Simple QoS bandwidth limiting for buffer bloat

newkansan · Apr 28, 2015, 12:44 PM

I would like to create a stupid simple QoS that only limits my up/download bandwidth (to keep my modem buffers from bloating) and gives ALL traffic the same priority.

I've played with PRIQ scheduling and adding my bandwidths to the WAN and LAN shapers, but I'm not sure what else I can blow away, and what is required. I'm guessing qACK needs to stay in both shapers, but I'm not sure about qLink and the rest. What is the bare minimum I need to accomplish what I'm looking for?

Sorry if the questions seem dumb, but the way pfsense implements QoS is completely new to me. I just want something simple, but it wants to offer me (via the wizards) more than I need or understand.

Thanks!

Harvy66 · Apr 28, 2015, 1:20 PM

Two things that come to mind. Of course, in addition to setting the interface bandwidth.

Set your interface scheduler to Codel or FairQ
Set the interface scheduler to FairQ, then create a child-queue and set that to Codel

Nullity · Apr 28, 2015, 9:36 PM

I use this type of minimal setup with my download traffic. Just select CODELQ and put in your slightly underestimated download bitrate.

With this config I get 10-30ms latency; without, I get approximately 60-90ms latency when tested with pings to closest ISP hop.

newkansan · Apr 29, 2015, 10:24 AM

Thank you both. So simple they should have a wizard for it. :) Surprisingly effective without all the bells and whistles that the other schedulers impose. Tried running a bunch of bandwidth tests while pinging google.com and hardly noticed any added latency in the pings (from ~30ms to ~50ms on average). Without Codel the pings would eventually start climbing into the hundreds of milliseconds.

tom-28 · Jun 9, 2015, 9:15 PM

What would be the quick and dirty steps for a newbie to implement the recommendations here?

I thought I knew what I was doing, but after I set things up, I noticed my buffer bloat was still an issue.

Nullity · Jun 9, 2015, 11:40 PM

@tom-28:

What would be the quick and dirty steps for a newbie to implement the recommendations here?

I thought I knew what I was doing, but after I set things up, I noticed my buffer bloat was still an issue.

For me, "quick and dirty" simply wasted my time. I had to learn some fundamentals before things worked as I expected.

By far, my favorite introduction to QoS/traffic-shaping is http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/qos-tutorial.68795/

Perhaps Google some codel tutorials if you must be quick & dirty.

tom-28 · Jun 10, 2015, 1:09 AM

Well, Google is what landed me here.

I was hoping someone would expand upon this:

Set your interface scheduler to Codel or FairQ
Set the interface scheduler to FairQ, then create a child-queue and set that to Codel

mcwtim · Jun 10, 2015, 1:12 AM

I'll dare say if you want simple QoS switch to OpenWRT. Although installing it on x86 is not as simple as it should be nor as easy as pfSense is to install.

But their SQM fq_codel works very well requiring nothing but setting proper upload and download values and ticking 'enable'.

Harvy66 · Jun 10, 2015, 12:09 PM

@tom-28:

Well, Google is what landed me here.

I was hoping someone would expand upon this:

Set your interface scheduler to Codel or FairQ

Set the interface scheduler to FairQ, then create a child-queue and set that to Codel

There's not much to expand on that. Just go under traffic shaping and do it. Try one, then the other, see which works best.

Without codel I get an A and with I get an A+. Assume we're talking about DSLReports' speedtest.

tom-28 · Jun 10, 2015, 2:31 PM

That's what I did. And it didn't make a difference on DSLReport's testing system.

Do you only set this on the WAN interface?

I've been a m0n0wall user for over a decade. I'm not interested in other FW/Routers….

Nullity · Jun 10, 2015, 3:03 PM

WAN (egress) will probably see the most improvement but ingress limiting can also help.

FYI, Linux (OpenWRT) is where you will find many more scheduling algorithms (fq_codel, cake, PIE, QFQ, etc). BSD distributions seem to be busy preparing to drop ALTQ.

Harvy66 · Jun 11, 2015, 2:35 AM

So your WAN looks something like this, except set to something like 90% of your actual upload bandwidth?

tom-28 · Jun 11, 2015, 11:32 PM

Actually, I was thinking download bandwidth (I didn't have a clue which it was, thanks for clarifying). So, I adjusted it to 5Mbps (I have 6) - now it looks exactly like your screen and I still score an F.

Harvy66 · Jun 12, 2015, 5:32 PM

PFSense only shapes egress, so you need to do the same thing, except for your LAN interface. When you score and F, is the bloat mostly occurring on your download? For many users, it's almost entirely the upload that's bad, but download can also have issues.

tom-28 · Jun 13, 2015, 2:02 AM

It's worse on download. Upload seems to be okay, as best I can tell.

I set the WAN and LAN settings to fairq and 5 / 52 respectively. Still got an F.

mcwtim · Jun 13, 2015, 2:37 AM

Post the link to one of your speed tests. From the bandwidth values listed, if you are on Cox Preferred which is rated at 50 Down 5 Up without speedboost you aren't setting your bandwidth values low enough. The idea is to make pfSense the bottleneck, it's the only way it can enforce QoS with this scheme.

Harvy66 · Jun 13, 2015, 4:22 PM

What mcwtim said. Do the same thing on your LAN as you did on your WAN, but continue to set your bandwidth lower until the issue goes away.

tom-28 · Jun 13, 2015, 6:46 PM

I'm on TWC's 50/5 package which, normally speedtest.net and Sam Knows report me having 56Mbps down and 5.8Mbps up (we don't have speed boost here - TWC over provisions).

However, the speed tests to DSLReports are terrible. Only coming in at 10 and 15Mbps.

I'll keep tinkering with the numbers.

mcwtim · Jun 13, 2015, 7:36 PM

I'd try an alternative method of testing. Start an extended ping google.com -t
Find a site where you can make a large download for an extended period of time that actually will max your download at rated speeds.
Monitor the ping results while the download is happening, if you have little variance you have controlled your bufferbloat, if not adjust the bandwidth values till you see the results.

If you can't get rated speeds anywhere but on easily fudged flash based tests, time to complain.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/the-fcc-will-now-take-your-net-neutrality-complaints/

tom-28 · Jun 13, 2015, 8:56 PM

Thanks. I've already started yelling at TWC and sending them the SK reports. Apparently, it's not just my neck of the city that is a problem. Lots of folks have been having issues. May have something to do with MAXX coming. I don't know.

Thanks for the quick start. I'll tinker.