I manage a RB1200 router, and since it has all GigE ports I assumed it has enough routing capacity for them.
But once we upgraded our WAN link to 500 Mbps, RB1200 started hitting the CPU peak (100%) at approximately 200 Mbps. I tested the same link with Apple AirPort (a home router!) - it offers the full 500.
Do you think it’s normal - is RB1200 too junior for 500 Mbps WAN? My config has no queues, it’s pretty much a single NAT rule. Nevertheless, Profiler shows “queueing” at 50% (even though I have no queues and all ports are set to hardware queues) in addition to the firewall (which makes sense - this is NAT).
RB1200 is a quite old and discontinued model with small CPU so it’s not so powerful to handle a lot of traffic.
It has many Gigabit ports but not all of them are connected directly to the CPU as shown in the block diagram https://i.mt.lv/routerboard/files/Block-RB1200.pdf
Not that this is your limitation anyway (I am just mentioning it because having a lot of ports does not mean that it can forward 1Gbit x ports total. Switches usually work this way where all ports have wirespeed, routers usually don’t)
But I don’t see the 1200 series listed in supported hardware so I guess there isn’t much you can do.
Regarding the queuing process in profile, you can try setting in Queues > Interface Queues the queue type to only-hardware-queue on your ethernet interfaces if it’s not already set. https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Queue#Queue_Types
My RB2011 can handle up to 900mbps over pppoe. Fastrack active.
I’m pretty sure it should route more than 200mbps. Check cpu speed, maybe is set to low.
Hmm, but according to specs, RB2011 has the same/similar processor?
By the way, if I understand the scheme you provided correctly, it’s better to place client networks within the first few ports (Gigabit switch) and WAN on ports 6, 7 or 8? Judging from the scheme, for CPU-dependant scenarios (like NAT in my case) this will give twice the throughput from the ports to the CPU?
Almost purchased a new router, but first decided to update the firmware and voila - just a software update alone increased the throughput from 150 Mbps to 450 Mbps )
Would never expect a firmware update to have this dramatic effect!
Well, it was off - I had no fast track rules in the firewall. So, a firmware update alone was enough!
Anyway, I’ve replaced 1200 with 2011 and it performs even better now - 500 Mbps of bandwidth results in only 50% cpu use. And according to tech specs, 2011’s CPU is actually slower!
)