Becon Intervals & DTIM Setting AX86U Pro experimentation

[marcd5123]

Hey Guys..Sorry if this has been disgusting the past...but here goes ...

So after reading multiple threads from several forums ect I actually decided to have a play around with these particular settings which often enough get ignored or folks leave them as they are as default.

Obviously like majority of router settings they are all subjective dependent on the room/environment they are used in .

Well doing some hard reading on these 2 particular settings either via Merlin /stock firmware I do feel it's definitely worth spending a fair amount of time and tweek this setting to get the very best performance out of your WiFi for sure .

So I decided to change it Becon Interval from default 100 now on 500 and DTIM at 5 .

Firstly on 5GHZ and DFS Channal at 116 (I'm in the UK) Becon leval set at 500 made a significant difference to the way streaming performed on my Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 and Kodi streaming! I also noticed a significant difference with YouTube on my mobile phone buffering was alot better and even apps seemed to load up with a bit more "snap" to them .

Thjs setting definitely reminds me of ADSL with SNR margins power to noise levels ...the lower the power down the line the better the speed but at a cost of signal integrity/stability .

Beacon Intervals seems to be a very similar balancing act the higher the Beacon level the better the throughput for sure less beacons transmitted means alot more "physical data" being transmitted (packets) ...but set this to high and you can end up with Wi-Fi signal/network becoming somewhat unstable .

For streaming you want it as high as possible and gaming as well this will also consume less power and less drain on your respective router making your network a lot more efficient but with some devices or very sensitive devices it will cause problems to keep a constant signal..again it's a balancing act .

Then theirs DTIM the lower i.e setting like 1 which means it keeps a constant signal up between router and devices..traid off uses more power so for Streaming devices it's best to keep this as low as possible... however for mobile/tablets devices it uses far more power keeping WiFi signal constant on the go .

So perhaps experiment with this set it higher and you could possibly get far better battery life on portable mobile devices and or tablets but at a cost of throughput ...

So manufacturers obviously set both these particular settings for compatibility and stability and in my view definitely not for "optimum" or efficiency performance levels .

I say have ago experiment it won't harm or damage anything...you can only gain a much better overall network performance and get your router working at its best in my view.

It's early days and I'm still experimenting but so far for me it's definitely been worth while especially the gains I'm now getting or noticing streaming using my Shield Pro device.

Be great to hear the rest of the communities views and opinions with this and what you've found ..

 

[sfx2000]

Most clients use the beacon for channel estimation once associated - this then allows them to estimate both Tx rates and Tx power... remember that the beacon is always at the basic rate and lowest modulation, just for that reason.

I usually leave it at default of 100mSec

DTIM I usually set this to 3, as this usually only affects devices that need to optimize for battery use - most androids, and every iOS device does well there...

 

[marcd5123]

Most clients use the beacon for channel estimation once associated - this then allows them to estimate both Tx rates and Tx power... remember that the beacon is always at the basic rate and lowest modulation, just for that reason.

I usually leave it at default of 100mSec

DTIM I usually set this to 3, as this usually only affects devices that need to optimize for battery use - most androids, and every iOS device does well there...

Hi ...I've been playing around with the new Asus WRT 5 and then Merlin Firmware... lately..I've gone back to Merlin Firmware as it's for me noticeably far better with stability for sure and overall experience.

Experimenting for the first time with Becon Interval & DTIM definitely made a significant difference. Changing the beacon Interval from 100 default and then changing it up to 600 really made an impact.

For my examples was YouTube buffering was miles better ...and again Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 using Kodi and RD addons Streaming 4K HDR10 & DV content I could clearly see buffering again was much better and it's just seemed far more coherent overall which to me seems like it doing it's job .The router is making far better use of its bandwidth and packet data transfer and wastage with unnecessary beacons as the devices are very close to each other so for me it makes scene to try these things out and have ago ..and why not at worst I just reset the router and upload my backup file simples .

It's subjective at the end of the day and everyone's environment is completely different not to mention the air space as well and interference .

