Hello:

Using 2.8.26 with Atheros 5212 radios on a pair of 266 RB 230s I see throuput drop significantly when I turn on aes-ccm. I have a signal of -67dBm on the bench and before I turn on aes I get 8Mbit in both directions on a "both" TCP MT bandwidth test. When I turn on aes I get 3 and 5 MBit when I run a "both" TCP bandwidth test. Does aes automaticaly use the hardware encryption of the 5212 cards or do I have to do something to make aes use the hardware encryption of the cards?

I am not using NStreme and would like NOT to use it unless it is required for hardware aes.

Is there anything I can do to try and make this link as quick as possible with aes encryption?

Thanks in advance,
Ken

Ps. aes encryption is not an option as this is a link for a local police station:)

You should always run bandwidth tests through the test routers, and not on them, as the tests themselves add to the load on the CPU. Encryption definitely requires horsepower, maybe more than a RB can give for your needs. Did you monitor your CPU load on the test routers while running the tests, to see if the processors are running at 100%? These same behaviours were apparent to me when doing similar tests using 128-bit MPPE encryption on RB532s, although I got better throughput(about 9-12Mbps each way using "both") than you at 100% processor usage. Further tests on a 700MHz Celeron and 2.4GHz P4's showed even better results. Perhaps two inexpensive refurbished 900MHz-1000MHz Dell(etc) mini desktop systems would give you much better thoughput at the same cost(except you already bought what you have).....

Hitek

PS I have never had much success using any of the built-in encryption of the radio cards, but I don't trust that security anyhow, so I didn't really try very much...