Manual:Tools/Bandwidth Test

(needs editing)

Applies to RouterOS: v2.9, v3, v4+

Summary

Sub-menu: /tool
Packages required: system

The Bandwidth Tester can be used to measure the throughput to another MikroTik router (either wired or wireless) and thereby help to discover network "bottlenecks". The TCP test uses the standard TCP protocol with acknowledgments and follows the TCP algorithm on how many packets to send according to latency, dropped packets, and other features in the TCP algorithm. Please review the TCP protocol for details on its internal speed settings and how to analyze its behavior. Statistics for throughput are calculated using the entire size of the TCP data stream. As acknowledgments are an internal working of TCP, their size and usage of the link are not included in the throughput statistics. Therefore this statistic is not as reliable as the UDP statistic when estimating throughput. The UDP tester sends 110% or more packets than currently reported as received on the other side of the link. To see the maximum throughput of a link, the packet size should be set for the maximum MTU allowed by the links which is usually 1500 bytes. There is no acknowledgment required by UDP; this implementation means that the closest approximation of the throughput can be seen.

Note: Bandwidth Test uses all available bandwidth (by default) and may impact network usability.

Note: Bandwidth Test uses much resources. If you want to test real throughput of a router, you should run bandwidth test through it not from or to it. To do this you need at least 3 routers connected in chain: the Bandwidth Server, the given router and the Bandwidth Client.

Note: If you use UDP protocol then Bandwidth Test counts IP header+UDP header+UDP data. In case if you use TCP then Bandwidth Test counts only TCP data (TCP header and IP header are not included).

Bandwidth Test Server

Sub-menu: /tool bandwidth-server

Property	Description
allocate-udp-ports-from (integer 1000..64000; Default: 2000)	Beginning of UDP port range
authenticate (yes | no; Default: yes)	Communicate only with authenticated clients
enabled (yes | no; Default: yes)	Defines whether bandwidth server is enabled or not
max-sessions (integer 1..1000; Default: 100)	Maximal simultaneous test count

Example

Bandwidth Server:

[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server> print                                  
                  enabled: yes                                                  
             authenticate: yes                                                  
  allocate-udp-ports-from: 2000                                                 
             max-sessions: 100                                                  
[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server>

Active sessions:

[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server session> print
  # CLIENT          PROTOCOL DIRECTION USER
  0 35.35.35.1      udp      send      admin
  1 25.25.25.1      udp      send      admin
  2 36.36.36.1      udp      send      admin
[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server session>

To enable bandwidth-test server without client authentication:

[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server> set enabled=yes authenticate=no        
[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server> print                                  
                  enabled: yes                                                  
             authenticate: no                                                   
  allocate-udp-ports-from: 2000                                                 
             max-sessions: 100                                                  
[admin@MikroTik] /tool bandwidth-server>

Bandwidth Test Client

Command name: /tool bandwidth-test