Not Full speed CapsMan with RB4011iGS and CapAC

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello

I am using RB4011iGS+5HacQHnd (setup CapsMan) and RBcAPGi-5acD2nD and when i do a simple speed test aprox 2m away from rounters antenas i notice that on 2.5GHz the speed is less than 100mbps(download) and less than 400mbps on 5GHz. For testing i use PC or Iphone 14Pro. My ISP connector is 1Gbps/100Mbps (D/U).

As i saw in the specs both router and AP are capable of higher speeds. Can anyone tell me what could be the cause? If i test the speed on the router via cable i get 890mbps/120mbs.

The AP is set in CAPs mode.

here is also my configuration for caps manager on the router:

jun/23/2024 11:32:36 by RouterOS 6.49.11

software id = ZWRC-FBTF

model = RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD

serial number = D1460C19DA7E

/caps-man channel
add band=5ghz-a/n/ac control-channel-width=20mhz name=channel_5GHz
add band=2ghz-g/n control-channel-width=20mhz name=channel_2.4GHz

/interface wireless

managed by CAPsMAN

channel: 5180/20-Ceee/ac/P(20dBm)+5290/80/DP(17dBm), SSID: Bezan_5G, CAPsMAN forwarding

set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] ssid=MikroTik

managed by CAPsMAN

channel: 2447/20-eC/gn(-20dBm), SSID: Bezan, CAPsMAN forwarding

set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] antenna-gain=50 band=2ghz-b/g/n
channel-width=20/40mhz-Ce country=japan frequency=auto frequency-mode=
superchannel mode=ap-bridge ssid=Bezan station-roaming=enabled
wireless-protocol=802.11


/caps-man datapath
add bridge=bridge1 name=datapath
/caps-man security
add authentication-types=wpa-psk,wpa2-psk name=security passphrase=***
/caps-man configuration
add channel=channel_5GHz country=slovenia datapath=datapath installation=
indoor name=cfg1 security=security ssid=Bezan_5G
add channel=channel_2.4GHz datapath=datapath name=cfg2 security=security
ssid=Bezan

/caps-man manager
set enabled=yes
/caps-man provisioning
add action=create-dynamic-enabled hw-supported-modes=ac,an
master-configuration=cfg1
add action=create-dynamic-enabled hw-supported-modes=gn master-configuration=
cfg2

/interface wireless cap

set caps-man-addresses=127.0.0.1 enabled=yes interfaces=wlan1,wlan2

2

Your cAP ac is capable of more … when running ROS 7.13+ and wifi-qcom-ac driver set instead of wireless.

The same is true for RB4011, but this one comes with a gotcha: wifi-qcom-ac doesn’t support the 2.4 GHz radio on RB4011. So you have to choose between:

  1. running legacy wireless drivers on both of your devices (your current setup)
    This allows you to use 2.4GHz radio on RB4011. But somewhat cripples wireless performance on the rest of radios (2.4GHz on cAP ac and 5GHz radios on both devices). It also doesn’t allow advanced station roaming.
  2. running legacy wireless driver on RB4011 and wave2 (wifi-qcom-ac) on cAP ac
    This allows you to use 2.4GHz radio on RB4011 and unleashes highest performance on cAP ac. It requires to use wave2 capsman (under /interface/wifi/…) on RB4011 to provision cAP ac. It still doesn’t allow advanced station roaming.
  3. running wave2 (wifi-qcom-ac) driver on both devices
    This disables 2.4GHz radio on RB4011. But it unleashes highest performance on both cAP ac and RB4011’s 5GHz radio. It again requires to use wave2 capsman on RB4011, but wave2 capsman can share most settings (profiles) with local radios … and allows advanced station roaming.

So if you can miss the 2.4GHz radio from RB4011, then option #3 is the best. Option #2 would give you better performance from cAP ac while mostly keeping the same level of functionality you have now.

Of course there’s option #4: get rid of capsman and run wave2 on cAP ac … functionality-wise this would be the same as option #2 above, but would require configuring cAP ac radios locally on cAP ac itself. But you could keep ROS v6 on your RB4011 in this case.

3

IMHO 400Mbps on 5Ghz with cAP AC is already pretty decent…

If your environment allows it (no interference on the required frequencies), set the channel width to 80MHz on 5Ghz. Better, leave blank, it will choose maximum on its own.
No need to set control-channel width.
Then test again.

Similar with 2.4Ghz.

Next step: wifi-qcom-ac drivers … but with a caveat. (Edit: as indicated by mkx …)

4

In ROS 7.13? as i saw the stable and long term version goes only to 6.49+.
So in nut shell first of all i can only use 2,4 or 5g to get more speed but if both are working then it can not work faster?

5

Yes but that’s only when you are aprox 1m away from the router.

unfortunatly i have some “smart” things and they only run on 2,4GHz

6

The built-in ROS upgrade path goes something like this:

  • if channel is set to stable or long-term, then it’ll look for v6 versions available in stated channel. Indeed currently it’s 6.49.13 (long-term) or 6.49.15 (stable)
  • if channel is set to “upgrade”, then it’ll look for ROS v7 … after successful upgrade it’ll change channel to stable (I think)
    At the moment it’ll probably go for 7.12.1.
    The reason for “upgrade” channel is that v7 comes with some incompatibilities with v6 (there were many more when v7 started, but things are not and will never be 1-1 compatible) and sometimes things break due to configuration incompatibilities.

The most recent stable" v7 version is 7.15.2 … but version 7.13 came with package incompatibility (regarding wireless driver packages) and only upgrader in 7.12 is aware of changes. Thus built-in upgrade has to go via 7.12(.x).

But all in all it doesn’t mean that you can’t upgrade directly to 7.15.2 (e.g. by using netinstall). It’s actually a better way to bring v6 setup to v7 (it clears remnants of v6 config) but it’s a bit harder (and more tedious) task, so not for everybody.

7

IMO 400MBps download is perfectly acceptable for the CAP ac. It’s just two chains with a maximum throughput of 867 Mbit/s. Wi-Fi overheads can easily halve that.