CakeQOS CakeQOS-Merlin

[skeal]

maybe post-mount should be used?

I agree, why tie the script to the firewall. The OP suggests to restart firewall from post mount, that actually restarts a lot of different functions. Not really what the doctor ordered. Just set the script to run from post mount.

 

[jwortiz]

I've just became aware of CakeQoS and I'm intrigued.
I've been using FreshJR_QoS for a few months now and have been impressed by it, but after a year or so, I'm guessing the support for it is waning. I may give this a shot. I do have a question about how this works in an AiMesh configuration. I have an Asus RT-AX88U currently for the past 18 or so months and love it without issues (Thanks to Merlin!). I literally bought the Asus RT-AX58U (AX3000) from Best Buy yesterday and I want to set it up as an AiMesh node. Once I remove the current FreshJR_QoS tool from my AX88U and install the CakeQoS on the AX88U, how does it interact with the AiMesh setup? DO I need to also install it on the node? I'm still trying to learn more on how AiMesh works and would love to know how CakeQoS can be successfully added to my configuration. Thanks!

 

[jackiechun]

Thanks! This did the trick.

If anyone wants to help test a development script I put together to fix the start-up issue, please PM me

I do have a question about how this works in an AiMesh configuration. I have an Asus RT-AX88U currently for the past 18 or so months and love it without issues (Thanks to Merlin!). I literally bought the Asus RT-AX58U (AX3000) from Best Buy yesterday and I want to set it up as an AiMesh node. Once I remove the current FreshJR_QoS tool from my AX88U and install the CakeQoS on the AX88U, how does it interact with the AiMesh setup? DO I need to also install it on the node?

You do not need to install it on your AiMesh node, just your AX88U (or the main router). I also run AiMesh, AC86U and AC66U B1. Cake is only on my AC86U

 

[jwortiz]

If anyone wants to help test a development script I put together to fix the start-up issue, please PM me

You do not need to install it on your AiMesh node, just your AX88U (or the main router). I also run AiMesh, AC86U and AC66U B1. Cake is only on my AC86U

Awesome! Looking forward to checking it out later tonight. Thanks!

 

[Wade Coxon]

how does it interact with the AiMesh setup? DO I need to also install it on the node? I'm still trying to learn more on how AiMesh works and would love to know how CakeQoS can be successfully added to my configuration. Thanks!

It doesn't interact with AImesh at all.

AImesh isn't magic, it's just a way to extend your local network with WiFi connections.

Cake is a QoS mechanism that lives on your internet gateway and controls traffic moving between the LAN to the internet. It doesn't care how the traffic got to the gateway.

 

[royarcher]

I am pleased to announce the release of CakeQOS-Merlin!

Current Version: 0.0.3 (Changelog)

CakeQOS-Merlin is a custom add-on for supported Asus routers with Merlin firmware that introduces CAKE QoS as an alternative to Traditional/Adaptive/FreshJR implementations.

One key difference is on the ease of use, and the ability to "just work" based on limited/basic configuration which is usually the connection's upload and download speeds as a percentage (90-95%).

Credits: Thanks to @robcore @Odkrys and @jackiechun for their work and all the numerous testers -- you know who you are!

Project: https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin
Setup: https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin#cakeqos-merlin

Current Supported Routers: RT-AC86U & RT-AX88U

What is Cake? Common Applications Kept Enhanced
Development on Cake was originally sponsored by IIS and is now sponsored by NLnet We appreciate their support… and could always use more help from others that care about speeding up the internet.

Cake is the rollup of 3 years of deployment experience of the htb + fq_codel based sqm-scripts SQM for aqm/fq/qos inbound and outbound bufferbloat management.

For more detailed information on CAKE see: https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/codel/wiki/Cake/

Donations: RMerlin thread (Thanks for the awesome firmware @RMerlin!)

Any plans to add the rt ac 88 u?

 

[Makaveli]

Southern Canada - isn't that Florida?

I only know of Western Canada, Eastern Canada, the Maritimes, and "The Great North".

When I hear people say this they are usually referring to Southern Ontario.

 

[Wade Coxon]

Ok, this is impressive.

