wireless AC 5 gig coverage per class comparison

[pete y testing]

wireless AC 5 gig coverage per class comparison

hi guys as promised i have just tested all the wireless AC devices i have a a range of 25 meters through quite a few walls

see floor plan below

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=7D5C...1a0742!812&parId=7d5cb240be1a0742!144&o=OneUp

routers are in location A , routers has a synology ds-415+ NAS attached non bonded

test comp is in location E ( solid state drive ) with asus pce-ac68

test is a simple copy and paste in both directions ( average max throughput ) and is listed in order of read/write average

wireless ac comparison at 25 meters to asus pce-ac68 5 gig ch 153 average max through put in both directions

see write performance chart in the post below as i can only add 2 images to this post for some reason


fyi all tests are non cached and new files used for each test transfer

conclusion with a 1300ac wireless 5 gig mode adapter there is little difference in coverage or throughput at location E when comparing read and write averages of the rt-ac88u / rt-ac5300 and rt-ac68u

so simple proof that with your current adapters and coverage there is little between the 1900ac rt-ac68u and the rt-ac88u / rt-ac5300

this may be counter intuitive but its fact , yes the rt-ac88u is on top but at twice as much for such little gain can anyone base a purchase on coverage alone compared to the rt-ac68u ?

yes if the other features the rt-ac88u gives you makes it worth the extra $$$ that's fine but do not expect extra coverage out of any of the current AC class routers at distance

pete

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for sharing. The data would be more useful if presented in bar chart form or at least a table.

 

[dikkiedirk]

Why is the the RT-AC3200 doing so "bad? Is it doing things differently, is it hardware, antennae?

 

[sfx2000]

Pete - this is all in the AU Regulatory Domain, correct?

Wondering if the changes there in 2015, when they harmonized with certain annexes of the ETSI guidance has something to do with it..

CH153 is a weird channel in the 149-165 block because of where it sits for the Primary vs. Secondary channels - e.g. CH149 (Secondary) CH153 (Primary) CH157 (Secondary) CH161 (Secondary).

Linksys WRT1900ac does this as well when set to AUTO, and I saw a performance hit vs. stick-shifting the Primary down to CH149 when going against both Broadcom and Realtek adapters - always wondered if it was a glitch with either how the router or clients did channel estimation..

 

[pete y testing]

Pete - this is all in the AU Regulatory Domain, correct?

yes but tested on ch 153 so should be the same as usa standard , i use ch 153 specifically as it give the best results here for all routers i test with the asus pce-ac68

if you like will test on 149 and see if things change

dont have the linksys wrt 1900ac any more or i would have included it

more useful if presented in bar chart form or at least a table.

np will do so shortly

 

[pete y testing]

Why is the the RT-AC3200 doing so "bad? Is it doing things differently, is it hardware, antennae?

no idea at this stage , however its still doing pretty dam good for where it is located anything over 20 MB/s at 25 meters is pretty dam good imho

 

[RMerlin]

Pete - this is all in the AU Regulatory Domain, correct?

Actually, the interesting question would for which region your routers were configured?

 

[pete y testing]

Actually, the interesting question would for which region your routers were configured?

all set as default , but all australian provided , all time zones are set to australia

so i telnet into the asus rt-ac88u and type wl country

and get

ASUSWRT RT-AC88U_3.0.0.4 Fri Feb 26 09:00:42 UTC 2016
admin@RT-AC88U:/tmp/home/root# wl country
TW (TW/994) TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA
admin@RT-AC88U:/tmp/home/root#

ASUSWRT RT-AC68U_9.0.0.4 Mon Mar 21 08:16:51 UTC 2016
admin@RT-AC68U:/tmp/home/root# wl country
SG (SG/0) SINGAPORE
admin@RT-AC68U:/tmp/home/root#

admin@RT-AC5300:/tmp/home/root#
admin@RT-AC5300:/tmp/home/root# wl country
US (Q1/984) UNITED STATES
admin@RT-AC5300:/tmp/home/root#

ASUSWRT RT-AC87U_3.0.0.4 Tue Oct 27 11:25:04 UTC 2015
admin@RT-AC87U:/tmp/home/root# wl country
US (US/0) UNITED STATES
admin@RT-AC87U:/tmp/home/root#

ASUSWRT RT-AC3200_3.0.0.4 Tue Dec 22 01:59:40 UTC 2015
admin@RT-AC3200:/tmp/home/root# wl country
AU (AU/999) AUSTRALIA
admin@RT-AC3200:/tmp/home/root#

lol how bizarre is that



changed to AU but its resets to the above when i reboot the router

 

[pete y testing]

changed to bar graphs

here is the write performance chart

 

[pete y testing]

CH153 is a weird channel in the 149-165 block because of where it sits for the Primary vs. Secondary channels - e.g. CH149 (Secondary) CH153 (Primary) CH157 (Secondary) CH161 (Secondary).

just changed the rt-ac3200 from ch 153 to ch 149


read went from 27.4 MB/s to 32 MB/s

write went from 23.5 MB/s to 28.6 MB/s

so def an improvement for the rt-ac3200

will check the others later

 

[RMerlin]

changed to AU but its resets to the above when i reboot the router

That's because end users can no longer change regions, they are hardcoded in the bootloader.

All those different regions can potentially skew results on the 5 GHz band, as each region might have quite different limitations.

 

[pete y testing]

All those different regions can potentially skew results on the 5 GHz band, as each region might have quite different limitations.

yes i do agree but i dont know why i would have all these different region routers esp the usa ones lol , might have to contact asus and figure something out

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the charts, Pete.

 

[RMerlin]

yes i do agree but i dont know why i would have all these different region routers esp the usa ones lol , might have to contact asus and figure something out

Shaddy reseller who goes to the grey market without realizing (or caring) that wireless devices tend to be region-specific perhaps.

Each radio has its own region BTW - querying with "-i eth2" will give you the regional info for the 5 GHz radio.

 

[dikkiedirk]

just changed the rt-ac3200 from ch 153 to ch 149


read went from 27.4 MB/s to 32 MB/s

write went from 23.5 MB/s to 28.6 MB/s

so def an improvement for the rt-ac3200

will check the others later

Even less reason to "upgrade" from a RT-AC3200 to RT-AC88. Don't have MU-MIMO clients anyway.

 

[pete y testing]

Shaddy reseller who goes to the grey market without realizing (or caring) that wireless devices tend to be region-specific perhaps.

the funny thing here is these units are supplied and on loan from asus au , however they are not beta test units afaik

will test the radio thing later

 

[RMerlin]

the funny thing here is these units are supplied and on loan from asus au , however they are not beta test units afaik

will test the radio thing later

LOL They might have sent you whatever they had at hand at the time

I know that at least in one case, Taiwan HQ had to send me a EU model because they didn't have a US one available. However my contact took the time to change the CFE region to the US one before sending it to me (as well as providing me with the correct power adapter).

 

[njweb]

Thanks for sharing Pete!
Did you by any chance test with 2.4 GHz, just for range purposes?

 

[pete y testing]

Thanks for sharing Pete!
Did you by any chance test with 2.4 GHz, just for range purposes?

at this stage no as i have issues with the pce-ac68 not working well with 2.4 gig so results would have been flawed

but from past testing im pretty sure they are all pretty close also

 

[pete y testing]

However my contact took the time to change the CFE region to the US one before sending it to me

yes might have to remember that for the future , i assume that those units with the usa CFE region will then be forced to work under the same regs and rules for this fcc thing , wonder if they have the ability to change the CFE region locally at asus au