Setup MikroTik CRS504-4XQ-IN and run a speed test

Guestbook

MikroTik CRS504-4XQ-IN, the Cloud Switch can handle FOUR QSFP28 100Gbps ports, equal to 16 x 25Gbps bandwidth.

MikroTik - Interfaces

Setup single link mode, only the first QSFP28 sub-interface needs to be configured, while the remaining three sub-interfaces should remain enabled. For example, connect Mellanox MCX455A-ECAT ConnectX-4 InfiniBand/Ethernet adapter card (EDR IB 100Gbps and 100GbE, single-port QSFP28, PCIe 3.0x16) using ONTi DAC QSFP28 100Gbps cable to the switch.

Change FEC Mode to fec91.

Ethernet Forward Error Correction (FEC) is a technique used to improve the reliability of data transmission over Ethernet networks by detecting and correcting errors in data packets. The two most common types of FEC used in Ethernet networks are CL74 and CL91.

CL74 and CL91 refer to two different types of FEC codes, each with its own characteristics and performance. Here’s a brief comparison between the two:

Code Rate:

CL91 has a higher code rate of 91.6%, which means that only 8.4% of the data transmitted is used for error correction.

In addition, setup the swith port connected to ONTi QSFP28 40Gbps TO 4SFP+ breakout cable:

1
2
3
4
5
6
$ ssh -l admin MikroTik.local

[admin@MikroTik] > /interface ethernet set qsfp28-1-1 auto-negotiation=no speed=10G-baseCR
[admin@MikroTik] > /interface ethernet set qsfp28-1-2 auto-negotiation=no speed=10G-baseCR
[admin@MikroTik] > /interface ethernet set qsfp28-1-3 auto-negotiation=no speed=10G-baseCR
[admin@MikroTik] > /interface ethernet set qsfp28-1-4 auto-negotiation=no speed=10G-baseCR

Speed test

In iperf3 server, run listens to 4 ports to manage connections in parallel:

1
$ iperf3 -s -p 5201 & iperf3 -s -p 5202 & iperf3 -s -p 5203 & iperf3 -s -p 5204 &

In a MacBook Pro with WiFi-6 connection, run:

1
$ iperf3 -c MikroTik.local -p 5201 -P 4 -t 1000

In a Mac Studio with 10Gbps Ethernet connection, run:

1
$ iperf3 -c MikroTik.local -p 5202 -P 8 -t 1000 -B 192.168.0.104

In a Windows 11 PC with 100Gbps Ethernet connection, run:

1
$ iperf3 -c MikroTik.local -p 5203 -P 2 -t 1000

Check the speed on switch console:

MikroTik - Speed

and in graph:

MikroTik - Performance

References