Why is 160Mhz WiFi 2100Mbps link is half the throughput of my gigabit 1000Mbps ethernet on LAN???

[SteverinoLA]

This might be a dumb question but I'm asking anyway. I have a USB3 hard drive attached to 86U. Yes, I know I shouldn't use 86U as a NAS, but I don't need a dedicated NAS just for putting all my music and movie files on network. I have 160mhz enabled is confirmed working via router Wireless log and device settings.

I have a desktop w/1G ethernet (Intel 219-V). Copying to/from 86U USB maxes out at 100MB/s as expected. So I just added a WiFi6E PCIe adapter (Intel AX210S) which is also the same WiFi adpater in my SurfaceBook3 laptop. All 3 devices in same room 5 feet from each other.

1) Laptop AX210 connects to router at max 2200/2200 receive/transmit, but desktop w/slightly newer AX210S connects at 2200/1200 for some reason. Transmit will not exceed 1200Mbps.

2) Why do both desktop and laptop max out at 50MB/s (half gigabit ethernet) when both have solid 160Mhz 2100Mbps link speeds? How is 2200Mbps half the speed of ethernet 1000Mbps?

 

[bbunge]

This might be a dumb question but I'm asking anyway. I have a USB3 hard drive attached to 86U. Yes, I know I shouldn't use 86U as a NAS, but I don't need a dedicated NAS just for putting all my music and movie files on network. I have 160mhz enabled is confirmed working via router Wireless log and device settings.

I have a desktop w/1G ethernet (Intel 219-V). Copying to/from 86U USB maxes out at 100MB/s as expected. So I just added a WiFi6E PCIe adapter (Intel AX210S) which is also the same WiFi adpater in my SurfaceBook3 laptop. All 3 devices in same room 5 feet from each other.

1) Laptop AX210 connects to router at max 2200/2200 receive/transmit, but desktop w/slightly newer AX210S connects at 2200/1200 for some reason. Transmit will not exceed 1200Mbps.

2) Why do both desktop and laptop max out at 50MB/s (half gigabit ethernet) when both have solid 160Mhz 2100Mbps link speeds? How is 2200Mbps half the speed of ethernet 1000Mbps?

Its WIFI and WIFI uses a different connection method from Ethernet (CSMACA vs. CSMACD if I remember the acronyms from school many years ago). As the Ethernet is using a switch it does not have to contend with collisions. WIFI on the other hand has to avoid collisions, not detect them, and thus is not as robust as Ethernet. It is actually more complicated than that and also factors in the radios on the WIFI adapter, environment, distance and etc.

IOW it is complicated. Can it be improved? Sure but you will put bruises on your head doing so.

 

[Tech Junky]

There's a lot of variables end to end but, my link speed is 2000+ and my max actual throughput is 1.5gbps typically.

How you're clocking your speeds though makes a difference as well. If you're moving files around try doing them in a multi stream as this will allow more threads / IO to max out the link speeds.

For instance on my TB4 enclosure / drive I can consistently hit 600MB/s on a bulk transfer but, if I split it into chunks and drop them to the drive I can hit 2.7GB/s W / 3.1GB/s R.

Now, if you're moving data between 2 x WIFI devices you need to account for the half duplex situation with WIFI .

 

[SteverinoLA]

Maybe that's it. I'm just surprised to find that my rock solid 160mhz 2200/2200Mbps WiFi6 connection results in file copy speeds in Explorer that are half of what my 1000Mbps LAN connection does. I guess I was under the assumption that WiFi6 had finally surpassed gigabit ethernet speeds... in practice, not just theory.

 

[Tech Junky]

WiFi6 had finally surpassed gigabit ethernet speeds

It has but, it depends on how you're using it. A rough calculation is about 70% of the link rate is guru potential. The brother 30% is overhead / timing. The other issue is the physical port speed on the wired side. In my instance I thought I had an issue with my AP as I spotted the qos max is 1ge speed capped even though it's hooked up on a 2.5ge port.

Well, the ax411 card I'm using that combines both 2.4/5 bands into a single pipe is what goes beyond the limitation up to 1.5gbps.

 

[tgl]

I can easily believe that you get only about half of the nominal wireless link speed as effective throughput --- I've heard anywhere from 50% to 80% for usable throughput, with many experts tending towards the lower end of that range. However, that'd still put you in the same speed range as your wired connection, so there's a factor-of-2 yet to be explained. Is the 86U your only wireless broadcaster, or do you have satellite node(s)? If you do, maybe the laptop is connecting to the node and you're losing performance to backhaul.

 

[SteverinoLA]

86U is my main router, and sitting 5 feet from the wireless antenna in my desktop. I do have a AX55 as AP but it uses different WiFi Name and only has 2.4G enabled. I can see in 86U Wireless Log that I'm connected at 160mhz:

but no idea why Transmit is full 2.2ish Mbps but Receive will not exceed 1.2Mbps

 

[tgl]

OK, just wanted to eliminate that possibility. The next theory that comes to mind is that you're dealing with a lot of wifi congestion or interference. Do you have nearby neighbors using the same channels? (You might have to get a wifi scanner app to answer that.)

The gap between receive and transmit speeds isn't that unusual, because clients normally transmit at significantly lower power levels than access points. I'd have thought it'd be okay at 5' distance, but maybe if the noise/conflicting-signal level is high enough that's what you'd get.

