Anyone running OpenWrt?

lynxthecat

I'm curious to know whether anyone else is running OpenWrt on their Zyxel router or on a dedicated downstream router? OpenWrt gives many benefits, but I think the most significant benefit is the facilitation of bufferbloat mitigation using the CAKE algorithm, which keeps latency in check during heavy usage.

Bufferbloat results in latency increase upon connection saturation. You can get a feel for how it affects your connection by running crude online tests like this one available here:

https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

I am the author and maintainer of cake-autorate, which enables CAKE to work effectively in variable bandwidth scenarios. It has been in development for a few years now and is now in a mature state. Based on lots of 4G and 5G data, we know that it works effectively. cake-autorate is discussed in this OpenWrt thread.

I personally run OpenWrt on my Zyxel NR7101 - see here. It works well, albeit there is a throughput limitation at very high bandwidths (above 200 MBit/s). I run cake-autorate from a downstream router, namely an RT3200 - see here.