Best QoS Performance/Cost?

[Robertsmania]

I'm looking for recommendations for a good router with Quality of Service features that runs fast - hoping to minimize the performance cost of enabling QoS.

I need one that has Gigabit ethernet on both the WAN and LAN side - and wireless is not necessary.

My primary need for QoS is to maximize UDP traffic and minimize latency/jitter for a range of ports from a specified local machine to a range of remote IPs.

I currently have a TP-Link TL-R600VPN and it does have a "Bandwidth Control" feature, but I'm not that happy with it. Without the option enabled, my ISP connection pulls down 120Megabits consistently and is very steady. When I enable the feature (with or without any rules) the throughput drops to 80-90Megabits and fluctuates a lot.

The TL-R600VPN does "work" for my application once I've set the rules, but I would prefer to find a solution that doesn't cut the overall performance of the WAN connection by ~30% (ideally less than 10%).

I would also prefer to have more control about priority - right now the TP-Link only lets me specify min/max bandwidth thresholds specified in Kbps by ip/port.

So I guess I'm looking for recommendations, particularly for good QoS control without a big performance hit. And in the thread title, I mean cost in terms of performance not $ - I'm happy to pay for something that gets the job done.

 

[Trip]

First-off, please keep in mind that well-implemented QoS (typically using queuing and/or shaping, combined with classing/hierarchy functionality) is best and most-often done in-software in the consumer and SOHO space (we'll leave the really spendy ASIC-based enterprise gear out the conversation for the time being). That means we're looking at which CPUs themselves can give the best bang for the buck.

Starting with ARM and lower-clock MIPS chips found in most mass-market consumer routers, they tend to top out at 100Mb/s (at least with the current crop of chips that I'm aware of...), and when considering the prices for these plasticized erector sets, they generally represent pretty poor value when looking for wired CPU power alone. Higher-clock MIPS is a slightly better value, and if you're WAN link is less than 150Mb/s or so, the $49 Ubiquiti EdgeRouter-X is probably the best of that lot, especially when considering it's got fq_codel + HTB built-in (extremely effective for simple topologies). It also supports hierarchical priority trees, so you can layer and order your QoS schemas in whichever way you like.

Moving up into 200 Mb/s+ territory, to the best of my knowledge there's nothing in the single-chip embedded space that is powerful enough. So you're best bang for the buck would probably be a DIY firewall build on a cheap or used x86 box, or pre-fab UTM, or Tilera (Mikrotik CCR). These options will put you at least at the cost of the "Big Honking Routers" (copyright @sfx2000) in the consumer space ($250-300 or so) but will give you WAY more CPU firepower to run QoS (and run QoS that actually works) for your dollar.

Hope some of that helps.

 

[Robertsmania]

Thank you! That is very helpful.

I'm looking now at either the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter-X or the Mikrotik RB750Gr2. Both seem to be well reviewed and way more flexible than the consumer grade router's I've tried so far.

 

[System Error Message]

Actually from mikrotik the RB3000 series, RB1100AHx2 and CCR series are all capable of doing above 200Mb/s of QoS, and so can a number of consumer routers that have multicore ARM on them, however above 500Mb/s of QoS thats where you need x86 or CCR.

Best QoS performance/cost would be either a 2nd hand x86 (like a multi core iseries 1st gen xeon on desktop board + 2nd hand SFP+/multi gigabit NIC) that will allow you to overclock it quite well giving you a huge performance boost or the mikrotik CCR1036. Those are the 2 best QoS performance/cost. A lot of ISPs have started buying mikrotik CCRs to use in smaller areas.

 

[sfx2000]

These options will put you at least at the cost of the "Big Honking Routers" (copyright @sfx2000) in the consumer space ($250-300 or so) but will give you WAY more CPU firepower to run QoS (and run QoS that actually works) for your dollar.

Once you get past that barrier...

My Netgate RCE-V-2440 was $349, it's a dual core Intel C2358 - and with pfSense, we have a good router/gateway/firewall - and excellent Quality of Service...

It's comparable to some of the Microtik's - and they're good - check out the hEX box...

Compared to the consumer oriented BHR's - their weakness is not wireless - that's a strong point, their weakness is routing and software...

 

[Trip]

Compared to the consumer oriented BHR's - their weakness is not wireless - that's a strong point, their weakness is routing and software...

Indeed. I wish we could impress this upon the newer folks a bit more automatically, perhaps as a primer post atop the relevant sub-forums... On the flip-side, it's probably too network-nerdy for the masses, so until then, anecdotal replies it is!