 

[SteverinoLA]

It's definitely crowded wifi, I'm in a 450 condo complex, and every unit has its own wifi. But I use empty DFS channel for AX so no interference.

 

[tgl]

It's definitely crowded wifi, I'm in a 450 condo complex, and every unit has its own wifi. But I use empty DFS channel for AX so no interference.

Snort ... if you live somewhere that has 450-unit condos, you also are within range of an airport radar. There's a reason that the other 449 people are smart enough to not use those DFS channels.

 

[OzarkEdge]

How is 2200Mbps half the speed of ethernet 1000Mbps?

WiFi is half-duplex, time-shared, subject to interference/delay, plus other overhead. Ethernet is full-duplex. I would expect half or less than half of link rate for throughput vs Ethernet. And your network may have other issues affecting its performance.

Also, I would commission your WiFi for 80MHz max bandwidth and use that awhile to baseline before experimenting with 160MHz and DFS channels.

OE

 

[ColinTaylor]

2) Why do both desktop and laptop max out at 50MB/s (half gigabit ethernet) when both have solid 160Mhz 2100Mbps link speeds? How is 2200Mbps half the speed of ethernet 1000Mbps?

If there's no other traffic on the WiFi network at the time I would expect better throughput than that (see below). But if there's any sort of traffic the throughput will plummet.

 

[SteverinoLA]

Snort ... if you live somewhere that has 450-unit condos, you also are within range of an airport radar. There's a reason that the other 449 people are smart enough to not use those DFS channels.

I'm less than 10 miles from LAX airport. However, I've yet to see any problems or rejections w/DFS channels in a year and I constantly monitor. And I can assure you, no one else in this building has any idea what DFS channels are or how to enable them. Plus, our ISP handed out free routers for most here -- AX55's that lack DFS support.

Also, I would commission your WiFi for 80MHz max bandwidth and use that a while to baseline before experimenting with 160MHz and DFS channels.

Yep, been hard-coded at 80Mhz for a year since my internet is 500/500 and I don't do much copying b/t desktop and laptop. I bumped it up to 160Mhz last week after adding a WiFi6E card to my desktop and thinking I would getting twice the throughput to 86U USB drive and my WiFi6 laptop. I was clearly wrong on that.

If there's no other traffic on the WiFi network at the time I would expect better throughput than that (see below). But if there's any sort of traffic the throughput will plummet.

What are doing in this test? Copying a big file from router USB drive to a device?

 

[ColinTaylor]

What are doing in this test? Copying a big file from router USB drive to a device?

Yes. Copying a 2.5GB file from a cheap USB flash drive plugged into the router to an SSD on my laptop. I'd imagine the bottleneck here is the relatively slow USB flash drive.

 

[SteverinoLA]

Yes. Copying a 2.5GB file from a cheap USB flash drive plugged into the router to an SSD on my laptop. I'd imagine the bottleneck here is the relatively slow USB flash drive.

Arrrg, then something is amiss w/my setup. Same AX210 card, also DFS channel, same receive link speed, but stuck at 1200 transmit link speed for some reason. But I'm maxing out at 50MB/s

 

[degrub]

Your link rate is 1200 Mbit/s. Not same as throughput. If the 210s radios are only syncing at 1200 transmit, then you need to look at several potential issues - 1) driver and driver config in windows, did win update over the intel driver ? , 2) same version of windows as the other laptop ? both win 11 ?, 3) 210s antenna - receive depends on signal strength of router at antenna and reflections from around it. Transmit depends on antenna on PC - placement, cable and connections, reflections from blocking structure - best is direct line of sight and nothing around antenna, and reflections around router antenna. Any of the above can cause issues with the link rate for receive and transmit. It looks like the router is ok for transmit, but is either not matching to the 210s config or there are physical issues at either end.

 

[SteverinoLA]

Arrrg, everything is identical b/t desktop and laptop -- same Windows, exact same drivers, both located 7 feet from router. I'll keep experimienting.

 

[segacorpceo]

If there's no other traffic on the WiFi network at the time I would expect better throughput than that (see below). But if there's any sort of traffic the throughput will plummet.

View attachment 47585View attachment 47586

Do you mind running this test again from the computer to the router? I also have a ax86u but with a intel ax200 and the upload speeds are 45MBs-50MBs. Download speeds from NAS are normal.

 

[kildare]

1) Laptop AX210 connects to router at max 2200/2200 receive/transmit, but desktop w/slightly newer AX210S connects at 2200/1200 for some reason. Transmit will not exceed 1200Mbps.

How many external antennas have your desktop network card?
If only one or two maybe its available MIMO configuration is not on par of your laptop antennas that are usually optimized for MIMO inside the latest notebooks with wifi 6E

 

[ColinTaylor]

Do you mind running this test again from the computer to the router? I also have a ax86u but with a intel ax200 and the upload speeds are 45MBs-50MBs. Download speeds from NAS are normal.

The only thing I have to test with at the moment is a mechanical laptop HDD plugged into the router. With that I can get about 60MB/s with a CPU load of 70% on two cores. It's spending most of its time waiting for write I/O to complete. I'd guess that if you were using an SSD you might be able to squeeze 80MB/s out of it, maybe more if it can use more cores.