Slow wired speed: TL-WR1043ND

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,

I'm using a NanoPi R2S on snapshot as a router with SQM and adblock, and a TL-WR1043NDv3 on 19.07.4 as an AP/switch. Running iperf3 between the devices yields only 132 Mbits/s when the R2S is in server mode and 332 Mbits/s when R2S is the client. CPU on the TL-WR1043ND gets maxed out:

htop_client
htop_client726×107 6.9 KB

Connecting to host 192.168.1.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.2 port 53116 connected to 192.168.1.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.06   sec  17.6 MBytes   139 Mbits/sec    0   96.2 KBytes       
[  5]   1.06-2.06   sec  16.2 MBytes   138 Mbits/sec    0    126 KBytes       
[  5]   2.06-3.03   sec  16.2 MBytes   140 Mbits/sec    0    133 KBytes       
[  5]   3.03-4.00   sec  16.2 MBytes   140 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.04   sec  17.5 MBytes   142 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   5.04-6.05   sec  16.2 MBytes   135 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   6.05-7.05   sec  16.2 MBytes   136 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   7.05-8.02   sec  16.2 MBytes   140 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   8.02-9.02   sec  16.2 MBytes   136 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]   9.02-10.02  sec  16.2 MBytes   137 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]  10.02-11.04  sec  15.0 MBytes   123 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]  11.04-12.07  sec  16.2 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]  12.07-13.00  sec  12.5 MBytes   113 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]  13.00-14.05  sec  16.2 MBytes   130 Mbits/sec    0    139 KBytes       
[  5]  14.05-15.07  sec  14.5 MBytes   120 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]  15.07-16.08  sec  13.8 MBytes   114 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]  16.08-17.05  sec  16.2 MBytes   140 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]  17.05-18.06  sec  16.2 MBytes   135 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]  18.06-19.02  sec  15.0 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
[  5]  19.02-20.01  sec  15.0 MBytes   128 Mbits/sec    0    221 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-20.01  sec   316 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-20.04  sec   316 MBytes   132 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Is there a way to get a better speed?

2

The TL-WR1043NDv1 is a 400 MHz AR9103 SOC, that is the maximum routing speed you can (not quite-) expect from this hardware.

3

Updated first post, it's a v3.

4

O.k., that makes it actually more believable, as I was surprised that the v1 would even achieve that much.

The v3 comes with a 720 MHz QCA9558 SOC instead, which should be roughly on par with the archer c7 (v2), considering this ~140 MBit/s would be more reasonable. However you are running iperf3 on the router itself, which will always be slower than the throughput it is able to pass through (as it doesn't 'just' need to route the data, but also generate it on the device itself, which is very taxing). If you want to do meaningful benchmarks, run iperf3 on x86_64 systems and test the router's actual throughput instead.