We have deployed a wireless network for a hotel camp and it is unreliable and slow. I am so tempted to remove it but trying to find knowledgeable consultants to help us.
I have 2 consultants/vendors working on this project. I do not like their diagnosis of why the network is slow and keeps disconnecting. Bear me with as I explain the configuration.
1) A data room hosts a CCR1036-8G v6.32. There are four 100Mbs Ethernet lines from ISP feeding into it.
A test of their combined speed using Ookla http://www.speedtest.net/ shows around 340Mpbs. I called the ISP and they explained that they need to update their fiber optics in the future.
admin@Mikrotik>interface print
# NAME TYPE ACTUAL-MTU L2MTU MAX-L2MTU
0 R ether1 ether 1500 1590 10226
1 R ether2 ether 1500 1590 10226
2 R ether3 ether 1500 1590 10226
3 R ether4 ether 1500 1590 10226
4 R ether5 ether 1500 1590 10226
The interface list of the output Ethernet (ether1)on CCR1036-8G shows an average Tx of 50Mpbs -130Mpbs even during peak hours.
The only time it soars to say 250Mpbs if i have the administrator PC directly connected to it to do a speedtest.net then Tx goes to that level momentarily. Why is that? Shouldn't it reach 200+Mpbs during peak hours if a majority is complaining about slowness and disconnection.
2) Mikrotik CCR1036-8G output ether1 is connected to Cisco Nexus 930 switch where an administrator PC , and two RouterOS RADUIS servers are connected to.
3) Two RADUIS services feed a 52 port Cisco switch with 5 cables which in turn has 16 Ethernets servicing the 16 building blocks.
3) RADUIS hotpot server 1, has RouterOS installed on it. And has one internet Ethernet cable from CCR1036-8G through the Cisco Nexus 930.
It services 4 blocks M, N, O, P .
# NAME TYPE ACTUAL-MTU L2MTU MAX-L2MTU
0 R Local-Network ether 1500
1 R M ether 1500
2 R N ether 1500
3 R O ether 1500
4 R P ether 1500
5 R internet ether 1500
5) Each block has a Linksys 12 port switch where two TP-LINK EAP120 AP is setup on each floor. Each block has 3 floor thus a total of 6 AP in each building. The floor is 40 m long and the AP are set at around the 12m mark from either end.
6) Second RADUIS server services 12 blocks A-L. They are setup as VLANs. One cable is connected to 52 Cisco port(the first server has one cable for each block and no VLANs )
# NAME TYPE ACTUAL-MTU L2MTU MAX-L2MTU
0 R Local-Network ether 1500
1 R internet ether 1500
2 R A vlan 1500
3 R B vlan 1500
4 R C vlan 1500
5 R D vlan 1500
6 R E vlan 1500
7 R F vlan 1500
8 R G vlan 1500
9 R H vlan 1500
10 R I vlan 1500
11 R J vlan 1500
12 R K vlan 1500
13 R L vlan 1500
The choice of 12 vs 4 blocks onto 2 hotpot RADUIS was experimental, considering the 4 blocks account for 40% of the users.
7) HOTPOT profiles are set at 1Mpbs, 512kps and 256Kpbs. 70% of users are on the 1Mpbs.
Here are my observations:
-----------------------------
1) There are around 800 paid Hotspot users across the 16 blocks. about 30% of them are from the 4 blocks.
At peak time there are 500 Active users showing in winBox. about 350 in the 12 block RADUIS and 150 in the 4 blocks.
2) End rooms 1,2,3 and 16,14,15 do not have a good signal. Should we add more AP, say 3 on each floor?
3) Connect and disconnect to the Network. Many Users complained about this. There is a general frustration with the network.
4) the consultants told me that at around 420+ Active users the network deteriorates. They say that traffic crowding happens and attribute to the slowness of the network and the connect/disconnect problem.
They explain that considering that i have 400Mpbs from my ISP spread across 1Mpbs for each user, the network cannot handle more. I find it hard to believe as constantly watching the CCR1036-8G's Tx it is around 120 Mbps, I'm yet to see it reach the 200+ Mbps!
His answer was that all the users have to use Youtube at once for it to reach that level. I don't believe that because even with them randomly using the internet they complain about slowness and disconnecting and it is not even using the 340 Mpbs available to the CCR1036-8G.
5) this network was supposed to service 3000 hotpot users, we are struggling with 500 active ones!! I see about 60 users with Tx reaching 1Mpbs, possibly using Skype or Youtube, however the remaining majority complain about slowness(not having an actual speed of 1Mpbs).
6) AP were configured to have 16 SSID e.g. A-room-1 etc.. I want that changed. We are adding complexity for no good reason.
Set limit of each router close to its max concurrent allowed per floor. Each floor will have 3 or 4 Wi-Fi networks not 16 as we currently have! What do you think?
7) Some time the entire floor has problem connecting. Based on what i was told, some users have repeaters and router with DHCP set up on it. This way they can buy one hotpot user and have say 6 people use it. They show up as SSID other than the user A-Room-1 etc. So the consultant suspect that the DHCP service is contradicting with that of our RADUIS and CCR1036-8G causing problems for the entire floor. How can i validate that. I asked my staff to go hunt for those misfits.
How can we make the CCR1036-8G and RADUIS servers oblivious to such rogue devices?
FINAL Question, does anyone recommend a Mikrotik, hotpot consultant in Europe and MENA.
Thanks