IPv6 Throughput and suggested routers?

Hi all,
Currently with Draytek 2927 router and the throughput on IPv4 tests are very good due to Hardware Acceleration.
However ..... from IPv6 only testing sites the throughput drops to around 410 max and the CPU is >90%, so not good at all.
I had hoped to upgrade to 900/110 but this scuppered the deal, and I had to drop back to my existing 500/75. On this tier I wasn't aware of the problem as the difference between IP stacks wasn't that noticeable.

So, anyone out there who has IPv6 running in excess of 900Mb? Preferably Dual WAN load balancing if possible.

Seems that IPv6 isn't hardware accelerated on this box. Others have found this issue too.

Are you looking for suggestions of alternative DrayTek routers or simply anything? The choice is wide, as you can imagine.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 01-Apr-25 19:11:56)

Yes, the HA is not used for IPv6 and the CPU is slaughtered ...
As for type I'm not too concerned really, as long as it is reasonably simple to configure. I'm more interested in getting the maximum throughput on both IPv4 and IPv6 stacks.
I was a bit disappointed by the Draytek to be honest, as I've used several over the years and never had any issues. But I guess with the advent of >1Gb broadband circuits the game is changing.
Cheers

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

I was a bit disappointed by the Draytek to be honest,

Yes, I would be greatly disappointed to buy an ipv6 capable router and discover that ipv4 was hardware accelerated but ipv6 was not. That to my mind is completely back to front, because ipv6 is the future and even now, using the ipvfoo browser add on, I think I am just about seeing majority ipv6 on my usage.

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

So, anyone out there who has IPv6 running in excess of 900Mb? Preferably Dual WAN load balancing if possible.

Just a heads up load balancing can't work the same way with IPv6. Unless you've your own IP addresses the providers are routing to you or using NAT on the IPv6 you're going to have to use a tunnel. In failover mode the router would have to be able to respond to loss of one link by advertising the prefix from the other.

You can do NAT6 and only advertise a ULA of course the IPv6 purists will hate you for that because IPv6 was supposed to restore end-to-end connectivity. Multiple WANs throws a spanner in that works though unless you're big enough to have your own IP space.

So, anyone out there who has IPv6 running in excess of 900Mb? Preferably Dual WAN load balancing if possible.

Yes I can get 1300-1600 on a Draytek 3912, using single WAN
I guess for the price of the 3912, it would be embarrassing if would not do that

Seems IPV6 not on today, comes and goes with EE strangely

3912 - Yes just a tad expensive for home use
I would have thought the throughput would have been higher, but it's better than 400Mb.
When my need for Dual WAN stops (maybe next year), I'll have another look at a faster single WAN non wireless router.
Hopefully by then IPv6 will be better serviced?

You could have a look at a Mikrotik RB5009 or similar.

It doesn't have "hardware assist" as such, but the quad-core ARM processor will cane a gigabit of traffic easily. In addition, there is a routing optimisation called "FastTrack", which basically means firewall rules are tested against the first packet of a flow only, and the remaining packets are shunted quickly using connection tracking. Originally FastTrack was only for IPv4, but it looks like the recent v7.18 added FastTrack support for IPv6 (see changelogs).

On an older Mikrotik hEX PoE, with a single slow MIPS core, I tested fasttrack versus non-fasttrack, and saw a 3x speed improvement with fasttrack enabled (from 300M to 900M).

Dual WAN load-balancing is a bit funky with Mikrotik: it requires some policy routing rules (flow marking) or equal-cost multipath. Again, this used to be something you could only do with IPv4; it could well now work with IPv6, but I've not tested it.

IMO, the main downside of Mikrotik is that there is no "long term support" branch of their v7 software, i.e. no "bug fixes only" branch. They're constantly adding new features, so if you upgrade to a newer version to fix problem X, you may also introduce unexpected problem Y. This is why my main router, RB4011, still runs v6. But the newer products like the RB5009 only support v7.

Aside: there are some models of Mikrotik which do full layer 3 hardware offloading. They are mostly switches though. There are a couple of high-end routers which support it, such as the CCR2116-12G-4S+ (RRP $995) but I suspect it doesn't work with PPPoE anyway.

