Adaptive QoS doesn't seem to help T-Mobile WiFi Calling...

[hungarianhc]

I have adaptive QoS set up on my router, but when my NAS is doing large transfers, my T-Mobile WiFi calling goes to crap, even though I have file transferred as lowest priority and voip as highest priority for the QoS... Any idea of what the issue might be or how to fix? Gracias!

(I'm running the 68U w/ the most recent Merlin WRT firmware)

 

[System Error Message]

Its probable that T-mobile wifi calling uses something other than VOIP. Skype for example uses UDP based p2p and may or may not use VOIP for calling so its not as easy to prioritise it.

Best thing to do is find out what protocol/port it uses and set priority to that.

 

[drabisan]

T-Mobile Wi-Fi calling is building an IPSec connection back to T-Mobile network and this isn't seen by your router as an VOiP connection.
You can try to create a rule moving UDP/500 and UDP/4500 to the highest priority. Most of the traffic will be UDP/4500 so at least this one has to take priority over all the other traffic.

 

[IAAI]

do you get the same result when QoS is off ?

 

[hungarianhc]

In order to move those ports up, it appears I have to turn off adaptive QoS, correct? It seems like it's all or nothing - I either use their special rules, or I do everything manually... let me know if that's the case, and I'll go ahead and turn off adaptive, and I'll give this a shot.

 

[drabisan]

In order to move those ports up, it appears I have to turn off adaptive QoS, correct? It seems like it's all or nothing - I either use their special rules, or I do everything manually... let me know if that's the case, and I'll go ahead and turn off adaptive, and I'll give this a shot.

Yes, you can't create a rule unless you choose "traditional type".

 

[hungarianhc]

On the very bottom of this T-Mobile Support page, I found the following note:

Using the information from tmo_Amanda and working with a GREAT T-Mobile support person I was able to get an Asus RT- AC68U, the base unit for the T-Mobile CellSpot TM AC1900, to perform just as well as the T-Mobile router does..

The CellSpot had eliminated the ER081/082 problem for me.



f you have an AC68U, N66U, or other router that has a Traffic Manager and/or QoS (Quality of Service) settings, do the following:

Go to your Traffic Manager.

Turn QoS on.

Go to User-defined QoS Rules.

Enter the following two rules giving them a meaningful name like "WiFi Calling", enter the MAC for your phone, enter at least 85% of your available bandwidth (e.g 0-42500 if your maximum transfer rate is 50 Meg), the highest priority and:

Rule 1: Destination port "4500" Protocol "UDP"

Rule 2: Destination port "5060, 5061" Protocol "TCP"

I went ahead, and I modified the user defined rules on my QoS settings. Does this look right? What's the best way to test?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

 

[W4RH34D]

If its ipsec then its NAT passthrough and probably would be alongside VPN rules.

 

[hungarianhc]

If its ipsec then its NAT passthrough and probably would be alongside VPN rules.

I'm sorry I'm not that good w/ these tech terms... ipsec, nat passthrough, alongside vpn rules? what does that have to do w/ QoS?

 

[W4RH34D]

Make sure in NAT you have ipsec set to passthrough, and in QOS if there is a VPN section, raise that priority. That is if this is all related to how Tmobile actually does it.

What is you download/upload bandwidth? I would think getting this technical over voice calls would be a waste of time. It works great for me with no additional setup is what I'm getting at.

 

[hungarianhc]

Make sure in NAT you have ipsec set to passthrough, and in QOS if there is a VPN section, raise that priority. That is if this is all related to how Tmobile actually does it.

What is you download/upload bandwidth? I would think getting this technical over voice calls would be a waste of time. It works great for me with no additional setup is what I'm getting at.

I have 100mbps down and 10mbps up. The issue is that I have a plex server with a lot of media. I have almost an identical system at my parents' house, 400 miles away. When I load a new piece of media on my Plex server, it gets auto-sync'd down to their server. When a sync is occurring, this has affected my phone calls. I want to make sure that no matter what my file server is doing, phone calls, internet browsing, movie streaming, etc go undisturbed.

