hAP ac 5GHz max speed

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello all,
Is there any possibility to have real speed of ~500Mbps on hAP ac via 5GHz wifi?

I’ve tried many configurations to achieve that, including changing Tx Power to fixed rate, queue changed to only-hardware-queue.
With the device from my IPS I can easily get max download speed.
My link is 500Mbps down and 25Mbps up. CCQ is 93%, the distance to devices is 1-2 meters to AP, no CAP, on cable I have full speeds.
Right now on hAP ac the max I can get is around 330Mbps (TX/RX 866/866Mbps) and 400Mbps (TX/RX 1166/1166Mbps) on MB Pro, with following settings.

/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] band=5ghz-a/n/ac basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps channel-width=\
    20/40/80mhz-Ceee country=poland disabled=no distance=indoors frequency-mode=regulatory-domain \
    ht-basic-mcs="mcs-0,mcs-1,mcs-2,mcs-3,mcs-4,mcs-5,mcs-6,mcs-7,mcs-8,mcs-9,mcs-10,mcs-11,mcs-12,mcs-13,mcs-\
    14,mcs-15,mcs-16,mcs-17,mcs-18,mcs-19,mcs-20,mcs-21,mcs-22,mcs-23" max-station-count=30 mode=ap-bridge \
    name=wlan5GHz ssid=5GHz supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps wireless-protocol=\
    802.11 wmm-support=enabled wps-mode=disabled

I’ve also tried to reset whole configuration and test the speed on defaults but it was the same.

Can you recommend me some APs for home purposes (UniFi® AP AC PRO?) if that’s is not possible?

2

What device is that client? Does it have more than 2 chain wireless card?

3

Recent Dell laptop with 2 chains and MB with 3 chains. As I said on IPS’s router they work with full speed of 500Mbps.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

4

Hi,

I can confirm that the hAP AC connects with 3 chans to a newer MacBookPro on 1G+

Thruput tested with iperf3 from this MBP to a server on the wired part of my local network

On 1GB wire I get approx 960Mbit/s
On 5GHz wifi I get approx 530Mbit/s

This 530Mbit/s seems about the max because the hAP AC wifi does not have hardware switching between wifi and wire. So all traffic goes thru the cpu and that goes to 100% during my tests.

Eddie

5

Can you please show your wifi configuration?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

6

config is pretty default …
plain accespoint, all interfaces in 1 bridge, no firewall rules, dhcp from core-router

/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-g/n channel-width=20/40mhz-eC
disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=2462 mode=ap-bridge
security-profile=home ssid=home wireless-protocol=802.11 wps-mode=disabled
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] band=5ghz-a/n/ac channel-width=20/40/80mhz-Ceee
disabled=no mode=ap-bridge preamble-mode=long
security-profile=home ssid=home wireless-protocol=802.11 wps-mode=disabled

7

Have you tried with CAPSMAN? I’m not able to have more than 130Mbps DL and 100Mbps UL (TX/RX 866/866Mbps Samsung S8) using CAPSMAN without local forwarding.
If I use normal wifi ap mode (without CAPSMAN) or using CAPSMAN with local forwarding the speed is increasing to 500Mbps.

8

Capsman without local forwarding requires the CPU to wrap data and send it to the capsman manager, not good fit high speeds considering the CPU inside… (Mikrotik could maybe work to optimize this wrapping to make it less CPU intensive, but it’s always more overhead than local forwarding).

9

Thank you so much for that data, Eddie, including noting the CPU usage. I was trying to test mine last week with both btest.exe and iperf3, but couldn’t push more than 330 Mbps with my clients on hand.

Does Mikrotik actually have any WiFi device or series with both the tranceivers (3x3+) and the CPU to handle 800+ Mbps on 5GHz?

10

The CPU on the original hAP AC will bottleneck before the radio maximum throughput can be reached. Realistically you can get about 400 - 500 mbps actual throughput.

Conversely the hAP AC 2 has a better CPU but lots of problems with the radio at the moment, probably driver related.

11

I am considering buying hAP ac is there any improvement on the wifi on 5g speed? Currently in my list is hEX S as a router.

12

I’d be looking into Audience + hex s combo.
I don’t see any improvements on my hap ac, which i use as ap. perhaps minor in range through walls, with the dynamic noise adaptation setting.

13

My rule of thumb which served me well with the old astoundingly fast 54 speed units was, a. its two way added and b. doesnt look at prop losses.
So 54/2 -losses = expect 20-24 if you are lucky. I simply used the 1/3 rule for quick est of real throughput = 18.

Applying that today to 5gz, lets say 1300 speed, so its 650-losses, or my 1/3 = 433 speed.
Seems that with newer technology like mu-mimo etc, one should do better and one of the posters noted 533 speed which is pretty good and reasonable.
The est of between 400-500 is bang on.


Solution: By the wireless wire kit for the home, put it outside some windows for example or roof, so LOS to LOS and wire back into house. :slight_smile:

14

This is general rule of thumb, divide anything that marketing dpt says by 3 and you’ll get response under prolonged non-ideal use.

15

What is your main router?

16

hex s. i only have 100mbit line, so it’s enough.
i have one hap ac, which was my primary router, but a) it had slow cpu, so i had to fasttrack, which ruined queues and consequentially my qos, and b) it was placed rather unfortunately, so the wifi was quite bad as well.
i moved ap to more favorable location and wifi’s fine now. i’m not throwing perfectly good hap ac away in favor of audience, because wifi is not bad at all and i’m waiting for a wifi6 device :slight_smile:

17

I wonder if i should take hAP ac^2 to be added to hEX s or jusr wait for wifi6.
Does the hEX s is stronger from ac^2 as a gateway?

Does it still worth to buy hAP ac this days?

18

depends, depends and depends.

hap ac is a great little aio device - has wifi, routing and sfp. i need all those 3 things and if isp’s optical cable position would be different in regard to my sofa, i’d be optimizing that exact device and be happy with it.
hap ac2 and hex s share same core, but different periphery. hap ac2 has wifi and the other has sfp and poe.

so if you need something decent now, go for hex s and audience. latter is a 4x4 mt’s ap, check it out and report back if you happen to go with it.
if not, a) audience is less than a year old b) wifi5 is technically really obsolete in regards of what can be done with wifi6; in terms of multi-user, power saving, 2.4g devices, noise/neighbor immunity etc.

19

hEX s + hAP ac or hEX s + hAP ac^2?

20

hex s + audience :slight_smile:
there are also wap ac and cap ac to consider, if you need an ap and hate audience. but if you insist on ac-something device, i’d check which of the lot has the best wifi. i heard some people had problems with hap ac2’s wifi. i only have experience with hap ac and wap ac, which have similar hw and wifi performance.