Community discussions

MikroTik App
 
mikgor
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:17 am

Network Speeds being Throttled

Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:22 am

I am a relative newbie as I have only been using Mikrotik on our home network (1x router and 2 access points in bridge mode) over the last year and as an amateur have been impressed.

Problem /Ask

It would be great if anyone can give me any pointers as to why the speed of our network is being throttled at 100Mbps despite having a 200Mbps fibre connection and all the datapoint testing 200Mbps. This seems like a configuration issue.

Overview

Our home network consists of 7 data points in our home and a separate datapoint in our garage / home office which is joined to our home network via a Gbps switch.

We have just had Cat 5e installed as well as a 200MB fibre connection. I had hoped that we would get this throughout our network using Wifi and Ethernet provided I had the right patch leads, 10/100/1000 switch and wireless cards.

The 7 data datapoint connect to a patch panel > Gbps switch > router. When I plug directly into the data points I do get 200Mbps.

Here is a summary of the Mikrotik kit we are using and the speeds in the various locations:

A. Router - Mikrotik hEX

B.Family Room - hAP lite
While I do not expect to get >100Mbps for ethernet given the constraints of its switch I thought I would get 200Mbps via Wifi particularly as its data rate is 300Mbps.

C. Home Office - This has a Mikrotik hAPAC2. I understood this has a 10/100/1000 ethernet switching capability; and wireless up to 300Mbps.

(i) Ethernet - this is running at <100Mbps via but when plugged directly into the datapoint gets 200Mbps.

(ii) Wireless Network - again this is running at <100Mbps.

To test I am using a MacBook Pro with an AirPort Extreme card (0x14E4, 0x170), which I understand supports speeds of uptown 1.3Gbps. The ethernet cables that I am using are Cat 5e.

I would appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance for your help.
 
ConnyMercier
Forum Veteran
Forum Veteran
Posts: 723
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:08 pm

Re: Network Speeds being Throttled

Tue Aug 17, 2021 1:58 pm

Good Morning,

What do you get, wenn you connect your Laptop directly to the Mikrotik HEX.
No switch, no WLAN

To you still get 100 ? or do you get 200 ?
 
User avatar
mkx
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 11381
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:23 pm

Re: Network Speeds being Throttled

Tue Aug 17, 2021 2:56 pm

B. hAP lite has only 100 Mbps ethernet ports. Since hAP lite is connected towards router using wired connection (I assume, you did not specify), wireless can not get more than 100Mbps connectivity towards wired LAN and internet.
Another thing is gross vs. net speeds over wireless. While 802.1n offers 300Mbps wireless data rate, that's a very theoretical number which would be achievable if one device (e.g. AP) woudl be transmitting 100% of time. Which of course doesn't happen because a) wireless data is framed and there's some delay between individual frames and b) WiFi is kind of half-duplex bi-directional transport technology and time delay when changing direction is considerable. Realistically it is possible to achieve throughputs of around one half of actual data rate and actual data rate can easily drop below max data rate due to radio issues (low signal strength due to distance/attenuation and interference of other devices using same spectrum, can be wifi or bluetooth or microwave owen or ...). So realistically you might get 150Mbps over wireless with hAP lite, but the hard limit is 100 Mbps ethernet port. You might be able to get more than 100 Mbps for wireless-wireless (when both devices are served by same AP), but probably not 150Mbps because the overhead would be higher (two clients plus AP).

C. hAP ac2 should be able to shift more than 100 Mbps. If you're getting less, you should check the ethernet connection status, did both devices (switch and hAP ac2) negotiate 1Gbps?
 
User avatar
bpwl
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 2978
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:16 am

Re: Network Speeds being Throttled

Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:39 am

Some background reading on wifi: https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html and commercial specs. Not specific to any vendor, it's how 802.11 works.

The hAP Lite, as said by MKX only has 100Mbps ethernet ports. It's wifi is only the 2.4 GHz band (WLAN1). Normally in 2.4 GHz one uses 20MHz channel width. (There is no room for multiple 40 MHz channels). The max interface rate for 802.11n used on 20 MHz channel with, with 2 streams (hAP Lite has only 2 radio's or chains) and the best encoding rate (MCS15) requiring a good signal, and a fully free channel is 144 Mbps. The data rate to be expected then is around 75 Mbps unidirectional for UDP. (TCP has ack's in the opposite direction).

Any other 802.11 transmitter that is detected in the same channel will make the AP and client wait for a free channel. The slowest transmitter (weaker or distorted signal) takes the most air-time, and if that one is very busy, it will reduce the effective speed of ALL transmitters in that channel the same as its own slow speed. (It needs not be transmiting to the same AP for that)

With the hAP ac2 you should be able to get 240 Mbps on 40 MHz wide channel in 5GHz, or even 360 Mbps on a 80 MHz wide channel (866Mbps interface rate), in a channel-radio free environment and 100% signal quality (CCQ)
 
atuxnull
Frequent Visitor
Frequent Visitor
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:02 pm

Re: Network Speeds being Throttled

Wed Aug 18, 2021 11:02 am

As already mentioned by fellow co-forum members the hap lite has 100Mbps ports and the wifi is pretty unclear about speed.
What i would do in the LAN, forget ISP, is set iperf in a PC_A through wifi with a decent/new wifi card. Then from another PC_B use iperf and do a speedtest over the wifi. Be pretty close to router.
Being honest with you, I would expect 100Mbps or just over it, since the CPU and overall characteristics of hAP lite are pretty low.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: inna and 37 guests