USB Network Hub Option for High-Speed USB 2.0 Peripherals
Scenario
Tera1 PCoIP Zero Clients with firmware 3.5.0 or newer supports up to 3x the USB transfer rate of previous firmware builds.
If additional USB bandwidth is required then consider:
- Using Tera2 based PCoIP Zero Clients
- Using an external USB network hub. These products provide a method to connect high-speed USB peripherals to either VMware View virtual desktops or remote workstation hosts.
Notes:
- This workaround does not resolve low-speed USB transfers that are limited by constrained networks.
- These options can introduce significant bandwidth on a network. Carefully consider network bandwidth and QoS to avoid USB data transfers impacting desktop performance (e.g. set USB traffic to a priority level below PCoIP protocol).
External USB Network Hub
The USB Network Hub software is installed in the virtual machine, or on the remote workstation to allow USB peripherals to be connected via the USB Network Hub device. The USB Network Hub is placed at the user desk (or a convenient location for a group of users to share) and the high-speed peripheral(s) are attached. Users can connect to the peripheral via the USB Network Hub software.
Multiple products were tested in a LAN environment with the following summary results:
Silex SX-3000GB (https://www.silextechnology.com/sx-3000gb)
- Provided the best performance and included more supported USB devices than the other USB Network Hubs tested.
Zonet ZUH2000 (apparently Zonet is no longer in business, we are looking for a replacement).
- Provided good performance for many USB devices at a lower price point
- Note in some tests, PCoIP Zero Clients with firmware 3.5.0 had comparable USB transfer rates to the Zonet device.
Out of several USB network hub devices tested, these two devices listed provided the fastest data transfer speed tests and the most supported peripherals at their price points.