Speedify's Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP)


The Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) in Speedify improves throughput and efficiency when handling client traffic through a router. This feature is especially valuable for users running Speedify on OpenWrt or Linux routers with a Router License or Router Subscription.



What Is the Performance Enhancing Proxy?

The Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) is a TCP acceleration technology that increases data transfer efficiency across wireless, long-range, or high-latency connections. Originally developed for satellite Internet links, it now enhances performance across bonded and mobile environments.

When client devices send TCP traffic through Speedify, PEP intercepts the data locally, re-packages it using Speedify’s optimized transport protocol, and then reassembles it as standard TCP on Speedify’s cloud servers. This process allows data to move more smoothly even when latency or packet loss would normally slow things down.



How PEP Improves Performance

PEP reduces the per-packet processing overhead that limits performance on smaller router CPUs. By aggregating TCP acknowledgments and transferring larger data blocks at once, Speedify achieves:

  • Higher peak throughput for downstream client traffic
  • Lower CPU utilization at equivalent speeds
  • Improved bonding efficiency when combining links with different latencies

Scenario

Hardware / Environment

Without PEP

With PEP

Improvement

Downstream client traffic through Speedify

Low-power router (Cortex-A53 ARM CPU)

~100 Mbps

~600 Mbps

6× faster

Downstream client traffic through Speedify

High-performance test environment

~1.5 Gbps

~6 Gbps

4× faster

Load balancing configuration

High-performance hardware

~3 Gbps

~18 Gbps

6× faster

In real-world scenarios, Speedify’s PEP typically delivers a significant increase in peak throughput, or comparable speeds with reduced CPU load. This allows routers to support more users and maintain high-quality streaming performance.



Enabling or Disabling PEP in the App

You can enable or disable the Performance Enhancing Proxy from the Speedify app or web interface.

  1. Open the Speedify app or router management page.
  2. Go to Settings → Session Settings.
  3. Select Performance Enhancing Proxy.
  4. Choose On or Off, then return to save your settings.


When On, Speedify uses the PEP to optimize TCP traffic for all connected client devices. When Off, Speedify operates using traditional TCP forwarding without acceleration.



Managing PEP from the Command Line

You can also control PEP behavior using the Speedify CLI. This allows you to not only turn PEP on or off, but also select which traffic is handled through the PEP versus the standard TUN interface.

To view the current settings, use:

speedify_cli show settings


If PEP is enabled, you’ll see a line similar to:

"pep" : true


Turn PEP On or Off

speedify_cli pep on


speedify_cli pep off


Control Traffic by IP Address

You can specify which IP addresses should be handled by PEP:

speedify_cli pep ips add <ip address> ...
speedify_cli pep ips rem <ip address> ...
speedify_cli pep ips set <ip address> ...

Examples:

speedify_cli pep ips add 192.168.1.10
speedify_cli pep ips set 192.168.1.0/24


Control Traffic by Port

PEP can also be applied selectively by port:

speedify_cli pep ports add [port[-portRangeEnd]/proto] ...
speedify_cli pep ports rem [port[-portRangeEnd]/proto] ...
speedify_cli pep ports set [port[-portRangeEnd]/proto] ...

Examples:

speedify_cli pep ports add 80/tcp 443/tcp
speedify_cli pep ports add 10000-20000/tcp

These commands let you fine-tune which types of traffic benefit from PEP acceleration.