The Ultimate Wi-Fi “Stress Test” Taking Industry-Leading APs to their Breaking Point

Test Overview

o Conceived and performed by Wireless LAN Professionals, based in Orem, UT

o Vendor-agnostic WLAN integrators and consultants

o Enterprise WLAN design and deployment specialists

Keith ParsonsManaging Director

Wi-Fi Stress Test developed to determine:

1. The breaking point at which a given access point fails

2. How and why similar access points perform differently

WI-FI STRESS TEST2

o Stress test industry-leading Wi-Fi APs for capacityo 16 APs from 7 different WLAN suppliers

o Use typical devices and applicationso iPads, MacBook Pros, etc.

o Keep testing real world using standard test tools

o Make tests repeatable

o Eliminate any unfair vendor advantageso eg. Ruckus BeamFlex

o Maintain complete independenceo No vendor donations or underwritingo No vendor influence over testbedo Vendors present for all testing

Testing Goals VENDOR PARTICIPANTS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

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Testing Methodology32’ x 28’ portable classroomdonated by Canyons School District (-3dB walls)

o No load throughput baseline establishedo FTP file transfer (600MB file up and down) to servero iPerf run (20 seconds) using default TCP setting

o Capacity test: 5 iPads at a time added until AP breaks (Breakpoint = 50% of clients freeze or FTP download exceeds 20 minutes)

o Video test focused on client experienceo Video freezes count as error, video restartedo At 10 errors, iPad counts as ‘dead’; video restarted

APs restricted to 20MHz wide channels,

2.4GHz (11) and 5GHz (36) used

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Test Process

WI-FI STRESS TEST

iPerf client

FTP client

3x3:3

5-10 10-15 15-20

FTP Server

20-25

iPerfServer

VideoServer

ACCESS POINT UNDER TEST

602MB

1. Unicast HD video streams initialized on iPadso iPad count increased by 5 per roundo First round is baseline - 0 iPads and no video

2. Add ‘throughput’ traffic (one case at a time)o FTP download of 600 MB to MacBook Pro o FTP upload of 600 MB from MacBook proo iPerf on MacBook Pro – 20 seconds, default TCP settings

3. Repeat for 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 iPadso NB – no AP succeeded with 30 iPads

1-5

5

Results at a Glance

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20

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

020 30 40 50 60 70 80

VIDEO ERRORS

AVG. TCP THROUGHPUT

Juniper 532

Cisco 3602i

Aerohive AP121

HP 430

Aerohive AP330

Cisco 2602i

HP 460

Xirrus 4820

Aruba 105

Aruba 135

Ruckus 7982

Highest, most reliable performance

Lowest, least reliable performance

Meraki MR24

Meraki MR16

Ubiquiti UniFi Pro

Linksys EA4500

ZoneFlex 7982 receives top marks for the HIGHEST aggregate TCP throughput with the LOWEST number of video errors

A Clear Winner: ZoneFlex 7982

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Average Throughput Results

Ruckus 7982

Cisco 2602i

HP 430 Xirrus 4820

Cisco 3602i

Aerohive AP330

Aruba 135

Juniper 532

HP 460 Aruba 105

aver-age tput

18.27 17.87 16.78 13.98 13.95 13.76 13.47 13.2 12.52 10.08

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

Average TCP Throughput

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Lowest Video Transmission Errors

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Video Errors (bad)R

ucku

s 79

82

Ruc

kus

7363

Juni

per

532

Cis

co 3

602i

Aer

ohi

ve A

P12

1

HP

430

Aer

ohi

ve A

P33

0

Cis

co 2

602i

Xirr

us

482

0

HP

460

Lower is better

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o AP with statistically higher data rates faired best

o BeamFlex always optimizes for performance oConstantly is picking the highest PHY data rate for any given client

because it uniquely supports the “degrees of freedom” to do sooAntenna pattern + rate control = BeamFlex algorithmoEnvironment changes: people move, obstacles change and interference

comes and goes

o Statistical sampling is essential for high data ratesoSampling quickly narrows in on statistically optimal pattern + data rateoSampling quickly adapts to changesoDrives related features – packet scheduler, ChannelFly

o Superior band steering implementation

Why Did Ruckus Fair Better?ANSWER: BeamFlex Statistical Optimization

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More Information

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