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====== PPSK with Bandwidth Limits ======
* On all previous pages about PPSK, a very important topic has hardly been addressed.
* Once we grant a user access to our network, we need a way to manage the bandwidth they consume.
* Both the Captive Portal and the PPPoE server are able to do this and have been developed with this functionality in mind.
* Giving someone access to a WiFi network does not automatically allow you to manage their bandwidth.
* Although we offer advanced features to change a user's assigned VLAN based on their usage during a certain period of time, we still need the ability to limit the speed of a VLAN.
* This is where Smart Queue Management (SQM) comes into play.
* With SQM, we can not only limit the bandwidth on an interface to the value we choose, but also manage the queues so that the user has a more pleasant online experience.
====== Options for a MDU deployment ======
* The philosophy of RADIUSdesk is to offer a non-disruptive solution that can co-operate with other vendors.
* The following diagram shows a PPSK solution where the customer has chosen to use PFsense for NAT/DHCP and bandwidth limiting:
{{:technical:ppsk:mdu_overview_scaled.png?nolink|}}
* We also offer the customer the option of using OpenWrt, which implements SQM.
* This can then be managed via APdesk.
* As OpenWrt can run on different architectures or even on a virtual machine, it offers us even more possibilities:{{:technical:ppsk:arrow_sqm1.png?nolink|}}
* Lets take a closer look at SQM on OpenWrt
====== SQM on OpenWrt ======
The following sections are a brief summary of information from this wiki page (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm) and from our own experiments.
===== Required Packages =====
* To make SQM available in OpenWrt, you need the package **sqm-scripts**.
* If you also have Luci on the OpenWrt device, it is recommended to install the additional package **luci-app-sqm**.
* This will install the Luci SQM package which is well developed and provides you with an intuitive way to apply SQM to selected interfaces via the Luci web interface.
===== Config File =====
* Essentially, the SQM application in Luci manipulates the UCI-based configuration file **/etc/config/sqm** and starts and stops the SQM service to apply these settings.
* Let's take a look at an excerpt from the sqm configuration file:
config queue 'br_ex_v104'
option interface 'br-ex_v104'
option enabled '1'
option script 'piece_of_cake.qos'
option linklayer 'none'
option verbosity '5'
option upload '4096'
option download '4096'
option debug_logging '0'
option qdisc 'cake'
* Some notes on this snippet:
* The queue discipline is CAKE. There are also other options like fq_codel that you can use if performance is an issue.
* The upload and download values are in kbps, so this snippet limits the value to 4Mbps (4*1024)
* The script to set up the SQM (based on the settings in the /etc/config/sqm file) is called **piece_of_cake.qos**.
* The SQM section is applied to the **br-ex_v104** interface, which is actually a bridge.
* Let us take a look at the /etc/config/network file to learn more about the br-ex_v104 interface.
config device
option type 'bridge'
option name 'br-ex_v104'
option stp '0'
list ports 'eth1.104'
config interface 'ex_v104'
option device 'br-ex_v104'
option proto 'static'
option ipaddr '10.200.105.1'
option netmask '255.255.255.0'
* Although the word //interface// is used intuitively in the /etc/config/sqm section, it can also be applied to a //device// such as a bridge.
* In our case, the br-ex_104 bridge has one port, eth1.104. This port receives traffic from VLAN 104 on eth1 (e.g. when a user connects to a private PSK and the dynamic VLAN assigned to it is 104)
* The data traffic that runs via this bridge is therefore throttled and managed with SQM.
Now that we have covered the configuration of SQM, we can take a look at some practical commands under the heading
===== Troubleshooting =====
* To start and stop SQM:
#You might first need to stop it before starting it:
/etc/init.d/sqm stop
SQM: Stopping SQM on br-ex_v104
#Start it
/etc/init.d/sqm start
SQM: Starting SQM script: piece_of_cake.qos on br-ex_v104, in: 4096 Kbps, out: 4096 Kbps
SQM: piece_of_cake.qos was started on br-ex_v104 successfully
* SQM creates a matching IFB interface with the convention //ifb4-//. In this way, you can easily determine whether the start was successful.
#Real interface
ifconfig br-ex_v104
br-ex_v104 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:EA:B7:D5
inet addr:10.200.105.1 Bcast:10.200.105.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:feea:b7d5/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:1088 (1.0 KiB)
#Matching IFB
ifconfig ifb4br-ex_v104
ifb4br-ex_v104 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr AA:93:EE:2A:4D:E6
inet6 addr: fe80::a893:eeff:fe2a:4de6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING NOARP MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:32
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B
* To get stats on SQM, you can use the tc command:
tc -s qdisc show dev br-ex_v104
* This brings us to the end of SQM's section in OpenWrt.
* In RADIUSdesk we have taken this knowledge and created the SQM Profiles applet, which makes managing SQM in MESHdesk and APdesk a breeze.
* There is a special page for SQM Profiles that allows you to apply limits in no time at all.