LINKSYS EA3500 - SLOW WIRELESS(2.4Ghz) AND POOR LATENCY

Installing and Using OpenWrt
21

Still testing out the EA3500, and I should mention that I was able to upgrade to 18.06.2 without issue from 17.01.6. I had been unable to do so from 18.06.1, it would always fail and revert.

I'm still seeing some differences when running a speed test though. v17.x always gave me the standard result of immediately going to 175Mbps, then steadily climbing to my maximum of 180 Mbps. v18.x has a lot of fluctuations, swinging around between 160-180 Mbps. I have not yet noticed the latency issue I had with 18.06.01, but I need to test it some more. I wish I weren't so OCD about this stuff!

22

On which interface are you getting 160-180Mbps, Wifi(2.4G, 5G) or ethernet?

23

I get 180 from the LAN port using LEDE 17.01.6, the same as I get when connecting the PC directly to the modem. It's with the 18.x versions that I get the dropback/fluctuations on that port. It happens about halfway through the test and it looks similar to a thermally caused clock speed reduction on a CPU.

On 2.4G I get about 35 down using 40MHz channel.
On 5GHz I get about 80 down using a 40Mhz channel.
(These are with LEDE)

My wireless speeds are roughly the same with the 18.x versions of OpenWRT, but latency/temporary disconnect issues make it intolerable for me.

BTW, this router requires a 12V, 2A power supply. Most 12V "wall warts" are 1A only, so make sure its connected to the correct type. With both radios turned on, it probably needs the extra juice.

24

Just gathered a few numbers on a Ubuntu desktop thru a WiFI AP (EA3500), via 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz radio. The AP is connected to another device via Gbit Ethernet (EA4500) running a netserver. Both devices are running a recent SNAPSHOT r9614-b614954, mwlwifi version 2018-12-18, c2c8244, although the EA4500 is almost irrelevant, only enough to keep up the netserver.

[2.4 G, 20 MHz] $ speedtest.sh -H 192.168.12.1 -p 192.168.12.1
2019-03-28 15:26:24 Starting speedtest for 60 seconds per transfer session.
Measure speed to 192.168.12.1 (IPv4) while pinging 192.168.12.1.
Download and upload sessions are sequential, each with 5 simultaneous streams.
............................................................
 Download:  31.40 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 59 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   0.973
    10pct:   4.210
   Median:  16.700
      Avg:  21.853
    90pct:  34.600
      Max: 126.000
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev) @ avg frequency, 50 samples]
     cpu0:   6.4 +/-  1.4  @ 1073 MHz
     cpu1:   3.1 +/-  1.5  @  930 MHz
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:   1.0
...............................................................
   Upload:  51.64 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 37 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   1.600
    10pct:   2.630
   Median:  45.600
      Avg:  75.323
    90pct: 144.000
      Max: 488.000
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev) @ avg frequency, 52 samples]
     cpu0:   6.7 +/-  3.4  @  994 MHz
     cpu1:   3.0 +/-  1.6  @ 1040 MHz
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:   0.5

[5 G, 40 MHz] $ speedtest.sh -H 192.168.12.1 -p 192.168.12.1
2019-03-28 15:36:54 Starting speedtest for 60 seconds per transfer session.
Measure speed to 192.168.12.1 (IPv4) while pinging 192.168.12.1.
Download and upload sessions are sequential, each with 5 simultaneous streams.
............................................................
 Download: 101.91 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 43 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   2.420
    10pct:   6.030
   Median:  10.000
      Avg:  45.633
    90pct:  60.200
      Max: 608.000
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev) @ avg frequency, 50 samples]
     cpu0:   8.8 +/-  3.9  @ 1106 MHz
     cpu1:   3.2 +/-  1.5  @ 1227 MHz
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:   1.6
.............................................................
   Upload: 112.99 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 60 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   0.911
    10pct:   3.730
   Median:   5.620
      Avg:   7.492
    90pct:   9.990
      Max:  42.400
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev) @ avg frequency, 50 samples]
     cpu0:  14.5 +/-  1.9  @ 1366 MHz
     cpu1:   2.0 +/-  1.6  @ 1319 MHz
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:   0.4

[On EA3500, Gbit Ethernet] # speedtest-netperf.sh -H 192.168.12.1 -p 192.168.12.1
2019-03-28 15:39:33 Starting speedtest for 60 seconds per transfer session.
Measure speed to 192.168.12.1 (IPv4) while pinging 192.168.12.1.
Download and upload sessions are sequential, each with 5 simultaneous streams.
...........................................................
 Download: 538.30 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 61 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   0.326
    10pct:   0.581
   Median:   1.223
      Avg:   1.278
    90pct:   1.604
      Max:   6.738
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev), 56 samples]
     cpu0: 100.0 +/-  0.0
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:  92.1
............................................................
   Upload: 383.44 Mbps
  Latency: [in msec, 61 pings, 0.00% packet loss]
      Min:   0.320
    10pct:   0.363
   Median:   0.662
      Avg:   0.752
    90pct:   0.851
      Max:   7.006
 CPU Load: [in % busy (avg +/- std dev), 57 samples]
     cpu0: 100.0 +/-  0.0
 Overhead: [in % used of total CPU available]
  netperf:  99.2

The last was run on the EA3500, probably bottlenecked by its CPU.

25

I have similar issue with EA3500 , with slow upload between clients and routers ,

look at this :

Generic MAC80211 802.11bgn (radio0)
Channel: 2 (2.417 GHz) | Bitrate: 1 Mbit/s

I think its related to driver ? cause i tried 18.06 , 17 lede and snapshot

similar issue : https://forum.archive.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=71595