AQL and the ath10k is *lovely*

[ka2107]

@sppmaster

I have two R7800s that have max 3 clients that connect simultaneously on 5GHz and 2 clients on 2.4GHz.
I left them running with all the latest patches (I mean patches pushed up to this one) and they still haven't given any error. Currently both are on 5-th day. There are no Mac iOS devices.

Apart from both R7800s, I've tried the same master build on three other R7800s that usually have more than 5 clients sometimes reaching up to 10 devices. All of them quickly got

kern.warn kernel: ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to lookup txq for peer_id 76 tid 0

in the log and the 5GHz WLAN become inoperable. No throughput until it was restarted. There are several iOS devices on two of the routers and none on the last one. Unfortunately I cannot monitor closely the routers with the iOS devices.

While I do not have any Apple devices myself (yet), I have family living in another country with the following Apple devices:

1. Macbook Air (2017, Intel) running macOS 12 Monterey
2. iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 15
3. iPhone SE (1st Gen) running iOS 15
4. iPad Mini 2 running iOS 12

My family complained about WiFi issues and while doing web search on WiFi issues in Apple devices, I came across AWDL protocol that is used by newer macOS and iOS / iPadOS for Airdrop, Airplay, Universal Control etc.

Apple seems to create a peer-2-peer WiFi (like Ad-Hoc / IBSS) network between Apple devices but using its own proprietary AWDL protocol. The problem is not he AWDL protocol itself, but rather that Apple uses existing WiFi Channels 6 (2.4 GHz band, 20 MHz width), 44 (5 GHz band, 40 MHz width) or 149 (5 GHz band, 40 MHz width) which causes issues for existing AP and clients that use regular WiFi Infrastructure mode on those channels.

The solution is to either disable AWDL (easier in macOS, harder/impossible in iOS / iPadOS) or use WiFi Channels other than 6, 44, 149 for your regular WiFi network.

I have set the Router/AP (Belkin RT3200) at that location to use Channels 11 (2.4 GHz) and 36 (5 GHz) and I have heard not heard any complaints about WiFi after that change.

Wiki

https://fusecommunity.fortinet.com/blogs/jim1/2021/03/19/appletv-airplay-and-awdl-and-wifi

https://medium.com/@mariociabarra/wifried-ios-8-wifi-performance-issues-3029a164ce94

https://medium.com/@mariociabarra/wifriedx-in-depth-look-at-yosemite-wifi-and-awdl-airdrop-41a93eb22e48

Latency spikes with Apple/Mac WiFi

This is more of a PSA as opposed to a question. Though, I do hope this drums up some good conversation and maybe solutions. For users of Apple devices that connect wirelessly, if you perform a constant ping to some host (another LAN host is fine) you will likely notice some latency spikes at a fairly consistent interval. The exact interval is going to differ based on some factors I will point out in a moment. Here is an example of what you would see when pinging a LAN host from your Apple devi…