802.11a saves the day
11. 802.11a saves the day
Since the 55AG uses a second generation 11a Atheros radio, I was hoping it might provide the higher speed that the 11g radio didn't deliver. Figure 13 shows that I wasn't disappointed.
Figure 13: 802.11a throughput
(click on the image for a full-sized view)
The plots show a top throughput of around 20Mbps, lower throughput variation, and decent performance even at my longer-range test locations. The performance wasn't as good, though, as what I saw with the NETGEAR WAB102 / WAG511 combination shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14: 802.11a throughput - NETGEAR WAB102 and WAG511
(click on the image for a full-sized view)
The only explanation I can offer for the 55AG's inferior performance is its single-antenna / non-diversity design, since the radios in both products are essentially the same.
I didn't run any Turbo mode tests, since Linksys chose not to provide that feature. I did, however, check WEP-enabled performance, and, as I expected, found performance virtually identical to that with WEP disabled.
802.11a Wireless Performance Test Results
| Test Conditions
|
Firmware/Driver Versions
AP f/w:
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test Description | Signal Quality (%) | Transfer Rate (Mbps) | Response Time (msec) | UDP stream | |
| Throughput (kbps) | Lost data (%) | ||||
| Client to AP - Condition 1 | 0 | 8.6
[No WEP] 7.9 [w/ WEP] |
4 (avg)
16 (max) |
494 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 2 | 0 | 6.9 | 2 (avg)
9 (max) |
475 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 3 | 0 | 6.3 | 2 (avg)
8 (max) |
485 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 4 | 0 | 5.3 | 6 (avg)
28 (max) |
495 | 0 |
See details of how we test.
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