Wireless network speeds

Howard

Howard

Howard

Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2007
Posts
16,318
Location
South East
Hi all,

I've just had Virgin Media 50Mb installed and bloody hell it's fast :eek:

I've been having a play with the Wireless-N router and dongle they gave me, and it's got me wondering about the connection speed claims!

My 54mbit Wireless G access point gives me approximately 20-22mbit/sec of throughput. I'm told this is about the maximum one can expect from 54G, but why is this? Why do they advertise it as 54mbit if it's not?


Now the Wireless-N one I have, is connected at apparently 300mbit/sec, and I only get a sustained throughput of about 33mbit/sec... That's ten times less than the advertised speed!

Am I missing something? I understand there are overheads and SNRs to take into consideration, but that's quite a difference!



Anyone able to shed any light?


I should probably add that this was done with the laptop in the same room as the access points, and 'Excellent' signal level, tried on multiple channels to negate any interference from our cordless phones.



Just thought I'd post this, and see if anyone has anything to add! ;)
 
I belive that the 54mbit/s is under ideal conditions, and some of that bandwidth I believe is requred for addreas info, encrytion detail ect

is the 33mbit/s to the internet or a lan computer, if a lan computer you may be limited by hdd read/write speeds
 
As above. When a connection speed is advertised it is the through put of bits. In a Wi-Fi frame you could have upto 40% or so potentially being over head (Addresses, CRC, additional encapsulation etc.). On top of this wireless has to identify the broadcast area as being clear of other traffic, which can again delay transmission. Plus of course frames may need to be retransmitted if they are lost or corrupted.

For wired its simpler due to duplex transmissions, encapsulation and media access methods, but you will never get 100mb of data over a 100mb line due to overhead.

- Pea0n
 
also remember that 54mbps is 6.75MB/s, so if your internet connection speed exceeds this, your bandwidth will be limited by the wireless hardware.
 
Yep my connection is 50mbit, amusing that it can max out my wifi :D I only use wireless for laptops/phone that don't require serious bandwidth anyway so it was just out of academic interest really :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom