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jamesh
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Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:02 pm

I'm seeing unexpectedly high ping times to a private WiFi AP device on a small office network.

If I ping the WiFi AP directly for a few minutes, I see most pings return with <3ms, some around 10-20ms and a few >300ms.

With a wired connection to the AP, it is a consistent <1ms.

I wondered whether another nearby device might be interfering. This office has a single wireless AP. I used built-in Mikrotik features and scanned locally for other WiFi devices. There were several weak signals nearby. I switched the AP's radio channel from "auto" to a selection of known uncontested channels and reran the same test. I got the same wide variance in ping times on all uncontested channels.

Test laptop was within a couple of metres and with direct line of sight of the AP.

The WiFi AP device is a Mikrotik hAP ac3 (Model RBD53iG-5HacD2HnD). It has out-the-box vanilla configuration.

I've not got a huge amount of network experience. Is this wide variance with wireless ping times to be expected? If not, where should I start with further troubleshooting?
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Sun Jan 23, 2022 6:15 pm

Further info: The nearby weak wifi signals were shown in MikroTik with signal strength <= -89db.
 
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bpwl
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:16 pm

1. Also scan with "Freq Usage" and "Snooper". It shows more than the AP's and even more than 802.11 in Freq Usage.
2. -89dBm 802.11 in the same channel, will make the own wifi WAIT for it to be silent. Mikrotik has no indication how busy the channel is when in use.
3. Registration table is the best source of information. Check CCQ and also retransmissions (the ratio HW_Frames/Frames). Signal strength, SNR, ...
4. Standalone hAP ac3 or connected to a network? Possible (R)STP transitions in the network?
5. Newer ROS version can cause such problems. ROS v7 certainly, but even 6.49 and 6.48. Actually everything above 6.47.9 had reported wifi degradation at some point here.
6. Extend wifi logging "/system logging topics=wireless"

For a start :-)
 
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Hominidae
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Tue Feb 22, 2022 5:33 pm

...for a hAP-ac3, without the need for capsman in a small setup -> use wifiwave2 drivers and you'd be amazed what the performance boost would look like.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:18 pm

Thanks guys - and with WiFiWave2 drivers, would I also need to switch from ROS 6.46.x to ROS 7.x?

(Some comments suggest WiFi maybe worse under ROS 7.x)
 
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bpwl
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:36 pm

Current problems with wifi in ROS7 are only with the classic drivers.
Wifiwave2 is only available in ROS7 and only for some devices (with enough memory). hAP ac3 is one of those devices that can run wifiwave2.
Expect performance x2 relative to classic drivers.

wifiwave2 has no CapsMAN and no AP-bridge or WDS, but you probably don't need that.
Follow the announcements&discussions of ROS 7 in the forum, it's not a very robust version yet.
 
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Hominidae
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:00 am

...for the purpose of a "standard" AP, with multiple SSIDs separated in VLANs, v7.1.1 and wifiwave2 works much more reliable on a hAP-ac3 than with v6 and standard wifi drivers (plus better performance)...at least for myself, running 2 units in the house.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:07 am

As a noobie, I pretty much took the default dual AP config & added a static IP for the AP.

I do not know whether this created separate VLANs. Would you expect VLAN configuration (or lack of) could explain the periodic >300mS pings?

(My related post shows this looks periodic, i.e. getting pings of 300mS regularly at 10s or 20s intervals).
 
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:33 am

no, using VLANs to separate traffic from individual SSIDs is an add-on on L2.
It is common, for example for a Home- plus Guest-WiFi SSID. This way you can treat traffic individually in the firewall.
Not related to your "problem".

If your environment is crowded WiFi wise, this might be a cause of your problems.
However, standard wifi on MT is not on par with other, more modern equipment, so what you see might also be caused by that.
All I am saying is, that on a hAP-ac3, you can at least bring this device up to par by using wifiwave2 - if you can live with the mentioned downsides
Based on your usecase, I'd recommend to give it a try and then investigate further...you can switch back to standard wifi drivers and ROS v6 without problems.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Feb 23, 2022 12:40 am

Thanks. I'll try switching the drivers etc over the weekend.

In the meantime, I'll take a good look at the other items mentioned by bpwl.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Mar 02, 2022 12:37 am

Okay, so I've rolled my sleeves up and had some fun getting to know the world of MikroTik a little bit more. I'm still having problems... and still very much the noob noob!

AP and wifi drivers have been upgraded: System is RouterOS v7.1.3 with WiFi Wave2 v7.1.3.

I configured wifi using the MT example for dual band AP here: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/WifiWave2 (& tweaked things slightly for UK).

After the upgrade, things took a step backwards. I cannot connect to AP via wifi. Wired connection is still good.

I guess there's something missing from the wifi config. Anybody got any suggestions on what I should try next?

I tried a few things & rebooted after each change. No connection yet.

Here's further details. Before config:

/interface/wifiwave2/actual-configuration/print 

 0 name="wifi1" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 
   configuration.mode=ap 

 1 name="wifi2" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 
   configuration.mode=ap
After config:
/interface/wifiwave2/actual-configuration/print 
 0 name="wifi1" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 
   configuration.mode=ap .ssid="MikroTik" .country=United Kingdom 
   security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .passphrase="Passwrd1" .wps=disable 
   channel.frequency=2412,2432,2472 .width=20mhz 

 1 name="wifi2" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 
   configuration.mode=ap .ssid="MikroTik" .country=United Kingdom 
   security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .passphrase="Passwrd1" .wps=disable 
   channel.frequency=5180,5260,5500 .width=20/40/80mhz 
Tried to connect with two different devices. Unable to connect.

