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
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
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)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
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
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
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.