We are considering connecting an IGX Orin to 4 Holoscan Sensor Bridge boards using a 1 QSFP+ to 4 SFP+ cable. We would like to know if this is feasible, and whether modifying the source code of the Holoscan Sensor Bridge to enumerate all the boards simultaneously would work.
Are there any limitations with the Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP that would prevent this setup from functioning as expected?
We discussed connecting an IGX Orin to four Holoscan Sensor Bridge boards using a 1 QSFP+ to 4 SFP+ breakout cable internally. The key points are:
This setup is not currently possible with the standard IGX configuration.
The IGX uses a ConnectX-7 (CX7) network interface card (NIC) with two QSFP ports, each capable of supporting two MACs.
By default, the IGX firmware only exposes two ports in Linux, not four.
To use all four SFP+ connections, a special firmware build would be required to enable breakout mode on the CX7. This would require testing.
Even with a custom firmware, the maximum configuration would likely be:
Using both QSFP ports
Each QSFP port split into two SFP+ ports
Resulting in 4x50G connections (or potentially 4x25G)
Creating a custom firmware for this setup adds complexity and may not be recommended for customer use.
As an alternative consider that our system is a full-fledged ethernet networking solution, so you can use any switch that can do the aggregation for you.
