Starlink and Bufferbloat and Speed

[hgerding]

This has to do with Starlink Connections

I wondered if there is a way to implement the equivalent of sqm or codel on starlink when the speed is inconsistent.

Running the latest versions of OPNSense with Both Free and Commercial Versions
Hardware is generally an Intel i5, 9th gen, or later with at least 16 gigs of RAM. (there is one 4th gen as well) or better. (NVME on the newer ones)

On some of my clients I get an A rating (Startlink Business Modems only)

On others I get a C with up to 130 to 270ms on the download
Using the following testing site: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

The problem is the bandwidth where I fluctuates a lot. So sometimes it is 50 sometimes 150 etc....

So I cannot just specify a speed. Infact starlink does not even provide an accurate bandwidth number

Of do I need to put some other device inbetween

# Example results below (Checkmark vs warning etc)
BUFFERBLOAT GRADE C
Your latency increased considerably under load.

YOUR CONNECTION
Under Ideal Conditions   Currently, Due To Bufferbloat
Web Browsing   impact_checkmark.svg   impact_checkmark.svg
Audio Calls   impact_checkmark.svg   impact_checkmark.svg
4K Video Streaming   impact_checkmark.svg   impact_checkmark.svg
Video Conferencing   impact_checkmark.svg   impact_checkmark.svg
Low Latency Gaming   impact_warning.svg   impact_warning.svg
Read More
LATENCY
Unloaded
43 ms

Download Active
+124 ms

Upload Active
+26 ms

SPEED
↓ Download
166.4 Mbps

↑ Upload
13.7 Mbps

[richb-hanover]

The folks who have added cake-autorate (https://github.com/lynxthecat/cake-autorate/tree/v3.1) to the OpenWrt router (https://openwrt.org/) are having good luck with exactly this scenario.

In fact, they have a specific config file for Starlink - https://github.com/lynxthecat/cake-autorate/blob/master/Example_Starlink_config.sh to use as a starting point.