Wireless Performance
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: new, wireless, networking, ntk
- 1. Introduction, Details and Features
- 2. Wireless Performance
2. Wireless Performance
NOTES
• Signal quality readings were not available due to the limitations of the WinXP built in wireless utility
• Details of how we test can be found here.
As the data in the left-hand column table shows, the XWing turned in consistent performance in all four of my test locations. The Chariot throughput plots in Figure 2 give a little more insight into the nature of the performance, showing a cyclical pattern and lower minimum throughput in the longer-distance Condition 3 and 4 locations.
Figure 2: Throughput performance
(click on the image for a full-sized view)
The data in both the plots and the table were taken with the Xwing antennas up. To see the effect on performance, I also ran tests with the antennas folded flat in Conditions 3 and 4. What I found was that the difference was pretty binary. In test Condition 3, I saw essentially no change in performance between having the antennas up and down. But in Condition 4, I found that putting the antennas down caused the Xwing to break contact with its test partner, which prevented the Chariot run from finishing.
Since I had only the built-in XP wireless utilty to work with, I didn't have any indication of signal quality. But in both Conditions 3 and 4, folding the antennas down caused the XP Signal strength indicator to drop 1 to 2 bars. I was surprised that the XWing broke contact while the signal strength was still showing as "Good". However, I also noticed that the Transmit rate stayed fixed at 11Mbps (the card was set to Auto mode) during all tests, so I think a slow transmit rate-change algorithm might be the cause more than the lower signal strength itself.
At any rate, I'd rank the Xwing right up with the best 802.11b cards that I've tested, especially since it shows virtually no WEP-enabled throughput effect.
802.11b 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 | 5
[No WEP] 4.9 [w/ WEP] |
3 (avg)
3 (max) |
436 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 2 | 0 | 4.7 | 3 (avg)
3 (max) |
433 | 2 |
| Client to AP - Condition 3 | 0 | 4.6 | 2 (avg)
3 (max) |
420 | 2 |
| Client to AP - Condition 4 | 0 | 4.6 | 3 (avg)
3 (max) |
429 | 0 |
See details of how we test.
Closing thoughts
It's hard to stand out in what is essentially a commodity market. But by using a simple innovation and charging little to no price premium (depending on where you buy your wireless cards!), Asante's AeroLAN Xwing deserves a spot on your wireless shopping list.
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