WAX206 Wireless AX or AC Upload Speed Disparity

odrt · May 30, 2023, 7:00pm

someguy:

These are my AX results from a OnePlus9 Phone; it's pretty terrible
HE80 is definitely better than HE160 but still awful.
I'm definitely going to try from laptop soon.

HE160

2161.3 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, HE-MCS 10, HE-NSS 2
2041.2 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, HE-MCS 10, HE-NSS 2, HE-GI 1

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   145 MBytes   122 Mbits/sec  1921             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   145 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

HE80

1200.9 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, HE-MCS 11, HE-NSS 2
1134.2 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, HE-MCS 11, HE-NSS 2, HE-GI 1

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   282 MBytes   237 Mbits/sec  1506             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   281 MBytes   236 Mbits/sec                  receiver

This. Just. Sucks.

I mean: it's useable, and should be enough for smart phone usage most of the time, but at the same time a lot of effort is wasted when the interface runs at 2 Gbit/s and you only get 122 Mbit/s TCP speed.

6% effiency for HE160
20% efficiency for HE80

I would more like to get into the area of 50% TCP throughput when the connection is good, no other users or SSIDs interfere and the router is idling. 500 Mbit/s iperf3 for a 1000 Mbit/s 11ax connection would be nice to have.

Example: I get 545 Mbit/s average over 30 second iperf3 upload test being in direct sight 1 meter away from the router on VHT80, with my 11ac iPhone. Should be around 833 Mbit/s 2 stream most of the time. That's 65% efficiency, not 6% or 20%.

Edit
Your connection seems to be either loaded with other usage or your channel is congested or intefered with other networks. Look at the retransmission counter in your iperf3 table.

Maybe this is the cause for the low performance in your case. My retransmissions are nearly always zero. Otherwise it's hard to find a cause for low 11ax driver performance when there are lots of low level TCP retransmissions.

Example from just now, the network is loaded with video streams and I am not alone on my VHT80 channel:

iperf3 -c 192.168.1.1 -t 30
Connecting to host 192.168.1.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.150 port 49530 connected to 192.168.1.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  58.1 MBytes   487 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  60.0 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  50.0 MBytes   419 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  58.8 MBytes   493 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  10.00-11.00  sec  57.5 MBytes   482 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  11.00-12.00  sec  52.5 MBytes   440 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  12.00-13.00  sec  52.5 MBytes   440 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  13.00-14.00  sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  14.00-15.00  sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  15.00-16.00  sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  16.00-17.00  sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  17.00-18.00  sec  61.2 MBytes   514 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  18.00-19.00  sec  60.0 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  19.00-20.00  sec  60.0 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  20.00-21.00  sec  60.0 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  21.00-22.00  sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  22.00-23.00  sec  48.8 MBytes   409 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  23.00-24.00  sec  62.5 MBytes   524 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  24.00-25.00  sec  60.0 MBytes   503 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  25.00-26.00  sec  43.8 MBytes   367 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  26.00-27.00  sec  43.8 MBytes   367 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  27.00-28.00  sec  46.2 MBytes   388 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  28.00-29.00  sec  46.2 MBytes   388 Mbits/sec    0   2.00 MBytes       
[  5]  29.00-30.00  sec  38.8 MBytes   325 Mbits/sec  135   1.40 MBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-30.00  sec  1.66 GBytes   476 Mbits/sec  135             sender
[  5]   0.00-30.08  sec  1.66 GBytes   473 Mbits/sec                  receiver

135 retransmits in the last second, otherwise zero retransmits. Not around 2000 retransmits as in your case.

someguy · May 30, 2023, 7:40pm

I do see that, with HE AND VHT on the OnePlus9, I do not see any retransmits with the Intel VHT. This makes me think that perhaps something isn't quite right on this phone as my area is not congested at all. I'm in Suburban US in a townhouse community but we're plenty apart from each other whereas not to cause congestion. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the AC adapter so I can test it on the laptop. Meanwhile I'll try to see if there's anything on this cellphone that can be adjusted.

odrt · May 30, 2023, 8:00pm

Maybe its aggressive power saving on this smart phone. What happens with the retransmit counter if the phone is charging?

someguy · May 30, 2023, 8:44pm

The charging did not change things for the OP9 but I remembered I have a Kindle fire; although slower and definitely not apples to apples, there's no retries.

