Need help with Cake SQM

[calebc]

I've been dealing with bufferfloat issues ESPECIALLY when uploading, and I'd love to be able to start streaming and enjoying low pings under stress. Adaptive QoS from merlin has been better, but not what I'd like it to be. I'd like to try out cake QoS but I don't see it in my QoS options, I was wondering if there's anyway to get it to show or any workarounds since even the cakeqos fork on github doesn't work either for RT-AC68P. If anyone can help, that'd be greatly appreciated and I'm willing to follow instructions and get this sorted even if I have to SSH and do workarounds. Hopefully someone can help

Router model: Currently running merlin firmware on a RT-AC68P which is just a AC68U but better CPU (at least i think?)

Current firmware version: 386.12_4

Bandwidth: 100-200Mbps [DL] / 10-20Mbps [UP]

Screenshots:

 

[dave14305]

The AC68* Linux kernel (v2.6) is too old to be compatible with CAKE. You’d need a newer router running kernel 4.1.x or higher.

 

[calebc]

The AC68* Linux kernel (v2.6) is too old to be compatible with CAKE. You’d need a newer router running kernel 4.1.x or higher.

Would FlexQoS work? I see that you've created that and ran it on a 86U

 

[dave14305]

Would FlexQoS work? I see that you've created that and ran it on a 86U

Yes, it would run fine on an AC68U/P.

 

[calebc]

Yes, it would run fine on an AC68U/P.

Thank you a ton, and sorry for a lot of questions, but I have one more.

I'm mainly looking to optimize how my ping flies up to 150ish constantly when I start to stream/use upload speed. Download speed bufferfloat right now is stable and I'm enjoying it SIGNIFIGANTLY. I use OBS with 4000 rate, do you think FlexQoS could solve my bufferfloat when streaming? Thanks a ton

EDIT: I tried FlexQoS and tried to be greedy towards RTMP and Twitch uploading packets, but no luck in decreasing ping. Is there anything that I'm missing or maybe I didn't set it up right?

 

[Tech9]

The AC68* Linux kernel (v2.6) is too old to be compatible with CAKE. You’d need a newer router running kernel 4.1.x or higher.

Available in FreshTomato for RT-AC68U. I don't know how it works there. Good to about 150-180Mbps WAN-LAN.

 

[heywire]

Available in FreshTomato for RT-AC68U. I don't know how it works there. Good to about 150-180Mbps WAN-LAN.

Can you please confirm that this is achievable? I would've thought the difference between AC68U (MIPS) and AC86U with its HND processor, which has a limitation of about 350-400mbps @ CakeQOS, and AC68U, is larger than that? If true, this makes AC68U with FreshTomato way more interesting for some use-cases I have in mind.

 

[Kingp1n]

I've been dealing with bufferfloat issues ESPECIALLY when uploading, and I'd love to be able to start streaming and enjoying low pings under stress. Adaptive QoS from merlin has been better, but not what I'd like it to be. I'd like to try out cake QoS but I don't see it in my QoS options, I was wondering if there's anyway to get it to show or any workarounds since even the cakeqos fork on github doesn't work either for RT-AC68P. If anyone can help, that'd be greatly appreciated and I'm willing to follow instructions and get this sorted even if I have to SSH and do workarounds. Hopefully someone can help

Router model: Currently running merlin firmware on a RT-AC68P which is just a AC68U but better CPU (at least i think?)

Current firmware version: 386.12_4

Bandwidth: 100-200Mbps [DL] / 10-20Mbps [UP]

Screenshots:

View attachment 55031

View attachment 55032

Maybe this might help, not sure if it would work w/AC68U/P:

Thread 'Cake-autorate' https://www.snbforums.com/threads/cake-autorate.88645/

Update: Just noticed previous post... you need an updated router/kernel so this would not work. Sorry!

 

[Tech9]

AC86U with its HND processor, which has a limitation of about 350-400mbps @ CakeQOS, and AC68U, is larger than that?

Sorry, I don't understand your question. What is "larger than that"?

Your RT-AC86U with ARMv8 1.8GHz can do about 350Mbps and the fastest RT-AC68U variant with ARMv7 1.4GHz (RT-AC1900P) can do about 200Mbps.

I don't know how CakeQoS works in FreshTomato on RT-AC68U with older kernel. It's an available QoS option, it's selectable, it probably does something.

 

[heywire]

Sorry, I don't understand your question. What is "larger than that"?

Your RT-AC86U with ARMv8 1.8GHz can do about 350Mbps and the fastest RT-AC68U variant with ARMv7 1.4GHz (RT-AC1900P) can do about 200Mbps.

I don't know how CakeQoS works in FreshTomato on RT-AC68U with older kernel. It's an available QoS option, it's selectable, it probably does something.

Surprised that AC86U offers only 2x the CakeQOS performance over AC68U, since it offers about 4x the OpenVPN speed.

150-200Mbps (depending on CPU Mhz on the various revisions, including AC66U_B1) is actually adequate for a lot of use-cases where WAN is not in the hundreds of Mbps.

I guess the downside is that FreshTomato offers weaker Wifi signal because of less optimized drivers etc, such as is the case with N66U/AC66U?

Too bad CakeQOS cannot be implemented for AC68U in Merlin, which would give the best of two worlds.

 

[RMerlin]

Surprised that AC86U offers only 2x the CakeQOS performance over AC68U, since it offers about 4x the OpenVPN speed.

The RT-AC86U CPU has CPU operands that specifically accelerates AES encryption, that's why OpenVPN is faster.

 

[Tech9]

I guess the downside is that FreshTomato offers weaker Wifi signal because of less optimized drivers etc, such as is the case with N66U/AC66U?

The Wi-Fi performance is about the same on RT-AC68U running Asuswrt and FreshTomato. There is no new drivers for BCM4360 for quite some time. The downside of FreshTomato is older hardware support* and interesting features are all NAT acceleration incompatible. This means the fastest supported CPUs like BCM4709C0 @1.4GHz can do about 300Mbps WAN-LAN. CakeQoS requires more processing and makes WAN-LAN slower. I guess, with no kernel support it runs in user space.

* - actually FreshTomato now supports TUF-AX3000 V2 with BCM6756 @1.7GHz, but with Asuswrt GUI similar to Asuswrt-Merlin. I'm not interested. We have it already.

hardware_compatibility [FreshTomato Wiki]

wiki.freshtomato.org

 

[sfx2000]

AC68U (MIPS) and AC86U with its HND processor,

AC68U is a ARM Cortex-A9, not MIPS...

That being said, AC68U is getting along in age - it's an elderly router, and sometimes forgetful of its past glory...

It's not at the point of soiling it's underpants at random intervals, but it's likely time to put him on the shelf and let the newer, more capable devices take his place...