Poor Wireless N Performance

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Testing on a Groove in Access Point mode getting MAX 3MB/Sec, hovering around 1.9 - 2.3 MB/sec clients are saying they are connected at 150mbits/sec. Trying on 3 Different Clients Mac Book Pro / Atheros / and Centrino all offering the same speeds

Testing via FTP on a Gigabit Switched LAN Using 20/40HT Above on Channel 5300 N Only. Datarates → Rate Selection on Advanced

Any Ideas. Plug in a new Cisco router 11MB/Sec. Testing on 5.7. Looking at purchasing 30+ plus of these devices if they can perform..

2

Any Ideas People? Also tried with a Router board with R2hn same sorts of rates. Either im doing something wrong or Wireless N support on Mikrotik is terrible

3

if you check reports of other users here on the forum you will see that reasonable speeds can be achieved. So you can make conclusion.

what are signal levels, what frequencies you are using, what is exact configuration of the wireless.

Using NV2 we could get ~100MBps TCP traffic through the Groove in one direction (limiting factor was ethernet on the Groove is these 100MBps) So aggregate value was even higher when traffic was sent both directions.

4

Hi

I’m using an R52Hn radio card in a RB411AR with ether1 and wlan2 bridged. My 411AR connects via a 3M cable to a 2.4GHz 12dBi Vertical Omni Antenna the specifications of which are:

  • Frequency Range–MHz: 2400-2483
  • Bandwidth-MHz: 83
  • VSWR: ≤1.5
  • Input Impedance -Ω: 50
  • Polarization: Vertical
  • Maximum Power-W: 100
  • Connector: N-Type Female
  • Gain-dBi: 12
  • Vertical Beam-width: 7

My RB411AR wlan2 interface settings are:

Wireless:
Mode: ap bridge
Band: 2GHz-only-N
Channel Width: 20/40MHz HT Below
Frequency: 2462 (as this was the most inactive with no other visible networks being effected using inSSider)
Wirless Protocol: 802.11
Security Profile is WPS2 (I had to enable aes as tkip only for some reason meant users could not authenticate)
Antenna Gain: 0
DFS Mode: None
Prop. Ext: port-2.9.25
WWM Support: Disabled
Bridge Mode: Enabled
Def. AR Tx Rate: Greyed Out
Def. Client Tx Rate: Greyed Out
Def. Auth.: Ticked
Def. Forward: Ticked

Data Rates:
Rate Selection: advanced
Rate: default selected

Advanced
Area: Greyed out
Max Station Count: 2007
Distance: Indoors (even though its actually outdoors; I read of another user on the forum having better results selecting indoors.
Rest of the settings are left as default.

HT
HT Tx / Rx Chains 0 and 1 selected
HT AMSDU Limit: 8192
HT AMSDU Threshold: 8192
HT Guard Interval: Any
HT AMPDU Priorities: 0 is ticked rest are not

WDS
Mode: disabled
Bridge: None
Cost:100
Range:50-150

Nstreme
Not enabled
Polling enabled
CSMA not disabled
Policy: None
Limit: 3200

NV2
Size: 2
Radius: 30
Sec.: not enabled
No preshared Key
Count:2
QoS: Default

TX Rates
Power Mode: card rates
TX Power: 22

Status
Tx CCQ: 52%
Noise Floor: -114 dbm

Using inSSIDer I can see my network is not interfering with any other networks listed and that my Max rate is 300N (using channel 11+7) where before it was 54.

Looking at the “Wireless Network Connection” status from a laptop running XP very close to the antenna and using a Dlink DWA-125n USB Dongle it shows speed as 135.0 Mbps where before it was 54Mbps

Repeating the above from a laptop about 10-15 Meters away using a Planet UT-WNLU55(n) USB Dongle behind 2 glass windows and a brick wall the same is true though i seem to recall the speed fluctuating somewhat.

Torching either one of the above laptops under Wireless Registration in Winbox shows speeds that range from 13Mbps to 30Mbps where as before installing and setting up the R52Hn and using the 411AR’s b/g on board radio speeds would not reach above 20Mbps.

Having said the above if I was not torching / monitoring the speed at which media is downloading from my PC I would be hard pressed to notice a real life difference for the better, the indicators suggest they are yet its hardly noticeable (esp. from the laptop furthest away.)

How can I (by way of settings) improve the speed at which data / media is being transferred and do I have to upgrade my antenna’s / dongles to achieve this?

Suggestions very much appreciated.

Thanks.

5

I am using the exact same settings as jlct021 and am experiencing exactly the same rates.

As a previous poster said people can get 100+mbit using mikrotik products with point to point links but when using access point mode the performance is sub-par.

Ive tested with Atheros, Intel and Broadcom clients and get the same crappy performance on all 3.

On my bench i have a Cisco 890 series router with a N chipset and get a steady 9-10MB/sec rate on the same testing environment ..

6

Yes, although I think Mikrotik Router OS is a very good product I am quite disappointed in the AP mode throughput. I have seen nothing but similar stories. Perhaps some more attention should be put into improving 802.11n AP mode.