VHT80 (Kindle Fire)

433.3 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 1, Short GI
433.3 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 1, Short GI

Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.50.99 port 42132 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.02   sec  34.4 MBytes   283 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   1.02-2.00   sec  35.8 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.01   sec  36.9 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   3.01-4.01   sec  35.7 MBytes   301 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   4.01-5.01   sec  36.6 MBytes   305 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   5.01-6.00   sec  36.1 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  35.4 MBytes   298 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  37.2 MBytes   311 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  35.8 MBytes   302 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.02  sec  37.2 MBytes   306 Mbits/sec    0   1.26 MBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.02  sec   361 MBytes   302 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.03  sec   361 MBytes   302 Mbits/sec                  receiver

odrt · May 30, 2023, 8:55pm

Yes, 70% iperf3 throughput to interface connection rate may be what should be possible in ideal conditions.

11ac is stable and the performance is limited by channel noise, distance and obstacles between both radios.

I would be more interested in getting more 11ax to 11ac comparison measurements from the same 11ax compatible device, at the same location but one time with the OpenWrt router set to 11ax and afterwards to 11ac. This is where MT7915 has problems from what I can see.

ThiloteE · May 31, 2023, 9:28am

iperf3 -c 192.168.1.1 -t 30

this only tests upload from your phone and not what your ~~accesspoint~~ phone receives. Please check out Best practices and tools for measuring wifi performance.

E.g.:

TCP test, which measures the upload from client to server
iperf3 -c <IP of Iperf Server> -p <Port of Iperf Server> -t 60 -i 10

TCP test; Reverse mode: server sends, client receives
iperf3 -c <IP of Iperf Server> -p <Port of Iperf Server> -t 60 -i 10 -R

someguy · June 2, 2023, 12:17am

I have collected the logs and screenshots with an Intel AX200 chipset wifi adapter these are the results. Thanks for your patience and support with all this. @odrt @ThiloteE

HE-160

1921.5 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, HE-MCS 9, HE-NSS 2
1814.8 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, HE-MCS 9, HE-NSS 2, HE-GI 1

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 42876 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.14 GBytes   979 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec  1.43 GBytes  1.23 Gbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec  1.37 GBytes  1.17 Gbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec  1.23 GBytes  1.06 Gbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec  1.23 GBytes  1.06 Gbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec  1.13 GBytes   967 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  7.52 GBytes  1.08 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  7.52 GBytes  1.08 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.50.1 is sending
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 35234 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.07 GBytes   918 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec  1.04 GBytes   895 Mbits/sec
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec  1.04 GBytes   896 Mbits/sec
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec  1.08 GBytes   927 Mbits/sec
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec  1.07 GBytes   918 Mbits/sec
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec  1001 MBytes   839 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.28 GBytes   899 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.28 GBytes   899 Mbits/sec                  receiver

HE-160

HE-80

1200.9 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, HE-MCS 11, HE-NSS 2
1134.2 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, HE-MCS 11, HE-NSS 2, HE-GI 1

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 42586 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.05 GBytes   898 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   935 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec   882 MBytes   740 Mbits/sec    1   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec  1.04 GBytes   892 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   933 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   932 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.21 GBytes   889 Mbits/sec    1             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  6.21 GBytes   888 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.50.1 is sending
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 55822 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   938 MBytes   787 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec   937 MBytes   786 Mbits/sec
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec   937 MBytes   786 Mbits/sec
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   939 MBytes   788 Mbits/sec
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec   948 MBytes   795 Mbits/sec
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec   943 MBytes   791 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  5.51 GBytes   789 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  5.51 GBytes   789 Mbits/sec                  receiver

HE-80

VHT-160

1733.3 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 2, Short GI
1733.3 Mbit/s, 160 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 2, Short GI

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 47798 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.42 GBytes  1.22 Gbits/sec    0   1.97 MBytes
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec  1.43 GBytes  1.23 Gbits/sec    0   1.97 MBytes
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec  1.28 GBytes  1.10 Gbits/sec    1   1.97 MBytes
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec  1.38 GBytes  1.18 Gbits/sec    0   1.97 MBytes
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec  1.41 GBytes  1.22 Gbits/sec    0   1.97 MBytes
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec  1.42 GBytes  1.22 Gbits/sec    0   1.97 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  8.35 GBytes  1.19 Gbits/sec    1             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  8.34 GBytes  1.19 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.50.1 is sending
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 47802 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1011 MBytes   848 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec   999 MBytes   838 Mbits/sec
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec  1007 MBytes   845 Mbits/sec
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec  1013 MBytes   850 Mbits/sec
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec  1007 MBytes   844 Mbits/sec
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec  1013 MBytes   850 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  5.91 GBytes   846 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  5.91 GBytes   846 Mbits/sec                  receiver

