GT-AXE16000 WiFi Poor Upload Performance

[Kurai]

My router hits my ISP's rated speed over ethernet just fine, and hits close to it at download over WiFi, but not even close with the upload side. I typically am around 940/940 over ethernet and 850/250 over WiFi. I wouldn't think anything of it, if I didn't see posts from users around here and Reddit claiming to hit symmetrical down/up speeds over WiFi in the 800-1200 mbps range with the same exact hardware setup as me.

My router is configured basically bone dry stock, no tweaks to the radios at all. However they come out of the box, that's how they're setup. Is there some particular setting anyone can think of that would cause the upload side of WiFi to be limited so harshly? I'm hoping someone can shoot me a suggestion here. Thanks.

 

[jzchen]

Windows 10 PC? What client is this?

 

[Kurai]

The clients are multiple Samsung smartphones rated for WiFi 6e (two S21 Ultras and a Galaxy Fold 4) and a Google Pixel 6 I believe.

 

[ugandy]

max i got: 950/950 wired, 860/760 wifi6e . axe1600/windows11 client
but speeds change throughout the day
800/500
750/400
etc
upload is always less than download. i think maybe related to clients?

 

[Tech9]

The clients are multiple Samsung smartphones rated for WiFi 6e

Look at the link speeds in Wireless Log. This asymmetrical up/down speed is usually caused by the distance to the client. Also mobile devices have automatic power saving features and you may not see maximum performance on Wi-Fi. The device decides how much energy is enough to maintain the connection. Don't test with phones.

 

[Kurai]

I just ran some speed tests on my desktop PC in the same room as my router using a WiFi 6e built in adapter on my motherboard. It's a brand new Ryzen 7950x3D and Asus B650E-F motherboard so it's all fast and modern. The desktop saw similarly slow upload speeds but slightly higher around 400 mbps or less. Download speeds also capped around 850mbps just as my phones do.

 

[Kurai]

An update to this problem. I have been wanting to make a FTP server for my desktop PC to make wirelessly transferring files easier and more consistent. I finally set it up and made sure it works on my S21 Ultra connected to the 5Ghz-1 radio on my GT-AXE16000.

What I found is that when transferring wirelessly intra-LAN, the phone is able to upload to my PC at a rate of approximately 900mbps (~112MB/s.) This proves to me that the problem with WiFi upload speed is happening somewhere between the WAN connection and the WiFi radio drivers. The actual connection speed from my phone to the router is reaching 2400mbps easily when in the same room as the router, and 900mbps uploading to my PC is probably about peak considering the PC is connected to ethernet at 1gbps so it's probably about the cap.

Any ideas why my WAN upload speeds are so poor over WiFi but are perfectly fine across LAN? I have Verizon FiOS with perfect ethernet connection speeds so the cable coming to the router from the ONT is clearly fine, it has to be something going on in the router itself setting wise (or defect) causing this issue. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[glassdoor]

I am experiencing similar limitations

Asus tuf-ax3000, both as router and as AP connected to a edgerouter

Wired connections to the lan ports of tuf-ax3000, both uploads and downloads are 800-900mbps on internet/intranet with speedtest and iperf3

On wifi with multiple macbooks and iphones connected via AX mode with both tx and rx at 12000mbps. I even tried a macbook pro with AC 3 stream
Speedtest on the iphone DL 800+ UL 250+, AX macbooks DL 800+ UL250-300, AC macbook pro DL 700+ UL300-350
But if I do a iperf3 to a host on my intranet the UL is 700-800+. iperf3 to a host on the internet lowers UL speed to 250-300Mbps. Wired iperf3 UL to the same host on the internet is 700-800+Mbps

So wired speed is as per expected. DL on wifi is as per expected (internet and intranet). UL on wifi to intranet is as per expected.
BUT UL to internet is capped to 250-300mbps.

UL to intranet iperf3 host is at expected speed. So its not an issue with wifi bandwodth and channels.

The above behaviour is the same using tuf-ax3000 as a router and as a AP

It's almost as if there is a QOS rule limiting wifi upload to internet at 250-350mbps. And I have triple checked that is ZERO QOS configured. i have even factory reset the tuf-ax3000 and setup as simple router with wifi. The wifi UL speed to internet is still limited to 250-300mbps

As per the TS, he uses windows and samsung androids phones. I have an exclusive apple ecosystem. So it's not the clients either.

