task being performed. A dual-core, 500 MHz MIPS64 processor can route 1 million packets per second.

x86/ARM (general processors) is pretty terrible at routing. They can handle residential traffic but the bigger the network, the more of a bottleneck they become.

 

[Static~Charge]

As if the lousy performance of Intel Puma 6-based cable modems wasn't bad enough, testers have discovered that these modems can be slowed to a crawl when presented with modest amounts of packets spread across various TCP or UDP network ports. Specifically, when about three to six thousand small TCP or UDP packets per second are sent to a device, it exhausts an internal lookup table in Intel's Puma 6 chipset, killing performance as the network processor struggles to keep up. These packets can be spoofed, sent across the internet or internally on the local network, and require no authentication, to take down a gateway.

Nice design there, Intel....

FYI: You can blow Intel-powered broadband modems off the 'net with a 'trivial' packet stream
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/27/intel_puma6_chipset_trivial_to_dos/