LAN to Wifi bandwidth capping on AX88U Pro?

[MarkusI]

Hi,
it looks like somehow my router is capping bandwidth between Wifi and LAN (at least I cannot explain the behavior otherwise).

Scenario: Mac Book M2 connected with Wifi AX 5Ghz.

When I download a huge file via ftp from an USB-attached disk directly from the router, I get consistent download speeds of 99 MB/s (which is the maximum, the disk is able of).

When I download the same file from my NAS, download speed seems to be capped at 60 MB/s.
This is reproducible on 1 GBit and 2,5 GBit NAS-connection (with wired clients, the NAS provides 115 MB/s with single and 160 MB/s with multiple clients and 2,5GBit).

When connecting a second MacBook with GBit cable connect and a running ftp server, I still get comparable download speeds on my Wifi AX connected laptop.
Looks like this affects LAN devices.

Any idea how to explain this or to narrow the root cause down further?

Thanks
Markus

 

[bennor]

To help others you should include or post the firmware version you are running and any other troubleshooting steps (like router reboot, router hard reset, etc) you have done. If running Merlin firmware also include any scripts/add-ons you are running. A suggestion for the future; use the signature field option for your SNBForum account to add your router, firmware and other information.

 

[MarkusI]

Hey bennor,
thanks for the quick reply.
I was able to reproduce this with stock 3.0.0.4.388_23748 and merlin 388.3.
I rebooted the router multiple times but did not do a factory reset yet.
Will give it a try beginning of next week - will not be in during the weekend.
By the way: is the hard reset 'harder' than resetting it back to factory settings using the UI?
Thanks
Markus

 

[bennor]

By the way: is the hard reset 'harder' than resetting it back to factory settings using the UI?

There are several reset methods.
[Wireless Router] How to reset the router to factory default setting?
[Wireless Router] When Standard Reset Isn’t Working: Hard Factory Reset - Models list

The following link details the "hard factory reset" method for the RT-AX88U Pro:
[Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 2

 

[MarkusI]

Hey @bennor ,

so, I did the following now (Merlin 388.3):
- factory reset
- Initial setup as router, no specific setting, except disabling smart connect (for whatever reason it always linked me to the slower 2,4GHz wifi)

Then I reran the tests.
- Download from USB connected disk 99 MB/s
- Download from Gbit-LAN-connected MacBook (95 MB/s) - so in contrary to my initial thought with a wired MacBook, I can serve high bandwidth to a second machine connected via Wifi
- Download from 2,5GBit NAS: 60 MB/s

I have to say, that I saw 75 MB/s from NAS (still too slow) directly after I did the factory reset but after a few minutes, 60 was the limit again.
I was not able to reproduce 75 MB/s even after a second factory reset.
60 MB/s is the limit.

When using a wired client, the NAS provides 115 MB/s.

When downloading:
NAS CPU load is about 50%, RAM usage is relaxed.
AX88U CPU load is 1%, RAM usage 63%.

Does it make sense to redo the test with different firmware versions and/or a hard reset?

Thanks
Markus

 

[drinkingbird]

Hey @bennor ,

so, I did the following now (Merlin 388.3):
- factory reset
- Initial setup as router, no specific setting, except disabling smart connect (for whatever reason it always linked me to the slower 2,4GHz wifi)

Then I reran the tests.
- Download from USB connected disk 99 MB/s
- Download from Gbit-LAN-connected MacBook (95 MB/s) - so in contrary to my initial thought with a wired MacBook, I can serve high bandwidth to a second machine connected via Wifi
- Download from 2,5GBit NAS: 60 MB/s

I have to say, that I saw 75 MB/s from NAS (still too slow) directly after I did the factory reset but after a few minutes, 60 was the limit again.
I was not able to reproduce 75 MB/s even after a second factory reset.
60 MB/s is the limit.

When using a wired client, the NAS provides 115 MB/s.

When downloading:
NAS CPU load is about 50%, RAM usage is relaxed.
AX88U CPU load is 1%, RAM usage 63%.

Does it make sense to redo the test with different firmware versions and/or a hard reset?

Thanks
Markus

Check that both the router and NAS are showing 2500/Full for the link. There are some known negotiation issues with multigig especially with different vendors.

 

[MarkusI]

Hey @drinkingbird ,
will do, but wouldn't the fact that I have high throughput when I use a cabled client show that there is no general issue with the link quality?
It is only when the client is using wifi
Markus

 

[MarkusI]

I simplified my test setup.

1. I hard resetted the router and did a basic setup
2. I dropped the USB 2,5 Gbit connector and used the NAS's internal 1GBit link
3. Solely relied on iperf3 to measure throughput to sort out any other issue

Long story short, here are the iperf3 results:

NAS --wired--> AX88U: 110 MB/sec
AX88U --wifi--> MacBook: 110 MB/sec

NAS --wired--> AX88U --wifi--> MacBook: 60/65 MB/sec

Even though the connections between NAS and router and between router and MacBook can handle a constant throughput of 110 MB/sec if measured separately, when testing end-2-end, I loose about 50 MB/sec of throughput.

Reproducible with Merlin 388.3 & 388.4.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Markus

 

[L&LD]

Get rid of the Mac?

Test with a PC.

 

[MarkusI]

Unfortunately, I don't have a PC at hand... only one M2 and one Intel Mac.
I will try to boot the Intel Mac with Linux via USB to at least sort out the OS.