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A bottleneck costs me 600Mbit/s (75% reduction)

loops_hoops

Casual Member
Hey folks,
My setup is 5g phone (tried both iOS and android) -> router (keenetic ultra) is WISP mode -> Ethernet or WiFi to device.
My normal 5g speed is 800-1000Mbit/s but I never got more than 300Mbit/s on any device I tried from the router. This clearly points to the router being the bottleneck, because I’ve tried phones with the latest x60 modem, various end-point devices - nothing helped.
Whatever happens, it halves my speeds twice.
My wires are 1G, my router supports 800Mbit/s minimum, but I guess that particular WISP configuration brings it to its knees. Am I correct?

What is causing the router to bottleneck me this hard and is that problem common with other routers?
 
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It's a Keenetic Ultra, a brand of Zyxel
Does it support hardware offloading for things like NAT? Can you login and see what the CPU is doing when you're downloading and being bottlenecked? What's the maximum throughput for your router when it's actually routing? Is the bottleneck wired and wireless too? It does sound like something config related if it can do 800mbit normally.
 
Does it support hardware offloading for things like NAT? Can you login and see what the CPU is doing when you're downloading and being bottlenecked? What's the maximum throughput for your router when it's actually routing? Is the bottleneck wired and wireless too? It does sound like something config related if it can do 800mbit normally.
It could do 500Mbit/s for sure, haven't had a chance to check for higher speeds. Bottlenecked both wired and wireless. Not even sure what offloading is but I'll check that and CPU routines and come back to you
 

Mediatek 7621a, dual core, 256 ram.

What phone?
 
thoguhts went straight to this. if the phone is connected via USB 2.0 then that will explain the 300mbps cap
 
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Mediatek 7621a, dual core, 256 ram.

What phone?
Tested with iPhone 12 mini, Samsung galaxy S21 Ultra. Currently only 12 mini available.
thoguhts went straight to this. if the phone is connected via USB 2.0 then that will explain the 300mbps cap
Nice guess! But sadly not the case - didn't use USB. I think my router would be slower but I haven't tested it and don't have the means to.

It could do 500Mbit/s for sure, haven't had a chance to check for higher speeds. Bottlenecked both wired and wireless. Not even sure what offloading is but I'll check that and CPU routines and come back to you
CPU usage 1-3%, ram 27% when idling.
Spike to 10-19% when using ISP ethernet connection and speed testing.
Spike to 10-17% when tethering and downloading (speed reduction from 500Mbit/s on phone -> 220Mbit/s on PC with 1Gbit port and cable)
Did a couple of random tests and it seems I'm on 5Ghz 80MHz channel width when I'm tethering, because I can set the 5GHZ band in router settings to 40 or even 20 and it throttles me further. 80MHz seems to also be the maximum width supported by the phone.
 
Your bottleneck is the router, your iPhone 12 mini is WiFi 6 2x2 MIMO, on the 5GHz frequency band, Wi-Fi 6 has a base speed of 1.2 Gbps (1200 Mbps) per stream.

The Keenetic is 4x4 MIMO but only WiFi 4 and 5.

WiFi is half duplex, so your iPhone mini would average 600 Mbit/s if it was WiFi 6 router.
But as it's not, the iPhone can connect at a max of WiFi 5 2x2 MiMO 866 Mbits, but half duplex max 433 Mbit/s, add in power saving, I can see why you get to 300 Mbit/s.
 
how did you connect the phone then?
are you tethering the router to the phone?
Yup, just hotspot on the phone. The router then uses WISP mode.
Your bottleneck is the router, your iPhone 12 mini is WiFi 6 2x2 MIMO, on the 5GHz frequency band, Wi-Fi 6 has a base speed of 1.2 Gbps (1200 Mbps) per stream.

The Keenetic is 4x4 MIMO but only WiFi 4 and 5.

WiFi is half duplex, so your iPhone mini would average 600 Mbit/s if it was WiFi 6 router.
But as it's not, the iPhone can connect at a max of WiFi 5 2x2 MiMO 866 Mbits, but half duplex max 433 Mbit/s, add in power saving, I can see why you get to 300 Mbit/s.
That sounds like the maths checks out. I have another question then - if I get a Zyxel NR7101 and put it in the best possible spot, would I get full 1Gbit? It's limited by the LAN port but otherwise plugging it into my Keenetic and wiring it further should allow full 1Gbit connection wired, what do you think?
 
