OBiTALK Community

General Support => Feature Requests => Topic started by: geeksalive on March 31, 2019, 06:07:12 AM

Title: gigabit ethernet
Post by: geeksalive on March 31, 2019, 06:07:12 AM
The nifty thing about the Obi202 is that its ethernet passthrough ensures that voice gets prioritized over other traffic, which should ensure that other Internet use doesn't scramble your voice calls. The problem is that with only 10/100 mbps ethernet ports, the Obi202 is a major bottleneck for Internet traffic.

My Internet is not especially fast by modern standards, but it's still an issue, even for me. Without the Obi202 (and with a gigabit ethernet connection between modem and computer) speedtest.net says I get about 70 mbps downstream. But with the Obi202 connected between my modem and computer I get less than 30 mbps downstream speed.

So, my feature request is for an Obi202+ which has gigabit ethernet ports (and the ability to pass through traffic at gigabit speeds).

(It would also be useful to have a way to tell whether the ethernet connection is running proper full-duplex, or only half-duplex.)
Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: Sheffield_Steve on March 31, 2019, 07:14:44 AM
Why are you using the Obi as a switch/hub?

Buy a gigabit switch and connect your internet, obi and computer into that and the problem will be solved.
Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: geeksalive on April 01, 2019, 10:56:38 AM
The reason the Obi202 has its ethernet pass-through feature is so that it can be installed between modem and router, to ensure that voice always gets prioritized over other traffic, so that other Internet use doesn't scramble voice calls.

Of course, that's most important on slow Internet connections, because they are more likely to run out of bandwidth. If your Internet speeds are less than about 30 mbps, the Obi202 is a very good solution.

But it would be a very useful upgrade of the Obi202 to make an "Obi202+" with gigabit ethernet ports, to keep up with modern, high-speed Internet connections. As it is, to use an Obi202 as it is intended to be used (between the modem and router), on an internet connection faster than about 30 mbps, imposes an unacceptable performance penalty.
Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: Sheffield_Steve on April 01, 2019, 11:02:51 AM
You will still be much better off using a dedicated switch or router.  If the Obi can can prioritize traffic, then that traffic priority will still be respected by your switches/routers if indeed it is currently.

Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: RFC3261 on April 01, 2019, 07:42:30 PM
Quote from: geeksalive on March 31, 2019, 06:07:12 AM
So, my feature request is for an Obi202+
I am guessing there will never be a OBi202+ with a gigabit port with QoS at a price that is going to be reasonable to you(*).  QoS at gigabit speeds requires either a very very fast processor, or dedicated hardware which can do IPv4 NAT and perform QoS at close to line rate.  Either of which cost a fair amount of money.  Typically turning on features such as QoS slows things down dramatically for the mid-range devices.  Not to mention that 803.2bz is going to be a requirement RSN (already is a highly desired feature in some communities, and that is only going to make the prices higher).

I think you should go look at the routers that implement QoS at line rates and then set your OBi device traffic to be prioritized.  Let each device do what it is good at, rather than using a combo device(**) which ends up having various compromises.

(*) Of course, I could also be wrong.

(**) In certainly communities there is a saying: "Friends do not let friend buy combo devices".
Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: SteveInWA on April 01, 2019, 09:05:42 PM
...or, just ignore the entire issue of traffic prioritization.  It was more of an issue when people had much slower ISP service and slower LAN speeds.

A residence or office with typical cable or fiber broadband at 30-50 or higher Mbps has so much available bandwidth that VoIP devices will rarely ever be impacted by other loads on the network.  As long as you are not saturating your connection with streaming video or torrents, you'll be fine.
Title: Re: gigabit ethernet
Post by: Sheffield_Steve on April 02, 2019, 06:39:39 AM
I agree, I'm most situations it just makes things worse.  

By it's very nature it must increase latency and of course it eats CPU cycles on every device it transverses.

In my opinion it's more of a hindrance than a blessing for devices in the consumer market.