Yes DTIM if I can squeeze that bit extra out my devices for battery life it all adds up at the end of the day .

The more I can get my Asus AX86U Pro working at its most optimum performance the better for me that's what it's all about and having some fun and learning along the way .

 

[bluzfanmr1]

Most clients use the beacon for channel estimation once associated - this then allows them to estimate both Tx rates and Tx power... remember that the beacon is always at the basic rate and lowest modulation, just for that reason.

I usually leave it at default of 100mSec

DTIM I usually set this to 3, as this usually only affects devices that need to optimize for battery use - most androids, and every iOS device does well there...

My GT-AX6000 2.4 and 5 DTIM was factory set as 1 at default and I have never changed it or messed with it. Do I need to change it to 3?

 

[marcd5123]

My GT-AX6000 2.4 and 5 DTIM was factory set as 1 at default and I have never changed it or messed with it. Do I need to change it to 3?

In my opinion theirs absolutely no harm in doing so .

It's very much "try and see" if you will notice any significant differences to be honest. You won't necessarily see a change immediately!..With DTIM is a difference I believe you would notice a period of time as it's more directly linked with "energy efficiency" and Becon Interval it's aimed more towards "throughput" and WiFi optimisation .

Well thats my way at looking at it as a simplistic view .Theirs plenty to read on both subjects I think everyone should try these and see for them self if they believe they see a significant or noticeable difference ...in my view it's very subjective and will definitely perform differently in different environments . ..You can even set DTIM even higher than 3 ....theirs plenty documented on both settings many feel 3 is the sweet spot .

 

[bluzfanmr1]

In my opinion theirs absolutely no harm in doing so .

It's very much "try and see" if you will notice any significant differences to be honest. You won't necessarily see a change immediately!..With DTIM is a difference I believe you would notice a period of time as it's more directly linked with "energy efficiency" and Becon Interval it's aimed more towards "throughput" and WiFi optimisation .

Well thats my way at looking at it as a simplistic view .Theirs plenty to read on both subjects I think everyone should try these and see for them self if they believe they see a significant or noticeable difference ...in my view it's very subjective and will definitely perform differently in different environments . ..You can even set DTIM even higher than 3 ....theirs plenty documented on both settings many feel 3 is the sweet spot .

It's triggered my curiosity and I'm reading up on it. Thanks for the knowledge.

 

[marcd5123]

It's triggered my curiosity and I'm reading up on it. Thanks for the knowledge.

Well I think these particular 2 options are actually incredibly important and badly overlooked ..

Asus as well as other manufacturers set these 2 options for "compatibility/stability" or what gives the most overall compatibility for majority of devices and also what gives the less headaches for them and devices lol and I get that for manufacturers but at a trade off of ! System resources !!!.

However its in my view these definitely are not set correctly to give the optimum performance of that given router in that given environment or they are certainly not setup to give the very best in performance to each of our own environments.

Some will say leave it as it is and some say try it ....for me I say try both !!!.

What can happen at the worst you get inconsistency in performance and unstability in the other .....just set them back to defaults .

For me it was Becon Interval that seemed to yield the most significant difference/improvement.

If I can get my router to work far smarter and more efficiently ...it means saving energy whilst getting more throughput out of it and their is less drain on system resources happy days all round .

It will take some time to get the "balancing act"....
Anyways good luck and definitely let us know if it's good or bad or just meh /tangible nothing difference happened after a few days .

It's all good .

 

[sfx2000]

Again - I would suggest _not_ messing around with the beacon timing for reasons I mention above.

DTIM - 3 is ok, going longer there, you might introduce additional latency for mobile services - if you have an iPhone and Android, push notifications there could be late once you go beyond 4 - it's not just theory, it's practical experience with the client side drivers from TI, NXP, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.

Pls note - I'm one of the devs here (openwrt and armbian), and a recovering member of IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16.

@marcd5123 - I'm not saying you're wrong, but your experience perhaps is a one off - the defaults have been sorted by a lot of folks smarter than me over thousands of hours of simulations - folks have earned their PhD's over things like this...