And re: IPSEC, this what you're referring to? Where would the VPN setting be?

 

[W4RH34D]

I have 100mbps down and 10mbps up. The issue is that I have a plex server with a lot of media. I have almost an identical system at my parents' house, 400 miles away. When I load a new piece of media on my Plex server, it gets auto-sync'd down to their server. When a sync is occurring, this has affected my phone calls. I want to make sure that no matter what my file server is doing, phone calls, internet browsing, movie streaming, etc go undisturbed.

And re: IPSEC, this what you're referring to? Where would the VPN setting be?

Yes, that was the NAT setting I was referring to.

When you're doing these transfers, is it completely saturating your upload?

 

[hungarianhc]

When you're doing these transfers, is it completely saturating your upload?

Yup almost fully! What would the VPN setting you mentioned have to do w/ the QoS for voice calls?

 

[W4RH34D]

Yup almost fully! What would the VPN setting you mentioned have to do w/ the QoS for voice calls?

QOS isn't going to do you much good with a maxed out upload. I would try backing off the file transfer upload speed.

 

[hungarianhc]

QOS isn't going to do you much good with a maxed out upload. I would try backing off the file transfer upload speed.

I thought the whole point of QoS is that it would prioritize specific traffic over others... So if I give file transfer the lowest priority, why wouldn't that help?

 

[RMerlin]

QOS isn't going to do you much good with a maxed out upload. I would try backing off the file transfer upload speed.

That page doesn't show how much bandwidth is allocated for each priority. The Transferred field is only to indicate when that specific rule is targetted (i.e. in this case, data sent on port 80 is only considered a file transfer if more than 512 Kb have been transferred).

With a low priority, that means bandwidth will be allocated to anything with a higher priority first.

Asuswrt will use priorities to determine where bandwidth gets allocated, with each percentage configured on a separate page.

 

[W4RH34D]

That page doesn't show how much bandwidth is allocated for each priority. The Transferred field is only to indicate when that specific rule is targetted (i.e. in this case, data sent on port 80 is only considered a file transfer if more than 512 Kb have been transferred).

With a low priority, that means bandwidth will be allocated to anything with a higher priority first.

Asuswrt will use priorities to determine where bandwidth gets allocated, with each percentage configured on a separate page.

All kinda moot when you floor the upload and start dropping and resending packets.

 

[RMerlin]

All kinda moot when you floor the upload and start dropping and resending packets.

If the router starts seeing VoIP traffic with a higher priority, then it will queue/drop traffic on the lower priority class. That means your VoIP should work fine, and the issues will only be with the lower priority session.

When upstream is involved, it's very easy to manage it through QoS. Downstream is where the challenge lies, as you are limited to throttling ACK packets transmission to slow down the downstream traffic.

Also note that the default throughput values of Asuswrt's QoS limits upstream to below 100%.

That's why it's critical that you enter the correct upstream/downstream value when configuring QoS, as Asuswrt uses percentages to allocate bandwidth to each classes.

 

[hungarianhc]

If the router starts seeing VoIP traffic with a higher priority, then it will queue/drop traffic on the lower priority class. That means your VoIP should work fine, and the issues will only be with the lower priority session.

When upstream is involved, it's very easy to manage it through QoS. Downstream is where the challenge lies, as you are limited to throttling ACK packets transmission to slow down the downstream traffic.

Also note that the default throughput values of Asuswrt's QoS limits upstream to below 100%.

So... Merlin, based on my screenshots, are you saying I'm good to go?

 

[RMerlin]

So... Merlin, based on my screenshots, are you saying I'm good to go?

I have no idea how T-Mobile's VoIP service works, so I don't know.

Also make sure you understand the distinction between congestion within your LAN, and on your WAN. QoS only applies to your WAN connection. If you are using various wifi devices and your phones are also wifi-based, you will still have issues.