VHT160

VHT-80
866.7 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 2, Short GI
866.7 Mbit/s, 80 MHz, VHT-MCS 9, VHT-NSS 2, Short GI

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 49522 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   826 MBytes   693 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec   846 MBytes   710 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec   848 MBytes   711 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   852 MBytes   715 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec   850 MBytes   713 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec   851 MBytes   714 Mbits/sec    0   1.99 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  4.95 GBytes   709 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.02  sec  4.95 GBytes   709 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -c 192.168.50.1 -p 5201 -t 60 -i 10 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.50.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.50.1 is sending
[  5] local 172.27.226.35 port 45986 connected to 192.168.50.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec   743 MBytes   623 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-20.00  sec   750 MBytes   629 Mbits/sec
[  5]  20.00-30.00  sec   751 MBytes   630 Mbits/sec
[  5]  30.00-40.00  sec   750 MBytes   629 Mbits/sec
[  5]  40.00-50.00  sec   750 MBytes   630 Mbits/sec
[  5]  50.00-60.00  sec   746 MBytes   626 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  4.39 GBytes   628 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  4.38 GBytes   628 Mbits/sec                  receiver

VHT-80

Ethernet for reference.

ThiloteE · June 2, 2023, 9:05am

Let me summarize what we know so far:

It has been demonstrated that ax performance can be greater than ac with the wax206 being used as accesspoint and ax200 as client.

Your ax200 card has good overall throughput and ax > ac for upload when using 80 MHz channels, but lower when using 160MHz channels.

Client: ax200

Protocol Throughput

(802.11ax) HE160 1080 Mbits/sec

(802.11ax) HE80 889 Mbits/sec

(802.11ac) VHT160 1190 Mbits/sec

(802.11ac) VHT 80 709 Mbits/sec
You isolated the problem and have shown that there is a performance problem with your phone OnePlus9 that regardless of ax or ac seems to have low performance.

Client: OnePlus9

Protocol Throughput

(802.11ax) HE160 122 Mbits/sec

(802.11ax) HE80 236 Mbits/sec

(802.11ac) VHT160 286 Mbits/sec

(802.11ac) VHT 80 158 Mbits/sec
There are stark discrepancies between results from iperf and fast.com, where iperf has high throughput but fast.com has low throughput for uploading. You have tested your local wifi via iperf and you have tested total throughput (local network + internet) via fast.com. You say the difference only exists, when you use wifi, but not when you use cables. That probably means your main router has problems steering the data from wifi towards your outward internet.

So there are three bottlenecks in your connection: 1. your phone/kindle 2. your wifi is slower than cables; 3. probably some kind of wifi --> ethernet congestion in your main router.

someguy · June 2, 2023, 4:19pm

I tend to agree, I think there is some wifi -> ethernet issue for sure. Would this be a driver level problem then? Where do we go from here?

ThiloteE · June 2, 2023, 5:05pm

Well, unfortunately this is now mostly above my expertise.

That said, I can think of a few things:

Continue to play with configuration options. For example
- use the new experimental "Wireless Ethernet Dispatch (WED)" feature, which is available for some mediatek wireless devices, but wed has been reported to still be quite unstable at the moment and can lead to crashes.
- Here are some basic config options: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/basic
- Temporarily disable wifi encryption to check if it is caused by encryption
- ...
Go back to a stable version of OpenWrt (or a more stable version of the snapshot from mid april) and check if the issue persists. Current snapshots seem to be a little unstable right now, as there are problems with buildbots (and/or code). I estimate those issue to be resolved in the near future, as there is currently lots of work going into providing a new stable release.
Find somebody who is really good at debugging OpenWrt code or become really good at debugging yourself. Analyse traffic, Analyse where and when exactly the choke happens within the device etcetera. I personally am more of a user than a coder, so I cannot help there.
With regard to your phone OnePlus9, you could either
- a) donate it to a willing OpenWrt developer, who could do some more debugging.
- b) or turn to your vendor and ask for support. You probably have spent lots of money on the the device and there is probably a warranty, so maybe even sending it back for inspection could be worth a try.

