Bug 786566 - Rapid decline in wireless performance with Atheros AR9002WB-1NG
Summary: Rapid decline in wireless performance with Atheros AR9002WB-1NG
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: kernel
Version: 16
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: John W. Linville
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-02-01 19:14 UTC by William Oliver
Modified: 2012-03-23 17:07 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2012-03-23 17:07:09 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
round trip graph from wireshark (17.12 KB, image/png)
2012-02-01 19:14 UTC, William Oliver
no flags Details

Description William Oliver 2012-02-01 19:14:30 UTC
Created attachment 558905 [details]
round trip graph from wireshark

Description of problem:

I think there's a problem with my wireless driver.  I don't know if that counts as a Fedora problem or not...

I installed Fedora 16 (64 bit) on my ASUS G74S laptop (Intel i7 cpu, Atheros AR9002WB-1NG card). When I connect to my wireless system at work, I have no problem connecting, and things are initially great. But then I have increasing delays and dropped packets, to the point that, after about 15 minutes, I'll have four or five second delays in things like keystrokes with ssh (wireshark gives an ACK round trip time of up to 10 seconds). There will be occasional bursts of good connection that last up to a minute, but they become fewer and further between. Then, after about 40 mins, almost no packets get through. If I power cycle the machine, the pattern repeats (though simply disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't change where I am in this pattern).

Using a VPN out and using an external public DNS don't change things.

This is a dual-boot machine, and the problem does not happen in Win 7.

In addition, I got a USB wireless adapter (ALFA AWUS051NH) and plugged it in.  It comes up fine, and there are no problems with it.

The Atheros card is identified as a AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter in the Device Viewer, and it's being run by the ath9k driver.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


No clue.  It's the ath9k version that comes with Fedora 16, updated current as 1 FEB 2012

How reproducible:

Every day


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Find a network like that at East Carolina University
2. Turn on laptop
3. Wait 30 mins
  
Actual results:

See above
Expected results:
See above

Additional info:

I'm attaching a round trip time graph from wireshark on an ssh session.  It's all fast with the ALFA card or with Windows 7 using the atheros card.

Comment 1 Jirka Klimes 2012-02-07 16:07:55 UTC
It looks like ath9k issue.
You could try compat wireless packages, see:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=702722#c15

Comment 2 Dave Jones 2012-03-22 16:52:29 UTC
[mass update]
kernel-3.3.0-4.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository.
Please retest with this update.

Comment 3 Dave Jones 2012-03-22 16:56:19 UTC
[mass update]
kernel-3.3.0-4.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository.
Please retest with this update.

Comment 4 Dave Jones 2012-03-22 17:07:12 UTC
[mass update]
kernel-3.3.0-4.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository.
Please retest with this update.

Comment 5 William Oliver 2012-03-22 20:54:45 UTC
Just updated and have been downloading continuously and successfully for about 45 minutes -- about 30 minutes more than I used to get.  Going home from work now, so I'll check again tomorrow for longer.  So far, though, it looks like this does the trick!

Thanks!

billo

Comment 6 William Oliver 2012-03-23 17:07:09 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> [mass update]
> kernel-3.3.0-4.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository.
> Please retest with this update.

OK, I've been running on this kernel for about seven hours now, and things are great.  With the caveat noted below, it seems fixed.  I'd mark the ticket as closed if I was the boss. I'll try it and see if I can do it myself.
 
Thanks!  It's wonderful not to have to keep plugging in my external USB wireless adapter.


Caveat: As I noted when I submitted this bug, the problem seemed specific for this NIC and the router here at work -- it didn't happen at home or at a couple of hotspots I tried.  Thus, I don't know that fixing it for this configuration fixes it for all possible configurations.


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