My router used to run at 85% RAM usage using Adaptive QoS and FreshJR. That would creep up to 90s, and then eventually need a reboot at some point.

After uninstalling FrshJR, disabling Adaptive, and running Cake, my RAM usage would be around 70-75%. That seemed pretty nice, but I was waiting to see if that crept up like before.

I decided to withdraw my permission to all the Trend services last night, and I looked at the router this morning, and it is happily churning along at 61% RAM usage. Wow, that's a big difference.

I have switched from besteffort to the default diffserv3 now as well, and getting similar Bufferbload results. I am still evaluating how the three tins will manage the traffic as I work from home today .

 

[ttgapers]

If anyone wants to help test a development script I put together to fix the start-up issue, please PM me

Script tested and looks good on my two rigs.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

From My testing with gigspeed connection( 1Gbps down, 40 Mbps up)

I get roughly 200Mbps ~ 210Mbps down on client test, I get full upload.

Though I was not receiving close to full speed, I was experiencing stable performance.

I tested at lower speeds of 100Mbps and 150Mbps, great connection performance.

No buffer bloat.

This is great to use if the user wishes to limit bandwidth with stable results. Great job!

 

[heysoundude]

Ok, this is impressive.

My router used to run at 85% RAM usage using Adaptive QoS and FreshJR. That would creep up to 90s, and then eventually need a reboot at some point.

After uninstalling FrshJR, disabling Adaptive, and running Cake, my RAM usage would be around 70-75%. That seemed pretty nice, but I was waiting to see if that crept up like before.

I decided to withdraw my permission to all the Trend services last night, and I looked at the router this morning, and it is happily churning along at 61% RAM usage. Wow, that's a big difference.

I have switched from besteffort to the default diffserv3 now as well, and getting similar Bufferbload results. I am still evaluating how the three tins will manage the traffic as I work from home today .

At about 12hrs into cake, I'm having similar results from a similar process...my RAM usage is a little higher than I've expected (but I AM running aria2), and temperatures have settled to what I'm used to, but overall, things are good.
I suspect I'll be playing with the config - besteffort now, but I'm not sure that I've chosen the right prioritization profile/setting - to see if I can fine tune it further/better. 50/10 vdsl with pppoe login on my ac86. I had things at 55/11 in the old QoS settings, and other than frequent but fairly trivial packet loss, it worked well.
I'll post connmon and spdMerlin graphs tomorrow...but ping seems slightly better, jitter also, however the real champ is line quality/packet loss - there has been only one instance since switching to cake.

Overall, I and my network users are happy thus far...so good work devs!!


UPDATE @ ~24HRS:
RAM usage seems to be creeping upwards towards previous levels, and that makes me more certain I have to adjust my config/prio settings, but need to update to v0.0.4 first.
Upload speeds seem to be dynamically adjusted based on demand/number of devices. Had another instance of packet loss.
something notable I'd like to confirm with other users of unbound - have you noticed (if you've enabled extended statistics) in the performance histogram a marked increase in sub 16ms lookups, extending down well into the lower microsecond range? before cake the bars on my chart were smaller/less visible

 

[jackiechun]

v0.0.4 released:

- added status option which will show you if cake is running and what your download/upload parameters are
- update now checks and downloads latest script, so in theory from this point on you just need to run /jffs/scripts/cake-qos update {ac86u|ax88u} to get the latest binaries/script
- added check to start cake only when Entware is started for consistent start-ups (thanks @JGrana)
- added checks to not double-start cake (e.g. if you start cake when it's running, it will stop cake and start cake to avoid the "RTNETLINK answers: File exists" message)

https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin#cakeqos-merlin

We weren't able to implement @Martineau's code contribution on model autodetection (but many thanks!); we will wait for someone to hopefully compile cake for more models

 

[L&LD]

@heysoundude with a '50/10 vdsl with pppoe' ISP your QoS input settings should have been the other way (45/9, not 55/11).

I hope you test this better on the cake.

 

[heysoundude]

with a '50/10 vdsl with pppoe' ISP your QoS input settings should have been the other way (45/9, not 55/11).

I hope you test this better on the cake.

