[GCC 7.2 BUILD] Optimized TP-Link Archer C7 V2 AC1750 LEDE Firmware

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Hi, I'm trying to use the Archer C7 v4 on a 1Gbps connection.

I've read the LEDE threads and I understand the options are:

  1. Qualcomm FastPath -- included in the LEDE Optimized Firmware and also here
  2. Flow Offload -- this is not an option since it's only available on kernel 4.14 and current kernel is 4.9. Performance is similar to FastPath, so no need to consider this, just patiently wait.
  3. Hardware-based NAT -- based on this discussion, use the ar71xx MIPS24k patches.
    Note: On a closer look, these patches are essentially FastPath, therefore hardware-based NAT is only available in stock firmware.

It strikes me though as interesting that the guy who built the LEDE optimized firmware for Archer C7 v2 although he included in his list of changes both hardware-based NAT and Qualcomm Fast Path, there's no mention of the hardware-based NAT in his summary of changes. Maybe ended up not using it or maybe FastPath was initially mislabelled as hardware-based NAT.

I have also NOT seen any performance results on the Archer C7. One reported result with h/w-based NAT actually shows performance degradation and the original post author hinted at other factors affecting LEDE performance outside the NAT piece. On this post, there's these - unsupported by results - comments:

LAN to LAN is 1gbps for sure. Wan to LAN is about 450-500 without hw Nat which is marginally meet your requirements.
Or you use community build with hw nat enabled, 700-800.

c7 with fastpath will do ~930 mb/s nat on static/dhcp ip and ~650mb/s on pppoe

Any thoughts?

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