Terrible Network performance with TP-LINK Archer VR200v, is this to be expected?

[Beneter]

I have a Network, which looks something like this (simplified):

All devices have a 1000baseT full-duplex link with CAT 6 (except the last 10 m are CAT 5e) and are flashed with OpenWrt 21.02.3.

Today I ran iperf3 between the server and my workstation. This was the result:

[  5] local 192.168.5.106 port 43806 connected to 192.168.11.148 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  8.34 MBytes  70.0 Mbits/sec    8   97.0 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    6   89.8 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    4   99.8 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  8.08 MBytes  67.8 Mbits/sec   12   92.7 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    6   82.7 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    6    106 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec   10   97.0 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    3   98.4 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec   12   74.1 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  7.78 MBytes  65.3 Mbits/sec    3    104 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  78.7 MBytes  66.0 Mbits/sec   70             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.04  sec  78.3 MBytes  65.4 Mbits/sec                  receiver

How can it be this terrible? When I test between the middle C7 and my workstation I get a much better result:

Connecting to host 192.168.5.3, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.5.106 port 37772 connected to 192.168.5.3 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  39.0 MBytes   327 Mbits/sec    3    355 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  38.8 MBytes   325 Mbits/sec    0    407 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  39.1 MBytes   328 Mbits/sec   24    346 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  39.5 MBytes   331 Mbits/sec    0    387 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  39.0 MBytes   327 Mbits/sec   19    345 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  38.6 MBytes   324 Mbits/sec    0    400 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  39.2 MBytes   329 Mbits/sec    2    328 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  39.7 MBytes   333 Mbits/sec    0    379 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  39.6 MBytes   332 Mbits/sec   22    305 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  38.4 MBytes   322 Mbits/sec    0    368 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   391 MBytes   328 Mbits/sec   70             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.01  sec   389 MBytes   326 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Still far from 1 Git/s, but running iperf3 from an AP might not be ideal.

Now between the VR200v and my workstation:

Connecting to host 192.168.5.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.5.106 port 58746 connected to 192.168.5.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  11.6 MBytes  97.1 Mbits/sec   11   65.0 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  94.1 Mbits/sec    8   76.4 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  11.3 MBytes  94.6 Mbits/sec   17   60.8 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  94.1 Mbits/sec   10   76.4 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  11.4 MBytes  95.6 Mbits/sec   11   79.2 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  94.1 Mbits/sec   11   66.5 KBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  11.3 MBytes  95.1 Mbits/sec   10   63.6 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  11.5 MBytes  96.1 Mbits/sec    8   79.2 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  11.3 MBytes  95.1 Mbits/sec   10   76.4 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  11.2 MBytes  93.6 Mbits/sec   15   60.8 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   113 MBytes  95.0 Mbits/sec  111             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   113 MBytes  94.6 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Again pretty bad...

I am running multiple VLANs, with about 30 firewall rules, unbound, adblock, sqm, dhcp and a few wireless networks on the TP-LINK Archer VR200v, which is also DSL modem and the gateway.
Is this just to much load for the 500 MHz Lantiq XWAY VRX288?
I have stopped adblock, unbound and sqm and tested again but only got a negligible improvement.
The CPU is only at Load Average 0.54, 0.16, 0.06, and the memory at 50 %. I do not see any issues in the kernel log.

I have tested my cables with a cheap cable-tester and they all seem to be okay.
Or do you think I have some issue on Layer 1?

What else should I be testing? Should I buy a new dsl modem / router? I wanted to avoid the double NAT...

[slh]

@Beneter

Is this just to much load for the 500 MHz Lantiq XWAY VRX288

More or less, yes - lantiq is slow, even more so running in single-core configuration (second core running the voice firmware for the FXS ports).

Although ath79 (archer c7) won't do routing at 1 GBit/s wirespeed either.

[Beneter]

@slh

More or less, yes - lantiq is slow, even more so running in single-core configuration (second core running the voice firmware for the FXS ports).

Thanks for the quick reply! Even though this is not, what I wanted to hear

When I look into the ToH I do not find any better DSL modem, which is supported by OpenWrt.
So should I buy a decent router, use the VR200v as a modem and forward the PPPoE to the new router?

Do you have any recommendation for me? Would the AVM FRITZ!Box 7520 / 7530 suffice?

[slh]

It depends on what kind of performance you want to achieve, ipq40xx is better than ath79 and much better than lantiq, but won't give you half of a GBit/s either.

So you have 500Mbps-1Gbps fiber and need a router READ THIS FIRST

It's such a frequently asked question over the last few years that we really need a post we can point people to. So your cable company rolled out 500Mbps or 1Gbps download speeds, or you have 1Gbps symmetric fiber (GPON/EPON) from ATT or Centurylink or Orange or whoever. You realize your old all in one router from 2009 is not up to the task of handling this, but hey by now stuff should be cheap and available that will handle your new fiber connection right? So you want advice about a router for…

[jdwl1o1]

If your goal is to get faster access to your server don’t route traffic to it, move it into the same broadcast domain or VLAN as the workstation so the routers are out of the picture.

Even low powered routers will give you great switched performance

[nicefile]

Have similar setup . VDSL2 modem in basement next to NAS , Router with AP upstairs .
Check my config (DSA) if this could be suitable for You

Accessing Home Hub 5 bridged modem through a router

My solution is simple but maybe less secure All eth ports are Lan on router .same on VDSL modem . Then vlan9 bridged to dsl0 in modem . And same vlan9 is set as WAN device in router . This extend my LAN network to where modem is via single 1Gbit link. root@router:~# uci show network network.loopback=interface network.loopback.device='lo' network.loopback.proto='static' network.loopback.ipaddr='127.0.0.1' network.loopback.netmask='255.0.0.0' network.globals=globals network.globals.packet_steer…

[Beneter]

Nice idea, I haven't thought about it.

But as the server also has a port forwarding I would like to keep it in the DMZ.
I think I will be following the Raspberry Pi 4 way... Hopefully we will be having fiber someday, then the Gigabit network will be necessary anyways.