You’re right, and that’s probably the reason for the packet losses, but I liked seeing averages nearer (and in some cases, above) what I pay for. I’ll try 47.5/9.5 next.
Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ugandy]

v0.0.4 released:

- added status option which will show you if cake is running and what your download/upload parameters are
- update now checks and downloads latest script, so in theory from this point on you just need to run /jffs/scripts/cake-qos update {ac86u|ax88u} to get the latest binaries/script
- added check to start cake only when Entware is started for consistent start-ups (thanks @JGrana)
- added checks to not double-start cake (e.g. if you start cake when it's running, it will stop cake and start cake to avoid the "RTNETLINK answers: File exists" message)

https://github.com/ttgapers/cakeqos-merlin#cakeqos-merlin

We weren't able to implement @Martineau's code contribution on model autodetection (but many thanks!); we will wait for someone to hopefully compile cake for more models

do we need to do any manual changes in the firewall-start/services-stop scripts? there was some changes incoming there?

 

[ttgapers]

I've just became aware of CakeQoS and I'm intrigued.
I've been using FreshJR_QoS for a few months now and have been impressed by it, but after a year or so, I'm guessing the support for it is waning. I may give this a shot. I do have a question about how this works in an AiMesh configuration. I have an Asus RT-AX88U currently for the past 18 or so months and love it without issues (Thanks to Merlin!). I literally bought the Asus RT-AX58U (AX3000) from Best Buy yesterday and I want to set it up as an AiMesh node. Once I remove the current FreshJR_QoS tool from my AX88U and install the CakeQoS on the AX88U, how does it interact with the AiMesh setup? DO I need to also install it on the node? I'm still trying to learn more on how AiMesh works and would love to know how CakeQoS can be successfully added to my configuration. Thanks!

I have 2 Dark Knights attached to each 86U I use and no issue, though it's not in classical mesh mode, but Repeater and the other as a Media Bridge. No issue on either. There is no need to install on them, just the router that provides access to the Internet.

 

[ttgapers]

do we need to do any manual changes in the firewall-start/services-stop scripts? there was some changes incoming there?

Assuming you have Cake installed already, from the Install Example you should be executing Steps 1 & 3 to get and configure the latest update.

Going forward to check for latest version you can use:

/jffs/scripts/cake-qos update {ac86u|ax88u}

This is covered in the Changelog post as well as the Github site.

 

[ugandy]

Assuming you have Cake installed already, from the Install Example you should be executing Steps 1 & 3 to get and configure the latest update.

Going forward to check for latest version you can use:

/jffs/scripts/cake-qos update {ac86u|ax88u}

This is covered in the Changelog post as well as the Github site.

got it. i didn't repeat the "enable"
all good now
is a reboot mandatory after restarting cake?
thanks

 

[ttgapers]

got it. i didn't repeat the "enable"
all good now

You should execute it. Double check your firewall-start and ensure there isn't any Cake entries there, as it should have moved to services-start.

If it is in firewall-start, then the execute command does the cleanup and new placement for you.

@ugandy I rebooted as part of my testing of the release. Feel free to if you can as well.

 

[Wade Coxon]

You’re right, and that’s probably the reason for the packet losses, but I liked seeing averages nearer (and in some cases, above) what I pay for. I’ll try 47.5/9.5 next.

Don't worry about what the ISP marketing claims to have sold you, just worry about what your tests reveal .
Run a speed test with no QoS enabled, and pick the values that seem to beset represent your maximum steady state transfer rates for upload and download. Use those values as the maximum, and then apply your percentages on those tested values.

For example, when I run the DSLReports speed test on my link, I get around 34Mbps (Edited: was 43Mbps which was wrong) for download and a nasty C rated bufferbloat result with peaks in the hundreds of ms. I applied the recommended 85% QoS overhead and come to around 29Mbps and enable cake. Vastly improved, but bufferbloat is at A level with average bloat 20ms above idle. Dropping down to 28500kpbs results in A+ bufferbloat and average bloat within 5ms of idle. Perfect .

And thank goodness we don't need to wait 5 minutes between QoS adjustments like with the TrendMicro scripts!!