Understanding MikroTik Queues for Real-World Bandwidth Management

One of the most misunderstood parts of MikroTik is how to manage bandwidth effectively. The tools are powerful, but if you don’t grasp how the queue system works, it’s easy to end up with odd behavior or wasted potential.

Simple Queue vs. Queue Tree

MikroTik offers two main ways to shape traffic: Simple Queues and Queue Trees.

Simple Queues are quick and intuitive — perfect for smaller setups or when you just need to limit specific IPs or subnets. They’re processed sequentially, so the first match gets applied and no other rules below it matter.

Queue Trees, on the other hand, are designed for more complex environments. They allow you to manage traffic hierarchically — for example, controlling bandwidth per VLAN, then per user inside that VLAN. Queue Trees use mangle rules to mark traffic, and then apply shaping based on those marks.

Practical Example

Imagine an office with a 100 Mbps link. You might want to cap each user at 10 Mbps but ensure VoIP always has priority.

• Use mangle rules to mark VoIP traffic.
  
• In your Queue Tree, create a parent for the main interface with, e.g., 100 Mbps limit.
  
• Add a child queue for VoIP with higher priority and a guaranteed minimum bandwidth.
  
• Add another child for general traffic with lower priority.
  

With this setup, when the link is busy, VoIP stays clear while downloads slow down gracefully.

Key Takeaway

Simple Queues are fine for small setups, but once you’re juggling multiple traffic types or shared links, Queue Trees are the right tool. Start small, test with torch and queue simple print stats, and you’ll quickly get a feel for how RouterOS handles traffic shaping in practice.