Limited throughput on high repetition rate using TCP/IP connection using Instrument Control Toolbox

I have embedded hardware that we developed in house that acquires data at rates of up to 5 kHz and streams this data (at throughput levels of 100+ Mbps). It is a simple TCP protocol that includes a defined header (specifiying the payload size) followed by the payload. I am able to succesfully consume this data stream in other languages (Python, LabVIEW, C##, etc.). However I am having difficutly creating an API in MATLAB that can keep up.

To simplify I have created a client and server scripts in MATLAB to test the TCP implmenetation in MATLAB (shown below, start server first, then start client).

The data throughput is very low here (only a few bytes per TCP read/write). However, the server can't send data much faster than 1500 Hz and the client can barely keep up at 1 kHz. Note I am running MATLAB on a Mac. Similar performance on a Windows 10 machine.

Am I missing something in the configuration? In other languages, I can do this well above 5 kHz withouth a problem.

Here is the server:

clc
clear all
instrreset

number_of_packets = 10000;

instrument_server = tcpip('0.0.0.0', 51971, 'NetworkRole', 'server');
fopen(instrument_server);

tic
for k1 = 1:number_of_packets
    if mod(k1, 100) == 0
        sprintf('Sending %d . . .', k1)
    end
    message = sprintf('Sending %d', k1);
    fwrite(instrument_server, uint8(length(message)));
    fwrite(instrument_server, uint8(message));
end
et = toc;

sprintf('Average data rate = %f Hz', 1/(et/number_of_packets))
    
fclose(instrument_server);

Here is the client:

clc
clear all
instrreset

number_of_packets = 10000;

instrument_client = tcpip('localhost', 51971, 'timeout', 1);
fopen(instrument_client);

tic
for k1 = 1:number_of_packets
    if mod(k1, 100) == 0
        sprintf('Reading %d . . .', k1)
    end
    message_length = fread(instrument_client, 1);
    message = fread(instrument_client, message_length);
end
et = toc;

sprintf('Average data rate = %f Hz', 1/(et/number_of_packets))

fclose(instrument_client);

[Walter Roberson]

Buffer size problems.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/instrument/inputbuffersize.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/instrument/outputbuffersize.html

[Justin Stay]

I think this could be a limiting case at some point, but the header and payload in the attached example above is well below 512 bytes; less than 20.

Just to add some additional information, on a Windows 10 machine, the above code can send around 4 kHz, and received at under 3 kHz.

I can keep up with a much larger paylod in other langauges at 5 kHz when our embeded software running on custom hardware is acting as the server. I fully expect the above code to run much faster.

[Walter Roberson]

You are right, on my Mac, setting input and output buffer sizes to fairly large did not make any notable difference.