High Latency Times with 376.49_4 on AC56U

[maxideus]

Hello all,

I am trying to troubleshoot an issue I have with the new firmware 376.49_4 for my Asus AC56U. I am unsure when this issue occurred but it wasn't visible prior to the firmware upgrade. By visible, I noticed stuttering with the picture/audio on my IPTV set top boxes. With 1 set top box on, the router has expected ping times. With 2 set top boxes on, the router starts spiking to >500 ms ping times causing issues with the picture and audio.

Just to clarify, I had a constant ping going from my laptop to the router during a transfer.

I believe the issue is with large transfers causing the router to bog right down to triple digit ping times. We are talking about > 500 ms and higher during a download or upload through the WAN (I haven't tested LAN transfer latency yet). This also happens during a speed test and is my diagnosing technique. When the download or upload finishes then the ping times stay between < 1 ms to = 1 ms. Occasionally it will spike to single and double digit ping times, it is very inconsistent.

- I am hooked up directly to the router through CAT5 to eliminate the chance it is my switch.
- I had performed a factory reset and a NVRAM reset through holding the WPS button while booting
- I had power cycled the router after flashing the firmware
- I had tried reverting back to 376.48_0 with the same issue
- I had turned off NAT Acceleration which helps a tiny bit but the latency is still > 500 ms
- I had turned off Firewall SPI but it offers no change
- I monitored the CPU and RAM usage and they are not bottlenecked
- I had tested with a different router and large transfers do not cause the latency to spike, it remains < 1 ms throughout the transfer

The only thing I have not tried yet is reverting back to factory Asus firmware but I was hoping to get advice and suggestions.

 

[maxideus]

Telus Optik IPTV

Does anyone have any ideas why the multicast traffic from the STBs would be flooding the LAN? If I turned on multicasting routing and snooping, I would think the router software would handle this traffic. Evidently, I don't think it is working properly, since my LAN becomes unusable when 2 video streams are going.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[maxideus]

Bump, anyone?

 

[maxideus]

Just an update for any one having the same issue.

The high ping times is due to multi-casting traffic flooding the LAN when 2 or more IPTVs are on. This is despite turning on multi-cast snooping and smart routing. I believe part of the issue is because the VAP and PVR are plugged into my unmanaged HP switch which floods the LAN anyway.

Now for the solution. You will need to VLAN off 1 or more ports on the router specifically for IPTV. Plug your PVR and/or VAP directly to the router ports. This will segregate the multicast traffic from flooding the LAN. It is VERY IMPORTANT to power off all IPTV gear first, VLAN off your ports under the IPTV section in the GUI, plug your network cables int the router, then power on your VAP and PVR. After the VAP is online, you can then plug your wireless set top boxes.