Wifi AP Ping Latency Regression with upgrade to RT-AC5300

[tonymet]

I recently "upgraded" to Asus RT-AC5300 – a top-tier AP with tri-band, band steering and lots of resources.

Working well, but one setback: my pings have regressed: To 3.0ms AVG from 1.8ms AVG prior to the test

How I tested

• Router was the same in all tests ( UBNT Edge Router X)
• ping Results are from a Raspberry Pi 3 with smokeping . Ping is to the gateway (on the router). Pinging the AP directly has similar results.
• Multiple separate APs were tested prior (tp link archer C7, tp link AX3000, tp leak eap225 (enterprise) )

Questions

• what wifi settings should I test that affect latency?
• What are typical AP pings people are getting?

What I've tried
* factory reset
* disable beamforming, airtime fairness, TX Burst
* reduce power on 3 bands to "balanced"


Results
Jan 5 is when the new Asus AC5300 was installed as AP

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @tonymet.

That router isn't top-tier anymore (it's 6 years old now). And except for Wi-Fi performance, it may never have been (the GT model is more powerful).

Can you simply add it to your network as an AP instead of as the main router?

 

[tonymet]

thanks for the help

> That router isn't top-tier anymore (it's 6 years old now). And except for Wi-Fi performance, it may never have been (the GT model is more powerful).

Agreed, but the application is pretty basic – and among the other APs tested, 1 was even older

Can you simply add it to your network as an AP instead of as the main router?

Yep that's how it's currently set up. router = UBNT Edge Router X, AP = Asus AC5300

 

[Tech9]

a top-tier AP with tri-band, band steering and lots of resources.

It's an old router from 2015. Why do you play with consumer routers for AP's? Get a few Qualcomm based TP-Link EAP245V3 with PoE and VLAN's support, a network controller to complete your Omada setup and solve the Wi-Fi problem once. Much more stable and configurable.

 

[tonymet]

It's an old router from 2015. Why do you play with consumer routers for AP's? Get a few Qualcomm based TP-Link EAP245V3 with PoE and VLAN's support, a network controller to complete your Omada setup and solve the Wi-Fi problem once. Much more stable and configurable.

i have an eap225. The issue is that eap225 signal and antenna gain are actually quite poor compared to consumer router. For the application the consumer router provides better RSSI

If i can help identify the ping latency regression config, I will have an optimal installation.

 

[tonymet]

. Much more stable and configurable.

the current solution is very stable– pings are consistent at the mean with low standard deviation. I'm working to reduce the mean to baseline 1.8ms

 

[Tech9]

How many AP's do you need? Consumer routers only shout more, designed to work solo. If you need to cover larger area, 2x AP's in right locations will give you better throughput than 1x AP with weaker coverage at the edges. AC-5300 radios are AC Wave 1, EAP245V3 radios are AC Wave 2. They can push more data with weaker connections.

 

[tonymet]

How many AP's do you need? Consumer routers only shout more, designed to work solo.

Only 1 AP is active for this solution.

 

[Tech9]

In this case and if you prefer consumer equipment, a newer AX68U or AX86U router is better. AC Wave 2 gives you ~20% boost in range and speed. Available AX for your newer devices. Longer support as well. AC5300 support may be dropped soon.

 

[tonymet]

In this case and if you prefer consumer equipment, a newer AX68U or AX86U router is better. AC Wave 2 gives you ~20% boost in range and speed. Available AX for your newer devices. Longer support as well. AC5300 support may be dropped soon.

this is off topic

 

[Tech9]

Try to disable all Beamforming and MU-MIMO. It requires extra processing for minimum real benefits. Since it's an AP, play with different firmware versions. Sometimes older firmware has better Wi-Fi drivers. Play with different Wi-Fi control channels. Don't trust Wi-Fi Analyzer type apps, test in real use.

 

[leerees]

We use AX92u's and operate them in AX mode. The added latency is less than 1ms for AX nodes.

I've never found the cause but different Asus routers offer different latency levels on WiFi. Google reviews of different models would be a way to get a general feel.

We settled on AX92u's because we wanted to build a WiFi mesh to cover a very large area with the lowest possible pings and bufferbloat. We tried lots of other brands including highly rated Netgear and ibiquiti and they were all rubbish in terms of throughput and pings. The AX92u is leagues ahead of all the competition.

The XT8 is newer than the AX92u but has a slower CPU that's tricore. I'm not sure how that translates in terms of latency / performance.

 

[Tech9]

The AX92u is leagues ahead of all the competition.

No one wants this router anymore. What you claim as performance is not possible with shared wireless backhaul.

 

[leerees]

No one wants this router anymore. What you claim as performance is not possible with shared wireless backhaul.

If no one wants AX92u's, what are they buying instead? If there is something better on the market, I will of course update my thinking.

 

[Tech9]

Wireless AiMesh node is a repeater. There is no repeater offering close to Ethernet low latency to connected clients. Wi-Fi latency applies twice to the first hop, four times to the second. The more clients actively using the network, the worse it gets. The throughput is also cut to 1/2 and 1/4 respectively.

 

[leerees]

Wireless AiMesh node is a repeater. There is no repeater offering close to Ethernet low latency to connected clients. Wi-Fi latency applies twice to the first hop, four times to the second. The more clients actively using the network, the worse it gets. The throughput is also cut to 1/2 and 1/4 respectively.

It's impossible to advise anyone on how to configure their network topology. Some may daisy chain nodes off nodes whereas others would have all nodes connect directly with the router in the mesh.

I do think you are mis-informed about the AX92u's. They have 3 bands and offer loads of throughput for even the most demanding wireless network needs. If you are building a large network with loads of clients in mind, spreading the load across multiple units offers multiple points of redundancy in terms of stability, connectivity, latency and raw throughout.

Someone connected to one of our nodes could setup a 1000 connection torrent over wifi and it would not bring down our network.

If I didn't need a large coverage area, I wouldn't bother with AX92u's, I'd buy an AX89x. Next option from that would be the AX86u as it's tried and tested.

 

[Tech9]

I do think you are mis-informed about the AX92u's.

They were offered in pairs initially as 2-stream AC mesh solution with AX backhaul. Later the AX band was allowed for clients use. Not popular hybrid AC/AX router with long time firmware issues, too expensive for what it is. It will be perhaps discontinued soon and not recommended to buy in 2022. What OP needs in this thread is to solve the latency issue with his existing AC5300. Buying AX92U is not the solution. GT-AX11000 is better, if replacement is the only option. At least it has 2x proper AX radios. AX89X is failed high-end router attempt.