VPN (server) performance?

[Catalinus]

I know this might be a very tricky subject but I am trying to understand if I am doing something wrong (and if so what).

I am testing on AX88U (currently with 386.2). WAN is 1Gbps optical (and I get around 950 Mbps up / 950 Mbps dn in most tests against a close enough server) but for some of the tests I am now trying to bypass that completely and just determine the max VPN routing speed of the AX88 as a server with various VPNs/protocols.

So far it seems that I get around 200dn/150up Mbps over OpenVPN (UDP), 200dn/200up over Wireguard and using IPSec only around 100dn/100up.

I believe around 200 Mbps is the expected hardware AES performance in AX88U (over a single thread at least?), so OpenVPN results do not look too bad, I was expecting more from Wireguard (but on that one it could be the limited optimization in a fairly old module) but IPSec is looking the worst - am I doing something wrong there?

Any other people that have tested VPN performance in a rather serious way? Any hints/tips/results?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Are you using a commercial VPN and running the tests connecting a client on your router to their server?

If yes then the limitation maybe at the server end. Either the provider doesn't have enough bandwidth and/or their hardware is limited based on how may clients are connected and how powerful the processor is.

I have found that using WireGuard on my VPN appliance with an I7 processor I can get over 440 Mbps which is much faster than what I can get running open VPN on the same device. On the other hand using another VPN provider while running their VPN app using WireGuard on my PC which has an Ethernet connection, my speeds are not nearly as fast and not much faster than Open VPN to the same provider

 

[Catalinus]

Are you using a commercial VPN and running the tests connecting a client on your router to their server?

If yes then the limitation maybe at the server end. Either the provider doesn't have enough bandwidth and/or their hardware is limited based on how may clients are connected and how powerful the processor is.

I have found that using WireGuard on my VPN appliance with an I7 processor I can get over 440 Mbps which is much faster than what I can get running open VPN on the same device. On the other hand using another VPN provider while running their VPN app using WireGuard on my PC which has an Ethernet connection, my speeds are not nearly as fast and not much faster than Open VPN to the same provider

Sorry, I have just edited my post to show that I was testing the speed of the VPN servers in the router itself - I do not have reasons to believe it will be a huge lot different with it as a client but indeed in that case the first speed limit will be the (commercial or not) other VPN server.

 

[eibgrad]

As has been mentioned before in this forum, if you want the best VPN performance possible, you have to get off these consumer-grade routers and on to a much more powerful computing platform, like a PC! By design, all these consumer-grade routers are a compromise in terms of cost (both purchase price and long term operation) and performance.

In my own case, I run OpenVPN client using a small form-factor PC for maximum performance (circa 2011 parts off the shelf, only draws 18w), while running OpenVPN server on a separate router w/ wifi-enabled smart AC plug for security reasons (I'm limited to 10Mbps upload w/ my ISP, so there would be no performance benefit running it from the same PC anyway).