Tim Higgins Article...Still Valid?

[wlanfan]

I've read the article http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/30224-add-dont-replace-when-upgrading-to-80211n . It was written in 2007. Are his results still valid 5 years later for today's N router products that are no longer the early "draft N" ones? Do mixing N and G or using encryption techniques still result in these dramatic thruput reductions?

 

[thiggins]

Yes. Those mechanism are still in effect for 802.11n products.

 

[wlanfan]

Thanks Tim. Nice article. Have to wonder how N's can be marketed with real world thruput being affected to such degrees by common use network adapters and encryption techniques. Seems to be effective marketing though since everyone seems to buy a pocket full of wireless routers trying to find a combination that works!

 

[thiggins]

The faster-protocol-must-wait-for-slower with G and N is similar to what happened (and still does) with G and B. Comes with the way the protocol works.

As for link rates being limited by encryption level, that was baked into the N spec. I suspect to uh, encourage, people to stop using the older, but weaker security protocols.