ThiloteE · June 2, 2023, 5:08pm

Ah and of course, you can follow 802.11ax worse than 802.11ac with mt76 driver? and check if any of the pull-requests and commits mentioned there would fix your issue.

odrt · June 2, 2023, 5:41pm

Netgear WAX206 at this time is only supported by master snapshot or 23.05-snapshot. WAX206 device support was added on September 2022: https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=f6d2a23cbca61611663efb531c97efeded26e0cd

The first stable release of OpenWrt for WAX206 will probably be 23.05-rc1.

someguy · June 4, 2023, 7:36am

Wireless Ethernet Dispatch made my intel NIC/WAX206 freak out. I could not fix it even after reboot and reverting it. I could not get it to work properly at 160 until I both, reseated the card on my motherboard and/or re-flashed the router to OEM software. 10/10 would not recommend. Plus, when I read the documentation, I found this nugget that leads me to believe it may not help for the TX from the client point of view.

In general, on MT7622 WED is only supported in TX direction (from router point of view), so CPU load reduction (from around 15% load to around 3% load when running speedtest) can only be observed if traffic is sent from the router to the client.

Of course, I re-flashed it with a newer firmware (r23238-abcb30d36c) and tried WED again. This time there was no freak out, but no improvement either.

Disabling encryption made no difference.

The OP9 is fine on Netgear firmware. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm still digging around, weighing my options. Thanks for all the good advice, I really appreciate it!

ThiloteE · June 4, 2023, 7:59am

damn! Sorry.

This is an important piece to know! So we know the performance degradation it is particular to when the wax206 runs OpenWrt instead of Netgear OEM.

Edit: What is the rough throughput you can reach with OEM and OP9?

ThiloteE · June 4, 2023, 8:09am

If you are comfortable with or have the time and willingness to compile your own OpenWrt (How do I compile OpenWrt?), you could try one of those "removal of 160 MHz" commits or pull-requests, which are discussed in 802.11ax worse than 802.11ac with mt76 driver?

I personally have not yet compiled OpenWrt on my own, so cannot help there, but it would be very helpful to the community if people would start testing those more, as the number of people that have tested them is very small.

emerzon · June 5, 2023, 2:05am

Hello,

Just want to report that I too have the same issue with a Google Pixel 6, but weirdly in the opposite direction. Tests to internet over a 2 Gbps WAN:
Download is somehow capped to around ~400 Mbps. Upload is fine, over 1.3Gbps.

However, testing a laptop with a Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz interface, I can get ~1 Gbps both ways.

Oddly enough, I have a second AP (Dynalink DL-WRX36, also running OpenWRT), and there I have the same limitation in the same direction as the OP, opposite of the WAX206: Upload capped at around ~400 Mbps, Download over 1.3 Gbps.

This cap doesn't happen with stock firmware, I can normally get ~ 1 Gbps both ways.

Also, no issues with wired net, they get the expected speed.

So - It seems some bizarre weirdness that seems to affect handset devices only(??)

hecatae · June 7, 2023, 1:14pm

can we see your network config for wireless please

emerzon · June 7, 2023, 2:09pm

Sure:

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/18000000.wmac'
        option channel '1'
        option band '2g'
        option htmode 'HT20'
        option txpower '28'
        option cell_density '0'
        option country 'US'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path '1a143000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option channel '112'
        option band '5g'
        option htmode 'HE160'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Gomes'
        option encryption 'psk2'
        option key 'xxx'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option ft_over_ds '0'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'
        option he_su_beamformee '1'
        option he_bss_color '8'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet1'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Gomes'
        option encryption 'psk2'
        option key 'xxx'
        option network 'lan'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'

AdibSadman · August 11, 2023, 2:57pm

I have the latest snapshot and HE160 is not working. Using AX, auto, 160 basically crashes the 5GHz and will only start functioning once I switch back to 80MHz

odrt · August 12, 2023, 7:47am

HE160 is out of specification for MT7915. Support for 160 MHz channels was completely dropped by Mediatek for MT7915: [MAC80211][mt76][remove mt7915 BW160 support] Consider it as experimental.

If experimental HE160 support for MT7915 in OpenWrt works: fine. If HE160 breaks on MT7915: please analyze, what the cause is and and suggest a solution.

Protocol	Throughput
(802.11ax) HE160	1080 Mbits/sec
(802.11ax) HE80	889 Mbits/sec
(802.11ac) VHT160	1190 Mbits/sec
(802.11ac) VHT 80	709 Mbits/sec

Protocol	Throughput
(802.11ax) HE160	122 Mbits/sec
(802.11ax) HE80	236 Mbits/sec
(802.11ac) VHT160	286 Mbits/sec
(802.11ac) VHT 80	158 Mbits/sec