am looking for some advice in improving our WISP network.
I have notice that lately our network has become sluggish and I know it could perform alot better.
A brief network description:
We have an all Bridged network in the 10.0.0.0 ip range with a total of 7 routers (all bridged) with one hotspot on each hop. I have noticed that once we have passed the 60 clients mark (spread accross all hotspots) with a max of 25 on one antenna, the overhall system performance has slown down, up to the point that clients are complaining about slow internet.
Our network is fed by a supposedly 8Mbit ADSL line (more like 4-5 Mbit) and at times when clients complain about slow speeds, I can still pull 3Mbit on a file download from my PC.
All clients are individually limited to 256k down and 128 up all with dynamic queues generated by the hotspot
On the network we also run an Asterisk server and a mail server.
We have no encryption set on the network and authentication is done via Hotspot user accounts and UserManager.
Although I am not a network specialist and have only been messing with Mikrotik for just under a year, I am beginning to think that the main problem is the Bridged network. I see from many of the posts that alot of you use entirely routed networks…while of course bridged is alot easier to set-up.
Can anyone tell me if my suspects on the Bridged network are correct and what would be the best way to set up a network of the above description?
Correct. You need to move to a routed network design. Further, I would suggest a strategy of pushing more intelligence into each tower router. For example, if you are running one hotspot controller for the entire network, you probably want to run a hotspot controller for each tower. Create yourself a design which scales by not having to build a single, powerful box, i.e. scale in a parallel manner not a serial manner.
thanks for the reply.
I thought that would be the case as I have noticed overhall system performace slow down as the bridged network grew. I suppose if I have a chocked node that would affect the entire network as packets are broadcasted on the whole network.
As I am not that informed on routed networks, my question is will I still be able to keep my 10.0.0.0 ip range accross all routers or will each router have to be in a different IP range.
BTW all my routers have individual hotspots in order to speed the hotspot login page as well as authorising regular users. Occasional users are then authorised via radius from my core router running User Manager at the office.
You cannot easily keep the entire 10.0.0.0/8 range on each router. To get a routed network, you have to subnet the 10.0.0.0/8 network. For example, router 1 own 10.1.0.0/16, router 1 owns 10.2.0.0/16, etc. Then use OSPF to have the routers all pass around routes.
Yep, sounds like lots of people that I have helped out. Converting from a Bridged to routed network. Depending on your client access method, PPPoE, static, DHCP etc, it may be easy, or hard to do!