Had a quick look at the Mikrotik range and they look to be good and for the performance, reasonably priced.. However the learning curve is a bit steep? Some nice videos on YouTube as well for beginners!
Hopefully at some point I'll not need Dual WAN so would be much easier all round.

IPV6 Back on again

Results

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/17438430085...

Edited by Colinh58 (Sat 05-Apr-25 09:51:13)

That's a fairly healthy throughput ! Is that the EE router ?

No, its a Draytek 3912

I very much doubt the new EE router would have sufficient power to to do that throughput

In reply to a post by Colinh58:

No, its a Draytek 3912

I very much doubt the new EE router would have sufficient power to to do that throughput

Odds are it’s actually going to, otherwise the vast majority of folks that simply use the ISP supplied routers would be moaning that they couldn’t receive what they were paying for.

Of course there are other legitimate reasons for using your own router, but getting the contracted throughput (wired of course) is probably not one.

Oddly I have an EE router and 1.8/1.6 G EE service that I can test with. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

"Odds are it’s actually going to, otherwise the vast majority of folks that simply use the ISP supplied routers would be moaning that they couldn’t receive what they were paying for."

Probably fine on IPV4, but I am dubious of IPV6 full throughput on the ISP routers
I think most people just do a speed test, they are not interested if its IPV4 or IPV6

Interesting to see what the BT router does on ipv6

Edited by Colinh58 (Sun 06-Apr-25 15:42:42)

There are higher end consumer routers that might tick your boxes. Eg the Asus RT-AX or BE Pro models which can be configured with dual WAN with failover & load balancing (altho' not tried these personally) and also support VLANs & VPN server & client. I'm on an Aquiss Family Pure Fibre 1000 line with an RT-AX86U Pro and testing over IPv6 to my phone I get around 830Mbps d/l - possibly a bit quicker if I try a cable connection to the router. Additional bonus with the Asus models is that they can also run the popular Merlin firmware to help with configuration.

Yes, some nice ones in the Asus range. I have used those in the past, including Merlin firmware. However I don't need the Wifi on the router and would prefer one without. Maybe IPv6 will get a better deal in the future from router manufacturers

Just to update the thread. Draytek have sent me an RC1 firmware for testing and I might get this on at the weekend. However with the recent good weather, spending time in the garden with a nice glass of red is far more attractive ...

Nice - Lets hope it works out OK

Another update - Installed the RC1 firmware and no difference. Personally I think I'm flogging a dead horse, as I can't see a firmware update increasing CPU throughput.
Anyway, I'll just carry on as it is and eventually change the Router when DualWAN is no longer a requirement.
The saga continues ...

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

as I can't see a firmware update increasing CPU throughput.

firmware can do so if the writers decides to increase the cpu frequency

Ultimately the point would be to “offload” TCP processing away from the general CPU, so any uptick in CPU frequency would be of extremely limited benefit.

Quite frankly unless the firmware update unlocked some pre-existing capability, I am at a loss to see how this alone could provide significant improvements in performance.

Looks like this has been born out above.

Yes, the Router's Hardware Acceleration works absolutely fine for IPv4 as that was one of the selling points for this model. The CPU load hardly moves during speed testing on IPv4.
IPv6 obviously is CPU only, hence the poor performance in my testing.
But, hey ho, once I can drop dual wan I'll be looking for something better. I did ask one of the users over on the VM forums, who has moved to IDNet to test his Asus AX86U and it handles 1Gb IPv6 at full speed, so it is possible.

It’s not a particularly tall order to fulfil, so many relatively inexpensive routers will be able to do it.

A much harder (more hardware taxing) ask is decent VPN throughput for example.

Finally to put this to bed ...
Draytek eventually replied and said "IPv6 does not use any HA" So, it's is entirely CPU bound as I suspected. I did find out when tinkering, if I turned off all the DoS filters, it did improve a bit, maybe an extra 50Mb, but at a big risk.
So that's it in a nutshell. Topic closed.

They must've known that before they sent you the beta firmware 🤷‍♀️

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

They must've known that before they sent you the beta firmware 🤷‍♀️

Agree. It would have saved a lot of hassle had they just said it in the first place. !