Page 10 - Test 2
Testing Cont.
54Mbps vs 54Mbps Turbo mode (108Mbps)
Introducing security checking on wireless transfers adds overhead to your communication, thus reducing transfer rates. WEP is still used and so the next tests reflect that.
|
Transfer Type |
Kbytes/sec |
Mbytes/sec |
Mbit/sec |
% Difference |
Signal Strength |
|
54Mbps |
2500 |
2.44 |
19.53 |
|
85% |
|
54Mbps |
2400 |
2.34 |
18.75 |
0.96 |
85% |
|
54Mbps |
2350 |
2.29 |
18.36 |
0.94 |
95% |
|
54Mbps |
2300 |
2.25 |
17.97 |
0.92 |
82% |
|
108Mbps |
4200 |
4.10 |
32.81 |
|
85% |
|
108Mbit |
3850 |
3.76 |
30.08 |
0.92 |
80% |
|
108Mbps |
3600 |
3.52 |
28.13 |
0.86 |
82% |
|
108Mbps |
3500 |
3.42 |
27.34 |
0.83 |
80% |
As with all wireless hardware, you will get the performance hit, however you can see that the performance hit we get is not proportional in our test. 54Mbps normal 802.11g only has 8% decrease in transfer between no WEP and 152bit WEP key, however 54Mbps turbo mode has a 17% decrease in transfer between no WEP and 152bit WEP, thats with a similar signal strength too.
(Its powerful :-])
Signal Strength Test
The easiest test to do is the strength test, but it is defiantly the most subjective as every case is different. As the signal decreases so will the transfer rate, its part of the auto-negotiation that goes on. When the signal is quite low, you get down to almost 56k modem speeds, but it defiantly better than not getting any connection to the network.
Indoors I managed to get 70% signal off the kit up to around 20 meters away. At 25 meters signal started to drop off rapidly however at 25m there was then about 15 pcs a server room, lots of air-con and some solid doors with lots of metal.
I managed to do an out doors test, and signal started to drop off a little more uniformly compared to wandering around the office with it. 45ms was the maximum range I got before the connection started to fail. I did see the connection from 55ms or so, however it kept dropping out.
The great part about the router is that the aerial is removable. It probably adds an extra few pounds/euros/dollars/etc to design that feature in, but if you wanted to get a powered aerial to increase the range then you basically grab another aerial with an SMB connector (you may call it something else but its just a small BNC connector).
One thing I did notice about the two pieces of kit at these higher transfer speeds is that just by moving in-between the laptop and the router the signal can drop by upto 30%. The positioning of the router is really important, in fact there are loads of documents advice about where to put your wireless access points. The best position I found for this kit was to raise the router to about 9ft up in the air. So its just something to be aware of, GIGABYTE say that indoors you can have upto 91m range indoors, but in reality you have to play about to get the best reception as with any wireless arrangement.
My unsteady hands again. This is the LED array on the router
