MSM422 / MSM710 / Bandwidth issues / WPA2 encryption

[Jussiu]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out why we are having rotten performance in accessing our internal fileserver with the following setup:

6xMSM422 access points

1xMSM710 controller

Running 5.7.0.3

About 50 mac clients (plus iphones, ipads etc).

All controllers+clients+aps in the same subnet. Two vsc's (internal and guest) with the guest network only allowed to talk to the system gateway. n/a on radio 1, b/g  on radio 2, wpa2 preshared key, band steering etc.

We were getting very nice performance to the external network, and there are no issues with that. Clients connect mainly to the n-network (thanks to band steering) and an appropriate ap.

But we just cant get any performance to the local fileserver. 3MB/s seems to be the best I can get (testing from a mac client iperf to the servers iperf server).
 We tried all kinds of shenanigans, starting with droppng one ap to autonomous mode and methodically going through most settings. And I noticed that if I disabled WPA (so running with no authentication / encryption) I could easily get 12-15 MB/s performance. While still not 300Mbit/s, it's a very different proposition to work with files from the server if the link is 15MB/s than 3MB/s.

My question is: what am I doing wrong? I understand that enabling encryption will add some overhead, but 500% seems excessive to me. Surely WPA is not expected to perform this badly, so I am doing something wrong? Would I need to run a radius server for the wireless?

Any hints or ideas are welcome. I can post more info on the VSC settings tomorrow, but there really is nothing special there. I even ran the same tests with the default VSC from the AP when i moved to autonomous mode (just enabling/disbaling the wireless protection), and the results were the same.

 /jussi

[tschaps]

You've done pretty good troubleshooting but I'd do two more things next:

1- it sounds like you've only tested this with Mac clients. I'd do a few tests with Windows just to rule out it being anything to do with Macs (IT folks tend to use that tired old excuse if they don't know how to solve a problem).

2- get an older version of the software for the APs (i.e. 5.5.3) and load that on the autonomous AP and repeat your tests. I have a major issue with 5.7.0.3 right now that is immediately resolved by reverting an autonomous AP to 5.5.3. Though my issue is different from yours, it sounds like 5.7.0.3 might have more problems.

T

[Jussiu]

Hi,

downgrading the FW did not help

Tests without WPA2:

corebook:~ jussi$ iperf -c XX.XX.XX.XX -f M -t 30 -i 3
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.XX, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local XX.XX.XX.XX port 60668 connected with XX.XX.XX.XX port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 3.0 sec  53.9 MBytes  18.0 MBytes/sec
[  4]  3.0- 6.0 sec  57.2 MBytes  19.1 MBytes/sec
[  4]  6.0- 9.0 sec  54.4 MBytes  18.1 MBytes/sec
[  4]  9.0-12.0 sec  57.1 MBytes  19.0 MBytes/sec
[  4] 12.0-15.0 sec  56.2 MBytes  18.8 MBytes/sec
[  4] 15.0-18.0 sec  55.6 MBytes  18.5 MBytes/sec
[  4] 18.0-21.0 sec  53.6 MBytes  17.9 MBytes/sec
[  4] 21.0-24.0 sec  54.8 MBytes  18.2 MBytes/sec
[  4] 24.0-27.0 sec  44.5 MBytes  14.8 MBytes/sec
[  4]  0.0-30.0 sec   542 MBytes  18.1 MBytes/sec

Tests with WPA2-psk enabled.

corebook:~ jussi$ iperf -c XX.XX.XX.XX -f M -t 30 -i 3
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.XX, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local XX.XX.XX.XX port 60816 connected with XX.XX.XX.XX port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 3.0 sec  9.50 MBytes  3.17 MBytes/sec
[  4]  3.0- 6.0 sec  9.38 MBytes  3.12 MBytes/sec
[  4]  6.0- 9.0 sec  9.12 MBytes  3.04 MBytes/sec
[  4]  9.0-12.0 sec  9.00 MBytes  3.00 MBytes/sec
[  4] 12.0-15.0 sec  9.00 MBytes  3.00 MBytes/sec
[  4] 15.0-18.0 sec  5.38 MBytes  1.79 MBytes/sec
[  4] 18.0-21.0 sec  4.12 MBytes  1.38 MBytes/sec
[  4] 21.0-24.0 sec  7.62 MBytes  2.54 MBytes/sec
[  4] 24.0-27.0 sec  9.25 MBytes  3.08 MBytes/sec
[  4] 27.0-30.0 sec  9.25 MBytes  3.08 MBytes/sec
[  4]  0.0-30.0 sec  81.8 MBytes  2.72 MBytes/sec

No other changes were done between the tests.

I'll continue troubleshooting, testing with a Radius-server etc.

/jussi

[Jussiu]

Here is the output when I test iperf from the AP to the fileserver:


------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.XX, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local XX.XX.XX.XX port 32774 connected with XX.XX.XX.XX port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 37.1 MBytes 31.0 Mbits/sec

/jussi

[cenk sasmaztin]

hi please test..

one cable client on your network mac/windows etc.

running

iperf -s    command with iperf server

connect two mac or windows clientes only one 422 (autonoumus mode non authentication)

each wireless client running  same time iperf -c iperfserverip  -P 1 -i 2 -p 5001 -f m -t 500  

command  and start file transfer from iperf server to wireless client.

please say me iperf result...

