12. WPA in action - Mix 'n Match

While I had everything set up and available, I decided to run a few tests mixing Broadcom and Intersil-based products. I apologize that omitted WEP128 mode tests from some of the runs, but since my experience has been that WEP-enabled throughput problems have been eliminated in all the 11g designs I've seen, I decided to save a little time.

Figure 15: Belkin F5D7010 11g Client and
Ubicom IP2022 / Intersil GT Reference Design AP
Condition 1 Throughput vs. Security modes
(click on image for a larger view)

Figure 15 pits the Broadcom-based Belkin 11g client vs. the Ubicom / Intersil reference AP. All the throughput "dropouts" you see come from the WPA / TKIP enabled run and push the average throughput down.

But even without the dropouts, the throughput variation without WPA-enabled makes it hard to separate out any WPA throughput effects. So for now, all I can conclude is that there's a significant (almost 40%) average throughput hit with this combination of WPA-enabled devices.

Figure 16: Belkin F5D7010 11g Client and Intersil 11b WPA Reference AP
Condition 1 Throughput vs. Security modes
(click on image for a larger view)

Since I had the equipment, I decided to see how an 11g client and 11b AP behaved with WPA in use. Figure 16 shows the Belkin client used with the Intersil 11b WPA reference AP and reveals that you'll be able to use that combination with no loss of throughput.

That wraps up what I was able to make work. Now for the not-so-successful experiments.