I'm facing a frustrating issue with wireless latency on my hAP ax S (E62iUGS-2axD5axT) running RouterOS 7.23.3.
Symptoms: When pinging any wireless client (e.g., a smartphone connected to Wi-Fi) — whether from a PC connected via a wired Ethernet port or directly from the router itself (using the built-in ping tool) — the response time periodically spikes from 1–2 ms up to 100–400+ ms. Packet loss remains at 0%, but the latency is completely unstable. On RouterOS v7.22, this behavior was completely absent, and the ping was rock-solid (around 1–4 ms). Total network throughput is completely unaffected.
What I have already tested / excluded:
Switched wireless interfaces from static configuration to dynamic CAPsMAN provisioning — no change.
Changed frequency bands, channels, and channel widths.
Replaced the power supply unit.
Tested an old hAP ac² right next to it with similar configurations — the ping on ac² is completely stable. The issue is strictly isolated to the hAP ax S and its MediaTek chipsets (wifi-mediatek).
Performed a RouterOS downgrade (though without downgrading RouterBOOT).
It looks like a regression in the wifi-mediatek driver/firmware regarding client power-saving modes (WMM / APSD / Power Save) or frame buffering introduced after v7.22.
Attached are screenshots of the ping behavior and my active Wi-Fi interfaces.
Has anyone else experienced this on hAP ax S or other MediaTek-based AX routers on v7.23+? Are there any workarounds or hidden parameters to tune this behavior?
You write in past tense, like "was absent in 7.22". Have you actually downgraded to verify that the issue is really absent in 7.22? Make sure to have a reproducible setup while switching versions and rebooting, means:
use fixed frequencies
make no more than one change at a time. means: do not downgrade ROS, change frequencies, replace power unit, etc. all at the same time. do it one by one. basics of troubleshooting.
make sure your clients use same bssid when connecting. for example, such pink spikes are "normal" on 2.4ghz because that spectrum is very crowed by non-802.11 devices as well.
I have two hAP ax S (ROS 7.23.3) managed by CAPsMAN and I also have unstable ping.
Not only that... the download speed is often very slow (around 140 Mbps with 5 GHz) and I have to disconnect/reconnect wireless clients to get higher speeds.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to gather all the necessary information yet to open a ticket with support.
I've tried all channels, and the configuration is very simple: I only changed the SSID, country, and password, everything else is set to default without VLANs or anything else.
I see this too, and found out it happens consistently after a wireless client roamed from another (in my case wAP ax) access point. It happens with Macbooks and iPhones, I have not tested with Windows.
After roaming to an hAP ax S, it seems to be stuck with really bad 5 GHz speeds, often around 20 MBps. I have this with ROS 7.33.3 and also 7.24rc3 and it happens at least since a couple of month, and I do all ROS upgrades as they arrive.
Disconnecting and reconnecting to the hAP ax S always fixes it, and it then achieves around 500-550 MBps.
This is another issue; to fix it, disable FT over DS to use FT over Air.
I reported it a while ago and I still haven't received a response from support.
