I have been searching for a replacement router that can handle current and near future cable modem speeds, so on the order of 200Mb/s down/ 20Mb/s up, with headroom to handle say 300/35 at least, while running SQM. My current router is a WNDR3800 which is very stable, but I can only run SQM on the uplink, it just completely runs out of CPU power when trying to run SQM on both uplink and downlink, the downstream link speed drops to a fraction of the raw download speed. Most of the time running without SQM is OK, I rarely run applications that can saturate the downlink, but it would be nice to be able to run SQM on downlinks as well so that if e.g. one or more machines start a large download for OS upgrades that will not disrupt VoIP traffic.
However, the table of compatible devices does not include any performance data other than CPU speed and core count, and searching through the forums I have not been able to find any concise information, just various mentions here and there of performance in a thread for a particular device, or comparisons of different LEDE builds. I also see FastPath mentioned a few times, but it is not clear whether the FastPath modification is compatible with SQM or not.
Is it even possible to collect consistent performance data for the various devices, or is there just too much variation in the hardware available to the various contributors to be able to run those tests for all devices?
Any recommendations on how to go about figuring out which device suits my current needs? Will I just need to spend a couple of days trawling through the forum posts for several likely devices looking for information on SQM performance someone may have contributed?
AFAICS in the forum, it is not.
Devices based on the Armada 385 can shape about 700Mbit/sec, e.g. Linksys WRT1900ACS.
An Edgerouter ER-X with LEDE and SFE can do about 570Mbit/sec. See this thread for details: Advice needed: Ubiquity EdgeRouter X as routing only, no wifi, gigabit+vlan router?
LEDE is a bit tricky to install to an ER-X though.
I will try to optimize the LEDE-Image for the Edgerouter ER-X, maybe we can get a little bit more performance.
EDIT: If any is interested, i have build a optimized build for testing.
Thank you very much for the specific recommendation, refurbished and used WRT1900ACS seem to be available pretty easily for a good price, so I will definitely give one of those a try.
@ccaudle How do you manage to run out of power on WNDR3800 with just SQM? 
I have WNDR3700v4 i run openvpn server, dnscrypt-proxy, adblock (10013 records), /etc/hosts (52749 records), SQM and there are 4 PC with wire, 2 with wifi and 4-5 phones connected to it and it still has some power left.
The WNDR3800 (and 3700v2) will only allow up to 50-70 Mbps combined shaper bandwidth (that is total sum for upload and download). That ~60 is a bit tight for the OP's 200+20 plan...
The WNDR3700v4 is a completely different beast than the earlier versions, for example the v4 uses a mips 74k cpu, while the 3800/3700v1/v2 use a mips 24k...
I'd like to try the optimized build guenti_r
offload wifi access to a dedicated access point. This should have a major impact on the total sqm throughput. Also try fq_codel simplest/simple.qos and cake piece_of_cake.qos. I sometimes see better performance with fq_codel simplest/simple.qos than cake, if you do not need per host fairness which cake supports.
Thanks, I've installed it (and compiled my own version based on your config.seed). I'll run a bench later.
I'd also be interested how much it speeds up the Edgerouter.
I'm in a similar boat with the TP-Link C7 and a 300/30mbit cable link. It can handle more than that alone, but under SQM it can only handle 120-140mbit. I run it shaping the 30mbit uplink only, then I still get the 300-350 download speed, with some SQM improvement.
Would be nice if there was available along with other info you can find on various routers, speed info for things like bandwidth under SQM, VPN, etc. Rarely though, do you find it. Just needs people to do it and post it in the wikis and databases.
Anyway, have been debating on getting an Edgerouter as a cake/VPN engine, and keeping the C7 for it's great radio range as the AP... or upgrading to something like the WRT1900.
I just installed a WRT1200AC that I found used for a good price. I ran speedtest.dslreports.com and hit over 200Mb/s down, 12Mb/s up, but with up to 800ms latency on the downstream. Installed sqm scripts set to layer cake, and now I can get 210Mb/s down with just about 30ms variation in latency. Upstream has only about 3ms variation in latency, so I may be able to tweak for a little higher bandwidth at the expense of more latency variation, but for now this is good, seems a lot better than my old WNDR3800. The WNDR is going to become the access point for the far side of the house now, the slower processor won't hurt there. Thanks again for the advice.
For myself, i decided to move into x86 with an Atom N270, for the only purpose of sqm/qos. It can handle my 100/40mbit with 70% cpu (irq) usage. Before that i had my Archer C7 v2 that was not even able to manage the full download alone. I must say, that my home network is quite big: 1 Main router, 2 dumb APs with 10 devices and a total of 6 hotspots with around 20 clients. Im killing 2 TB traffic each month.
I recommend 100mbit and not more than 150 mbit per ~1,8ghz core (not counting htt) if you build something with Intel Atom or Celeron. Dont forget to install and use the package irqbalance. Newer cpu generations can handle certainly more. Ram and storage space doesnt really matter. You only need some basic skills with booting a recovery linux and copying the firmware with "dd".
Second hand UTM/firewalls or mini pcs are really cheap and have more flexibility than an arm plattform. But that for sure: it cost you probably more electricity.
Did anyone allready maxed out a 3200acm @ SQM cake ?
I wonder where the limit is...
link down +1
3 years too late?
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