Ideas to troubleshoot?

 

[sfx2000]

I typically am around 940/940 over ethernet and 850/250 over WiFi.

You're fine, don't worry about it, and reddit is not an authoritative source of information...

 

[glassdoor]

You're fine, don't worry about it, and reddit is not an authoritative source of information...

Thank you. i am fine.

But there is definitely an issue here. Wifi internet uploads are "capped" either intentionally or by way of bug/s.
I dugged out an old ac86u, updated firmware and factory reseted. Guess what... the same clients connected to the ac86u as router or AP, wifi uploads to intranet and internet are both consistently 400-500mbps as expected.

Appreciate ideas to troubleshoot.

 

[Kurai]

You're fine, don't worry about it, and reddit is not an authoritative source of information...

No, I'm not fine. These routers are not enabling my WiFi upload speeds to hit their appropriate levels. Something is very clearly wrong with them and I would like to bring this topic to Asus' and Merlins' attention to hopefully rectify the issue.

 

[glens]

Try turning off the OFDMA and perhaps MU-MIMO if you don't really need them in your environment. When truly unneeded they degrade performance in my experience.

 

[Tech9]

Try turning off the OFDMA and perhaps MU-MIMO

I had 3x Asus AX-class routers to play with at one point and both options above impacted negatively the throughput to single client. I'm highly in doubt anyone with common home setup has any OFDMA and MU-MIMO benefits. Too many conditions have to be met for both to work properly... if they work properly on this hardware to begin with.

 

[Kurai]

Try turning off the OFDMA and perhaps MU-MIMO if you don't really need them in your environment. When truly unneeded they degrade performance in my experience.

Would those options cause internet upload to perform poorly while intranet reaches full speed? Or would it affect all WiFi transfers regardless of destination?

Looks like that's already disabled for my 5G-1 radio anyway:

 

[Tech9]

The options above are mostly used for marketing purposes. Your Wi-Fi related, nothing to do with WAN.

 

[glens]

Would those options cause internet upload to perform poorly while intranet reaches full speed? Or would it affect all WiFi transfers regardless of destination?

Wait, you're right. They affect /all/ wireless communication. Sure sounds like you've got something CPU-bound filtering your network effluent when it's only hitting the wire at your router.

When you say "out of the box" did that preclude an initial full reset? I realize expectations should be that it's "good to go" but it's possible assembly final QC checks (not fully followed?) leave it in a slightly-funky state. I'd perform a GUI full reset & reconfigure as the very next step, assuming that's yet to be done on the router.

 

[glassdoor]

Try turning off the OFDMA and perhaps MU-MIMO if you don't really need them in your environment. When truly unneeded they degrade performance in my experience.

No difference when both are disabled.

The issue is not with wifi throughput per say.
the issue is with wifi upload to internet. wifi upload on the intranet performs as expected.
Whats even more weird is that the issue is present in both as a router and as a AP

 

[Kurai]

Wait, you're right. They affect /all/ wireless communication. Sure sounds like you've got something CPU-bound filtering your network effluent when it's only hitting the wire at your router.

When you say "out of the box" did that preclude an initial full reset? I realize expectations should be that it's "good to go" but it's possible assembly final QC checks (not fully followed?) leave it in a slightly-funky state. I'd perform a GUI full reset & reconfigure as the very next step, assuming that's yet to be done on the router.

I did indeed do a full reset after first starting up the router and installing the latest stock firmware. Then did another one when flashing to Merlin. Same issue present across the board.

 

[Tech9]

Same issue present across the board.

Stock Asuswrt or Asuswrt-Merlin with the same wireless drivers will produce the same results.

 

[glens]

I've got a couple models in service and a common trait is when running an iperf3 daemon on everything and transferring data around, whenever going /from/ a client /to/ its associated AP as the endpoint, the throughput is right at half what easily passes through to anything else. This thread situation just feels like something similar (though obviously different!) is going on. Similar in that the data seems to be spending time in the CPU on the way out the door.