During connection attempt checked web client. Wireless > Registration shows a connection attempt lasting about 30 secs. Then dropped.

Seemed odd to have 2.4 and 5 ghz both using same SSID. Updated SSIDs:
/interface/wifiwave2 set wifi1 configuration.ssid="MikroTik-2.4" 
/interface/wifiwave2 set wifi2 configuration.ssid="MikroTik-5"

/interface/wifiwave2/actual-configuration/print 
 0 name="wifi1" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 
   configuration.mode=ap .ssid="MikroTik-2.4" .country=United Kingdom 
   security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .passphrase="Passwrd1" .wps=disable 
   channel.frequency=2412,2432,2472 .width=20mhz 

 1 name="wifi2" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:82 
   configuration.mode=ap .ssid="MikroTik-5" .country=United Kingdom 
   security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .passphrase="Passwrd1" .wps=disable 
   channel.frequency=5180,5260,5500 .width=20/40/80mhz 
Maybe security models are not playing nicely. Simplified to wpa2-psk only on wifi1:
set wifi1 security.authentication-types="wpa2-psk"

 0 name="wifi1" mac-address=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 arp-timeout=auto radio-mac=2C:C8:1B:A3:2C:81 
   configuration.mode=ap .ssid="MikroTik-2.4" .country=United Kingdom 
   security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk .passphrase="Passwrd1" .wps=disable 
   channel.frequency=2412,2432,2472 .width=20mhz 
I scripted the MT config example. It was run against the device via ssh. Here's the script:
# Creating a security profile, which will be common for both interfaces
/interface wifiwave2 security add name=common-auth authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk passphrase="Passwrd1" wps=disable

# Creating a common configuration profile and linking the security profile to it
#/interface wifiwave2 configuration add name=common-conf ssid=MikroTik country=Latvia security=common-auth
/interface wifiwave2 configuration add name=common-conf ssid=MikroTik country="United Kingdom" security=common-auth

# Creating separate channel configurations for each band
/interface wifiwave2 channel add name=ch-2ghz frequency=2412,2432,2472 width=20mhz
/interface wifiwave2 channel add name=ch-5ghz frequency=5180,5260,5500 width=20/40/80mhz

# Assigning to each interface the common profile as well as band-specific channel profile
/interface wifiwave2 set wifi1 channel=ch-2ghz configuration=common-conf disabled=no
/interface wifiwave2 set wifi2 channel=ch-5ghz configuration=common-conf disabled=no
 
/interface/wifiwave2/actual-configuration print
What have I got wrong...?
 
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mkx
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Mar 02, 2022 8:19 am

Installing wave2 drivers renames wireless interface names .. .so check settings under /interface/bridge/port ... the new wireless interfaces have to be bridge member ports.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Mar 02, 2022 12:26 pm

Thanks guys, I've made good progress.

Reconfiguring Bridge > Ports fixed the connection problem.

Upgrading RouterOS and WiFi Wave2 drives gave much improved performance on 5ghz channel.

The original problem I raised (intermittent ping timings) has much reduced. I'll test 2.4ghz next.

In case this helps others like me, here's the config tweaks used to fix the connection problem:
/interface/bridge/port add interface=wifi1 bridge=bridge ingress-filtering=no
/interface/bridge/port add interface=wifi2 bridge=bridge ingress-filtering=no

interface/bridge/port print detail 
[other ports]
 6 I   interface=wifi1 bridge=bridge priority=0x80 path-cost=10 internal-path-cost=10 edge=auto 
       point-to-point=auto learn=auto horizon=none auto-isolate=no restricted-role=no 
       restricted-tcn=no pvid=1 frame-types=admit-all ingress-filtering=no unknown-unicast-flood=yes 
       unknown-multicast-flood=yes broadcast-flood=yes tag-stacking=no bpdu-guard=no trusted=no 
       multicast-router=temporary-query fast-leave=no 

 7 I   interface=wifi2 bridge=bridge priority=0x80 path-cost=10 internal-path-cost=10 edge=auto 
       point-to-point=auto learn=auto horizon=none auto-isolate=no restricted-role=no 
       restricted-tcn=no pvid=1 frame-types=admit-all ingress-filtering=no unknown-unicast-flood=yes 
       unknown-multicast-flood=yes broadcast-flood=yes tag-stacking=no bpdu-guard=no trusted=no 
       multicast-router=temporary-query fast-leave=no 
 
holvoetn
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Wed Mar 02, 2022 1:25 pm

FWIW
It appears (though NOTHING was mentioned in the change log) quite a bit of 5GHz performance issues were solved with 7.2rc4.
Obviously moving to wifiwave2 might also mitigate the issue.
 
jamesh
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Re: Unexpectedly high ping times to Mikrotik hAP ac3

Thu Mar 03, 2022 8:27 pm

I got most of the way through my assessment and ran into this blocker: viewtopic.php?t=183767

As and when I get a working wAP, I'll continue the assessment.

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