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Migrating to“Wireless N”

IEEE 802.11n: Home use and abuse

Andrei Sinitsõn

Dmitri Birjukov

Konstantin Aleksejev

Pavel Bondarenko

The purpose

The goal of the following research is to determine the reasonability of applying new wireless networking standard 802.11n for home users.

The idea is to replace old 802.11b/g network equipment with new 802.11n hardware.

Standards

Wireless

IEEE 802.11g: up to 54Mbps

IEEE 802.11n: up to 600Mbps

Wired

IEEE 802.3u: up to 100Mbps

IEEE 802.3ab: up to 1Gbps

Questions to be answered

Speed gain. Is there any?

How does this upgrade affect the coverage area?

What is the price of such upgrade?

Is it worth it?

Equipment: routers

Linksys WRT320N

802.11n

up to 300Mbps

5GHz or 2.4GHz

Ethernet 802.3ab

up to 1Gbps

Frame aggregation, channel bonding

Linksys WRT54GL

802.11b/g

up to 54Mbps

2.4GHz

Ethernet 802.3u

up to 100Mbps

Isengard

Schtarn

Equipment: network adapters

Intel 4965AG(N)

802.11a/b/g/(n)

Intel 5300AGN

802.11a/b/g/n

Realtek RT8168/8111

802.3ab

Kurunir

Placebo

Orthanc

Starnote

Software

JPerf – bandwidth measurement tool

inSSIDer – wireless network analyzer

Ping (who could have imagined that?)

JPerf inSSIDer

Speed comparison: schemes

Wired Wireless

WirelessWireless

Evil 2.4GHz interference

Speed comparison

Position: ≈3m from router, 0.5m thick wall

Pure TCP Bandwidth (Jperf)

Windows File Sharing (SMB/CIFS)

802.11g 2.4GHz 802.11n 2.4GHz 802.11n 5GHz

Server – Client 23.76 Mbps 49.04 Mbps 91.12 Mbps

Client – Server 22.08 Mbps 57.84 Mbps 56.64 Mbps

Client – Client 13.36 Mbps 29.6 Mbps 21.84 Mbps

802.11g 2.4GHz 802.11n 2.4GHz 802.11n 5GHz

Server – Client 21.6 Mbps 26.4 Mbps 59.12 Mbps

Client – Server 18.4 Mbps 27.2 Mbps 35.6 Mbps

Client – Client 8.8 Mbps 12.8 Mbps 5.12 Mbps

Speed comparison

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10

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60

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80

90

100

802.11g 2.4GHz

802.11n 2.4GHz

802.11n 5GHz

Server – Client

Pure TCP Bandwidth (Jperf)

Windows File Sharing (SMB/CIFS)

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10

20

30

40

50

60

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80

90

100

802.11g 2.4GHz

802.11n 2.4GHz

802.11n 5GHz

Client – Server

Pure TCP Bandwidth (Jperf)

Windows File Sharing (SMB/CIFS)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

802.11g 2.4GHz

802.11n 2.4GHz

802.11n 5GHz

Client – Client

Pure TCP Bandwidth (Jperf)

Windows File Sharing (SMB/CIFS)

Coverage comparison

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90

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Ban

dw

idth

(M

bp

s)

Distance (meters)

802.11g 2.4GHz

802.11n 2.4GHz

802.11n 5GHz

Value of the matter

Upgrading to 802.11n may require purchasing not only a router, but also network adapters. Nonetheless, many modern computers already support “Wireless N”.

Price of home routers varies from 500EEK. Our particular Linksys WRT320N costs 1330EEK.

Decent network adapters may cost about 500 – 1200EEK.

Conclusions

The IEEE 802.11n standard has all the advantages of previous standards, when it operates in 2.4GHz frequency, while providing better speed.

5GHz allows channel bonding, increasing the speed even more, though drastically narrowing the coverage area.

Profit?

“Wireless N” is worth upgrading to if you already have the network equipment that supports it.

You do gain speed.

Trust us.

Links

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT320N

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT54GL

http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Jwj6hnNTs

Thank you for your attention.Have a nice day.