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iPhones support USB Tethering only (not ethernet tethering like superior android), and as for lightning... Its USB 2 so that would create another bottleneck of 300-480mbps.
Sorry, there's no iPhone in my workaround. The Zyxel NR7101 will be in its place to remove the 5G speed bottlenecking.
It's Zyxel NR7101 -> Keenetic ultra -> PC, all with 1Gbit cable. What do you think?
 
Yup, just hotspot on the phone. The router then uses WISP mode.

That sounds like the maths checks out. I have another question then - if I get a Zyxel NR7101 and put it in the best possible spot, would I get full 1Gbit? It's limited by the LAN port but otherwise plugging it into my Keenetic and wiring it further should allow full 1Gbit connection wired, what do you think?
Sure. Why don’t you try a wired connection to a laptop or PC if your goal is ultimate (stable + consistent) throughput?

A wired connection at gigabit speeds should allow you a full net throughput of approx 943 Mbps simultaneously in both directions (full duplex).

Quoted WiFi link speeds are theoretical and in real world conditions often struggle to get 50% of the theoretical maximum air rate. Add in some walls and other obstructions, some other devices on the shared medium and…the actual throughput suffers greatly.
 
Yup, just hotspot on the phone. The router then uses WISP mode.

That sounds like the maths checks out. I have another question then - if I get a Zyxel NR7101 and put it in the best possible spot, would I get full 1Gbit? It's limited by the LAN port but otherwise plugging it into my Keenetic and wiring it further should allow full 1Gbit connection wired, what do you think?
The NR7101 should, though I have never used one.
 
Sure. Why don’t you try a wired connection to a laptop or PC if your goal is ultimate (stable + consistent) throughput?

A wired connection at gigabit speeds should allow you a full net throughput of approx 943 Mbps simultaneously in both directions (full duplex).

Quoted WiFi link speeds are theoretical and in real world conditions often struggle to get 50% of the theoretical maximum air rate. Add in some walls and other obstructions, some other devices on the shared medium and…the actual throughput suffers greatly.
PC was and will always be wired from the router for me, haha
On a serious note, I cannot skip the router, if that's what you suggested, because my regular VDSL will provide better ping and the router is pretty reliable anyway. I assume it can handle 1Gbit, otherwise I should replace it anyway!
The NR7101 should, though I have never used one.
Thank you! Ok, is there a common thread where I can report my findings later?
 
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PC was and will always be wired from the router for me, haha
On a serious note, I cannot skip the router, if that's what you suggested, because my regular VDSL will provide better ping and the router is pretty reliable anyway. I assume it can handle 1Gbit, otherwise I should replace it anyway!

Thank you! Ok, is there a common thread where I can report my findings later?
Outdoor CPEs would be the best fit:
 
Your bottleneck is the router, your iPhone 12 mini is WiFi 6 2x2 MIMO, on the 5GHz frequency band, Wi-Fi 6 has a base speed of 1.2 Gbps (1200 Mbps) per stream.

The Keenetic is 4x4 MIMO but only WiFi 4 and 5.

WiFi is half duplex, so your iPhone mini would average 600 Mbit/s if it was WiFi 6 router.
But as it's not, the iPhone can connect at a max of WiFi 5 2x2 MiMO 866 Mbits, but half duplex max 433 Mbit/s, add in power saving, I can see why you get to 300 Mbit/s.
While I'm waiting for the Zyxel I was running some more tests and I'm afraid we need to revisit the maths. I ran iperf3 to measure true Wifi limit speed between phone and router and I'm getting 640/560 DL/UL. I have to come back to the question: what is the main bottleneck?

Because it's still between the WISP mode (router) or the hotspot mode (router). Which one is adding more overhead would only be possible to discover by checking multiple routers, since multiple phones gave me practically identical results. I'm also in contact with tech support.

But also, what does duplex have to do with all of this? There are no devices except the phone on the wifi.
 
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