8 Wan Port Load Balancing
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Hello everyone;
I have an ER8411 v1.0 model router.
I use 8 ISPs. I connected these to 8 wan port but my internet speed is slow!
1WAN = 100/20Mbps
8 WANs = 800/160Mbps
But the result is very different. I am getting very low speed. What's the problem?
The settings are as follows...
Hi @Addwork
Thanks for posting in our business forum.
Addwork wrote
Hi @Clive_A
I tested the WAN ports one by one. Each shows 100/20 speed. When I balance the load it shows 400/80.When I change the number of Wans to 4 or 5 instead of 8, the speed is the same.
My question is: Why am I stuck at 400? Why 700-800/100 etc. I can't get speed?
So, you misunderstand how load balance works. This is the wrong direction.
First, understand what's load balance and what's been load balanced.
Second, the speed test site uses sessions to download and upload to their servers and servers reply the final results. And it's displayed on your screen telling your speed.
So, based on this fact, you refer to the FAQ I have sent, it has clearly explained the reason behind and why you would see a non-aggregated speed.
I would appreciate it if you could take a second to read this, quote:
If your total bandwidth is not high, say below 100 Mbps, then the test results may match; conversely, if the bandwidth is higher, then the probability of matching is much lower.
This is related to the Speedtestâ mechanism and the router’s load balancing algorithm. During the Downstream/Upstream test, your client will create several sessions with the Speedtestâ servers. When the router receives requests to create sessions, it will forward them via different WAN ports, which is achieved by the load balancing algorithm.
TP-Link business routers use a probability-based load balancing algorithm. Take dual WAN ports as an example, the probability of forwarding a new session through each WAN is 1/2. When performing a speed test, the number of sessions that your client connects to the Speedtestâ server will not be large, maybe no more than 20. In terms of Probability, a sample size of a few dozen connections is very small. Assuming you toss a coin 20 times, it is likely that there will be many more on one side than the other.
Suppose there are 10 sessions during the test period, the maximum bandwidth that each session can accommodate is 10 Mbps, and the bandwidth of both two WANs is 50 Mbps, then your total bandwidth is 100 Mbps. If 5 sessions are forwarded via WAN1, the other 5 sessions are via WAN2, then the test result should be 50 + 50 = 100 Mbps, the same as your total bandwidth. But maybe 8 sessions are via WAN1, the other 2 sessions are via WAN2, then the test result should be 50 + 20 = 70 Mbps, much lower than the bandwidth.
Have you taken into consideration this and tried to understand this paragraph? This is the reason why and well answered your question. I assume that the speed test site created four sessions with four of your lines and eventually you get a 400Mbps.
There is no place to change the algorithm. It's preset.
If your expectation is to get an aggregated speed, you can return it as it does not fit your purpose. There is no guarantee from us that you can get aggregated speed of all the WANs. The device itself can handle all of the speed and sessions on your WANs. And balance between the WANs but not designed to be used in that way in the first place. This aggregated speed is only a side benefit of sessions being balanced.
Hi @Clive_A
I tested the WAN ports one by one. Each shows 100/20 speed. When I balance the load it shows 400/80.
When I change the number of Wans to 4 or 5 instead of 8, the speed is the same.
My question is: Why am I stuck at 400? Why 700-800/100 etc. I can't get speed?
Hi @KimcheeGUN
TP-Link does it too...
I was doing this before. There are also speed bonding. They bonding gigabit speeds with an SFP module.
Hi @Addwork
Thanks for posting in our business forum.
Addwork wrote
Hi @Clive_A
I tested the WAN ports one by one. Each shows 100/20 speed. When I balance the load it shows 400/80.When I change the number of Wans to 4 or 5 instead of 8, the speed is the same.
My question is: Why am I stuck at 400? Why 700-800/100 etc. I can't get speed?
So, you misunderstand how load balance works. This is the wrong direction.
First, understand what's load balance and what's been load balanced.
Second, the speed test site uses sessions to download and upload to their servers and servers reply the final results. And it's displayed on your screen telling your speed.
So, based on this fact, you refer to the FAQ I have sent, it has clearly explained the reason behind and why you would see a non-aggregated speed.
I would appreciate it if you could take a second to read this, quote:
If your total bandwidth is not high, say below 100 Mbps, then the test results may match; conversely, if the bandwidth is higher, then the probability of matching is much lower.
This is related to the Speedtestâ mechanism and the router’s load balancing algorithm. During the Downstream/Upstream test, your client will create several sessions with the Speedtestâ servers. When the router receives requests to create sessions, it will forward them via different WAN ports, which is achieved by the load balancing algorithm.
TP-Link business routers use a probability-based load balancing algorithm. Take dual WAN ports as an example, the probability of forwarding a new session through each WAN is 1/2. When performing a speed test, the number of sessions that your client connects to the Speedtestâ server will not be large, maybe no more than 20. In terms of Probability, a sample size of a few dozen connections is very small. Assuming you toss a coin 20 times, it is likely that there will be many more on one side than the other.
Suppose there are 10 sessions during the test period, the maximum bandwidth that each session can accommodate is 10 Mbps, and the bandwidth of both two WANs is 50 Mbps, then your total bandwidth is 100 Mbps. If 5 sessions are forwarded via WAN1, the other 5 sessions are via WAN2, then the test result should be 50 + 50 = 100 Mbps, the same as your total bandwidth. But maybe 8 sessions are via WAN1, the other 2 sessions are via WAN2, then the test result should be 50 + 20 = 70 Mbps, much lower than the bandwidth.
Have you taken into consideration this and tried to understand this paragraph? This is the reason why and well answered your question. I assume that the speed test site created four sessions with four of your lines and eventually you get a 400Mbps.
There is no place to change the algorithm. It's preset.
If your expectation is to get an aggregated speed, you can return it as it does not fit your purpose. There is no guarantee from us that you can get aggregated speed of all the WANs. The device itself can handle all of the speed and sessions on your WANs. And balance between the WANs but not designed to be used in that way in the first place. This aggregated speed is only a side benefit of sessions being balanced.