18. Performance Improvement - 11g and RangeMax, Continued

• WPN824 RangeMax...
• • Newegg.com
  • $69.99
• • NextWarehouse.com
  • $59.84
• • Directron
  • $59.99
• • Mwave.com
  • $65.52
• • TECH ON WEB
  • $66.71

Here's the 11g-11g downlink reference - Linksys WPC54G client to Linksys WRT54G router.

Figure 40: Four Location downlink throughput - 11g STA and AP
(click on image to enlarge)

And what happens with an 11g STA and RangeMax router (Figure 41). Average throughput improves for Locations 2 - 4, but there's that wonky throughput variation again...

Figure 41: Four Location downlink throughput - 11g STA, RangeMax AP
(click on image to enlarge)

And finally, the result from mixing a RangeMax client with the 11g AP (Figure 42). The only improvement is in Location 2 and Location 3 actually gets worse!

Figure 42: Four Location downlink throughput - RangeMax STA, 11g AP
(click on image to enlarge)

My conclusion from this experiment is that you may be able to see some improvement by using a RangeMax client with your normal 11g AP. But since RangeMax uses a Super-G radio, you may not see an improvement if you're currently using Super-G products.

In general, the Linksys True MIMO gear provided more consistent performance improvement than the RangeMax products when mixed with the same Linksys 11g products (based on Broadcom's 54g chipset).