IP Packet Packer Protocol (M3P)
Document revision 9-Aug-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS v2.6
Overview
The MikroTik Packet Packer Protocol (M3P) optimizes the bandwidth usage
of links using protocols that have a high overhead per packet transmitted.
The basic purpose of this protocol is to better enable wireless networks
to transport VoIP traffic and other traffic that uses small packet sizes of around 100 bytes.
M3P features:
- enabled by a per interface setting
- other routers with MikroTik Discovery Protocol enabled will broadcast M3P settings
- significantly increases bandwidth availability over some wireless links by approximately four times
- offer configuration settings to customize this feature
Contents of the Manual
The following topics are covered in this manual:
The MikroTik Packet Packer Protocol feature is included in the system package.
No installation is needed for this feature.
There is no significant resource usage.
The wireless protocol IEEE 802.11 and, to a lesser extent, Ethernet protocol have a high
overhead per packet because for each packet it is necessary to access the media,
check for errors, resend in case of errors, and send network maintenance messages
(network maintenance is only for wireless). The MikroTik Packet Packer Protocol
improves network performance by aggregating many small packets into a big packet,
thereby minimizing the network per packet overhead cost. The M3P is useful when
the average packet size is 50-300 bytes the common size of VoIP packets.
Specific Properties:
- may work on any Ethernet-like media
- is enabled by default for all new wireless interfaces
- when older version on the RouterOS are upgraded from a version without M3P
to a version with discovery, current wireless interfaces will not be automatically enabled for M3P
- small packets going to the same MAC level destination (regardless of IP destination)
are collected according to the set configuration and aggregated into a
large packet according to the set size
- the packet is sent as soon as the maximum aggregated-packet packet size
is reached or a maximum time of 15ms (+/-5ms)
IP MikroTik Packet Packer Protocol is working only between MikroTik routers,
which are discovered with MikroTik Neighbor Discovery Protocol. So you should
enable MNDP in order to get M3P to work. Consult MNDP manual on how to do it.
IP MikroTik Packet Packer Protocol management can be accessed under
the /ip packing submenu:
[admin@MikroTik] ip packing>
interface Interface settings
print Show packing settings
get get value of property
set
export display the configuration as a set of commands
[admin@MikroTik] ip packing> print
enable-unpacking: yes
expected-size: 28
aggregated-size: 1500
[admin@MikroTik] ip packing>
Argument description:
enable-unpacking enables unpacking feature of M3P for all Ethernet like
interfaces on the router should be enabled if you have any interface set to send M3P packets.
expected-size the average size packet you expect for aggregation,
i.e., if your VoIP generates 100 byte packets this would be the expected size.
This is used by the protocol to determine if it should wait for another packet
to complete the aggregated packet determined by the aggregated-size
setting or send an aggregated packet immediately even though it has not
reached the size of the aggregated-size setting.
aggregated-size the maximum size of the aggregated packet the suggested
setting is 1000 bytes and the maximum setting is the MTU size of the interface (generally 1500 bytes)
To see the interface settings use:
[admin@MikroTik] ip packing interface> print
Flags: X - disabled
# INTERFACE
0 X bridge1
1 X ether1
2 X Local219
3 wireless
[admin@MikroTik] ip packing interface>
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