[cenk sasmaztin]

file size must be 1,5-2GB

[Jussiu]

This is the output with WPA off,  machine 1:

iperf -c XX.XX.XX.20 -P 1 -i 2 -p 5001 -f m -t 500
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.20, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local XX.XX.XX.89 port 49165 connected with XX.XX.XX.20 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0- 2.0 sec  3.62 MBytes  15.2 Mbits/sec
[  3]  2.0- 4.0 sec  11.8 MBytes  49.3 Mbits/sec
[  3]  4.0- 6.0 sec  9.38 MBytes  39.3 Mbits/sec
[  3]  6.0- 8.0 sec  8.00 MBytes  33.6 Mbits/sec
[  3]  8.0-10.0 sec  6.38 MBytes  26.7 Mbits/sec
[  3] 10.0-12.0 sec  5.75 MBytes  24.1 Mbits/sec
[  3] 492.0-494.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3] 494.0-496.0 sec  8.00 MBytes  33.6 Mbits/sec
[  3] 496.0-498.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3] 498.0-500.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0-500.0 sec  2079 MBytes  34.9 Mbits/sec
Done.

This is the output with WPA off,  machine 2:

 

iperf -c XX.XX.XX.20 -P 1 -i 2 -p 5001 -f m -t 500
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.20, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local XX.XX.XX.185 port 55612 connected with XX.XX.XX.20 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  12.0 MBytes  50.3 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 4.0 sec  6.50 MBytes  27.3 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 6.0 sec  6.00 MBytes  25.2 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 8.0 sec  13.2 MBytes  55.6 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0-10.0 sec  30.9 MBytes   129 Mbits/sec
[  4] 10.0-12.0 sec  31.6 MBytes   133 Mbits/sec
[  4] 484.0-486.0 sec  21.8 MBytes  91.2 Mbits/sec
[  4] 486.0-488.0 sec  22.4 MBytes  93.8 Mbits/sec
[  4] 488.0-490.0 sec  24.6 MBytes   103 Mbits/sec
[  4] 490.0-492.0 sec  26.2 MBytes   110 Mbits/sec
[  4] 492.0-494.0 sec  25.8 MBytes   108 Mbits/sec
[  4] 494.0-496.0 sec  24.6 MBytes   103 Mbits/sec
[  4] 496.0-498.0 sec  24.8 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-500.0 sec  6129 MBytes   103 Mbits/sec
Done.

Same test with WPA2 on, machine 1:

iperf -c XX.XX.XX.20 -P 1 -i 2 -p 5001 -f m -t 500
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.20, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local XX.XX.XX.89 port 49187 connected with XX.XX.XX.20 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0- 2.0 sec  1.12 MBytes  4.72 Mbits/sec
[  3]  2.0- 4.0 sec  1.50 MBytes  6.29 Mbits/sec
[  3]  4.0- 6.0 sec  1.75 MBytes  7.34 Mbits/sec
[  3]  6.0- 8.0 sec  2.12 MBytes  8.91 Mbits/sec
[  3]  8.0-10.0 sec  1.88 MBytes  7.86 Mbits/sec
[  3] 10.0-12.0 sec  1.75 MBytes  7.34 Mbits/sec
[  3] 12.0-14.0 sec  2.12 MBytes  8.91 Mbits/sec
[  3] 486.0-488.0 sec  1.62 MBytes  6.82 Mbits/sec
[  3] 488.0-490.0 sec  0.75 MBytes  3.15 Mbits/sec
[  3] 490.0-492.0 sec  1.38 MBytes  5.77 Mbits/sec
[  3] 492.0-494.0 sec  0.75 MBytes  3.15 Mbits/sec
[  3] 494.0-496.0 sec  1.62 MBytes  6.82 Mbits/sec
[  3] 496.0-498.0 sec  2.12 MBytes  8.91 Mbits/sec
[  3] 498.0-500.0 sec  2.12 MBytes  8.91 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0-500.1 sec   434 MBytes  7.28 Mbits/sec
Done.

Same test with WPA2 on, machine 2.

iperf -c XX.XX.XX.20 -P 1 -i 2 -p 5001 -f m -t 500
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to XX.XX.XX.20, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local XX.XX.XX.185 port 56096 connected with XX.XX.XX.20 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  5.50 MBytes  23.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 4.0 sec  4.62 MBytes  19.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 6.0 sec  4.75 MBytes  19.9 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 8.0 sec  4.12 MBytes  17.3 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0-10.0 sec  4.12 MBytes  17.3 Mbits/sec
[  4] 10.0-12.0 sec  4.25 MBytes  17.8 Mbits/sec
[  4] 12.0-14.0 sec  3.62 MBytes  15.2 Mbits/sec
[  4] 490.0-492.0 sec  2.88 MBytes  12.1 Mbits/sec
[  4] 492.0-494.0 sec  3.88 MBytes  16.3 Mbits/sec
[  4] 494.0-496.0 sec  2.75 MBytes  11.5 Mbits/sec
[  4] 496.0-498.0 sec  2.88 MBytes  12.1 Mbits/sec
[  4] 498.0-500.0 sec  2.88 MBytes  12.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-500.0 sec   800 MBytes  13.4 Mbits/sec
Done.

[cenk sasmaztin]

Hi

Tank you for test I have some performance issue MSM product (430-460)

I want ask a few questions

1-your machine mac or windows

2-can you transfer iperf server to client 2GB  file on each machine

[cenk sasmaztin]

I want ask a few questions

1-your machine mac or windows

2-can you transfer iperf server to client 2GB file on each machine