RJed

Testing true WiFi speeds

Jul 7, 2018
1 minute read

Aim for the tests is to check maximum wireless speeds that can be achieved with 2.4GHz and 5GHz mode in typical home scenarios. I had two routers to do these tests, viz DLink-816 and NetGear R6800.

The result were quite interesting considering that the same configuration of 2.4GHz leads to drastically different speeds on different wifi routers. Thus selecting a good wifi router is key.

Test tool: iperf (2.0.5)
Laptop1: Ubuntu 18.04 (Huawei Matebook X Pro, i7 8550U)
Laptop2: Ubuntun 16.04 (HP EliteBook 840 G3, i7)

Wifi Router: Dlink 816
Time: 7pm

Dlink 816

Sender(laptop1) Rcvr(laptop2) Reading1 Reading2 Reading3 Average
2.4G 2.4G 17.7 21.3 15.1 18.03
2.4G 5G 40.9 43.9 36.6 40.46
5G 2.4G 47.8 58.5 53.5 53.26
5G 5G 42.6 45 45.1 44.23
5G Eth 89.1 92.5 91.8 91.13
2.4G Eth 37.1 35.3 34.5 35.63

Router2(Netgear-R6800):

Wifi Router: NetGear R6800 AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Router
Time: 7:20pm

NetGear R6800

Sender(laptop1) Rcvr(laptop2) Reading1 Reading2 Reading3 Average
2.4G 2.4G 53.7 52.4 48.5 51.53
2.4G 5G 104 101 104 103
5G 2.4G 130 138 135 134.33
5G 5G 242 243 240 241.66
5G Eth 444 449 452 448.33
2.4G Eth 99.5 102 100 100.50

Notes:

  • Max CPU usage of iperf on sender & receiver (laptop2) < 20%
  • The performance of 2.4GHz differed widely between Netgear and Dlink. Netgear hugely out-performed Dlink.
  • The performance of 5GHz differed widely between Netgear and Dlink. Netgear hugely out-performed Dlink. Netgear supports advanced 5GHz modes and thus may have produced better results.
  • The aim of this experiment was to check if the Netgear can operate at 1Gbps rate with regular (highend) laptops. The best i can achieve was 450Mbps. Netgear advertises 1900 Mbps but i guess these speeds are achievable only with special purpose client devices which supports multiple wifi data streams in parallel.