MikroTik Nstreme Protocol

Document revision 1.6 (Tue Jun 1 19:59:00 GMT 2004) This document applies to MikroTik RouterOS V2.8

Table of Contents
Table of Contents General Information Summary Specifications Description nstreme settings Property Description Notes Nstreme Settings Description Property Description Example Nstreme2 Group Settings Description Property Description Example

General Information
Summary
The nstreme protocol is MikroTik proprietary wireless protocol created to improve point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless links. Nstreme2 works with a pair of wireless cards (Atheros AR5211 and AR5212 MAC chips only) - one for transmitting data and one for receiving. Benefits of nstreme protocol: Client polling Very low protocol overhead per frame allowing super-high data rates No protocol limits on link distance No protocol speed degradation for long link distances dynamic protocol adjustment depending on traffic type and resource usage

Specifications
Packages required: wireless License required: level4 Standards and Technologies: nstreme Hardware usage: one radio for nstreme; two radios for nstreme2

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Description
The nstreme protocol may be operated in three modes: Point-to-Point mode - controlled point-to-point mode with one radio on each side Dual radio Point-to-Point mode (nstreme2) - the protocol will use two radios on both sides simultaneously (one for transmitting data and one for receiving), allowing superfast point-to-point connection Point-to-Multipoint - controlled point-to-multipoint mode with client polling (like AP-controlled TokenRing)

nstreme settings
Home menu level: /interface wireless

Property Description
mode (ap-bridge | bridge | station | alignment-only | nstreme-dual-slave; default: station) operating mode: ap-bridge - the interface is operating as an Access Point bridge - the interface is operating as a bridge station - the interface is operating as a client alignment-only - this mode is used for positioning antennas (to get the best direction) nstreme-dual-slave - enslave the card into nstreme2 group

Notes
If wireless interfaces are put in nstreme-dual-slave mode, all configuration will take place in /interface wireless nstreme-dual submenu described further on. In that case, configuration made in this submenu will be ignored.

Nstreme Settings
Home menu level: /interface wireless nstreme

Description
You can switch a wireless card to the nstreme mode. In that case the card will work only with nstreme clients.

Property Description
name (name) - reference name of the interface enable-nstreme (yes | no; default: no) - whether to switch the card into the nstreme mode framer-policy (none | best-fit | exact-size | fast-frames; default: none) - the method how to combine frames (like fast-frames setting in interface configuration). A number of frames may be combined
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into one bigger one to reduce the amout of protocol overhead (and thus increase speed). The card are not waiting for frames, but in case a number packets are queued for transmitting, they can be combined. There are several methods of framing: none - do nothing special, do not combine packets fast-frames - use fast-frame mode of the radio card best-fit - put as much packets as possible in one frame, until the framer-limit limit is met, but do not fragment packets exact-size - put as much packets as possible in one frame, until the framer-limit limit is met, even if fragmentation will be needed (best performance) framer-limit (integer; default: 3200) - maximal frame size

Example
To enable the nstreme protocol on the wlan1 radio with exact-size framing:
[admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme> print 0 name="wlan1" enable-nstreme=no framer-policy=none framer-limit=3200 [admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme> set wlan1 enable-nstreme=yes \ \... framer-policy=exact-size

Nstreme2 Group Settings

Description
Two radios in nstreme-dual-slave mode can be grouped together to make nstreme2 Point-to-Point connection

Property Description
name (name) - reference name of the interface mtu (integer: 0..65536; default: 1500) - Maximum Transmission Unit mac-address (MAC address) - MAC address of the receiving wireless card in the set arp (disabled | enabled | proxy-arp | reply-only; default: enabled) - Address Resolution Protocol setting disable-running-check (yes | no) - whether the interface should always be treated as running even if there is no connection to a remote peer tx-radio (name) - which radio should be used for transmitting frames rx-radio (name) - which radio should be used for receiving frames remote-mac (MAC address; default: 00:00:00:00:00:00) - which MAC address to connect to (this would be the remote receiver card's MAC address) tx-band - operating band of the transmitting radio 2.4GHz-B - IEEE 802.11b 2.4GHz-G - IEEE 802.11g
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 5GHz - IEEE 802.11a up to 54 Mbit 5GHz-turbo - IEEE 802.11a up to 108Mbit rx-band - operating band of the receiving radio 2.4GHz-B - IEEE 802.11b 2.4GHz-G - IEEE 802.11g 5GHz - IEEE 802.11a up to 54 Mbit 5GHz-turbo - IEEE 802.11a up to 108Mbit tx-frequency (integer; default: 5180) - Frequency to use for transmitting frames rx-frequency (integer; default: 5320) - Frequency to use for receiving frames rates-a/g (multiple choice: 6Mbps, 9Mbps, 12Mbps, 18Mbps, 24Mbps, 36Mbps, 48Mbps, 54Mbps) - rates to be supported in 802.11a or 802.11g standard rates-b (multiple choice: 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5Mbps, 11Mbps) - rates to be supported in 802.11b standard framer-policy (none | best-fit | exact-size; default: none) - the method how to combine frames (like fast-frames setting in interface configuration). A number of frames may be combined into one bigger one to reduce the amout of protocol overhead (and thus increase speed). The card are not waiting for frames, but in case a number packets are queued for transmitting, they can be combined. There are several methods of framing: none - do nothing special, do not combine packets best-fit - put as much packets as possible in one frame, until the framer-limit limit is met, but do not fragment packets exact-size - put as much packets as possible in one frame, until the framer-limit limit is met, even if fragmentation will be needed (best performance) framer-limit (integer; default: 4000) - maximal frame size

Example
To enable the nstreme2 protocol on a router: 1. Having two Atheros AR5212 based cards which are not used for anything else, to group them into a nstreme interface, switch both of them into nstreme-slave mode:

[admin@MikroTik] interface wireless> print Flags: X - disabled, R - running 0 name="wlan1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:0B:6B:31:02:4F arp=enabled disable-running-check=no interface-type=Atheros AR5212 radio-name="000B6B31024F" mode=station ssid="MikroTik" frequency=5180 band=5GHz scan-list=default-ism supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps, 54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power=default noise-floor-threshold=default burst-time=disabled fast-frames=no dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes hide-ssid=no 802.1x-mode=none 1 name="wlan2" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:0B:6B:30:B4:A4 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no interface-type=Atheros AR5212 radio-name="000B6B30B4A4" mode=station ssid="MikroTik" frequency=5180 band=5GHz scan-list=default-ism

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supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps, 54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power=default noise-floor-threshold=default burst-time=disabled fast-frames=no dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes hide-ssid=no 802.1x-mode=none [admin@MikroTik] interface wireless> set 0,1 mode=nstreme-dual-slave

2.

Then add nstreme2 interface with exact-size framing:

[admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme-dual> add \ \... framer-policy=exact-size

3.

And configure which card will be receiving, and wich - transmitting

[admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme-dual> print Flags: X - disabled, R - running 0 X name="n-streme1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no tx-radio=(unknown) rx-radio=(unknown) remote-mac=00:00:00:00:00:00 tx-band=5GHz tx-frequency=5180 rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps rx-band=5GHz rx-frequency=5320 framer-policy=exact-size framer-limit=4000 [admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme-dual> set 0 disabled=no \ \... tx-radio=wlan1 rx-radio=wlan2 [admin@MikroTik] interface wireless nstreme-dual>

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