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Wi-Fi 6 Client Speed Testing With Samsung Galaxy S10

I wanted to do some throughput testing with the Wi-Fi 6 EnGenius EWS377AP Access Point at close range with a Wi-Fi 6 client the Samsung Galaxy S10e and see how it compared to a Wi-Fi 5 client on the same Access Point.

I setup the EnGenius EWS377AP a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point on a clear channel in 80Mhz mode. I placed the S10 within five feet of the Access Point in a horizontal orientation for the best results. The S10 is a 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 device the fastest speed I was able to maintain was 907Mbps or (256-QAM with a 1600 ns GI) but I briefly saw 960Mbps (256-QAM with a 800 ns GI)

I ran iPerf2 for android on the S10 in server mode and jPerf on my workstation in client mode.

Here are the results I was able to maintain 800Mbps with bursts up to 831Mbps pretty good!

If we compare these to a high end Wi-Fi 5 client the iPhone Xs I got around 600Mbps average with spikes up to 613Mbps

So this testing show a single 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 client can maintain 800Mbps at short range. We might need to utilize the 2.5Gbe capability of the EWS377AP sooner than we thought!

Range will be a different test but is is very hard to replicate every environment is different while my results for speed are easily reproduced

The EWS377AP is available here for under $300! https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=564

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Can Wi-Fi 5 clients perform better with a Wi-Fi 6 Access Point?

With many Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) AP’s being released and relatively few Wi-Fi 6 clients in the wild I wanted to do some throughput testing on a non Wi-Fi 6 client device the iPhone Xs.

Like all current iPhones the top of the line Xs has a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) radio. I used the iperf app and put it in server mode and then ran the jperf on my desktop. I made sure the spectrum was clear with my WiPry 2500x, Wi-Fi Spectrum Analyzer and put both AP’s in 80Mhz mode at a 5 foot range.

First I tested against a 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 AP these are the results I got around 375Mbps

Next I tested against the EnGenius EWS377AP and I got the results below averaging about 610Mbps.

So this shows that a Wi-Fi 5 client device can get a performance benefit from a using the latest Wi-Fi 6 Access Point. Since the EWS377AP is using the latest Wi-Fi chipset with faster CPU and more memory many existing Wi-Fi devices will get a throughput increase. The 4×4 radio chains also allow for better range and speed at range.

As more Wi-Fi 6 devices are released later this year like the Intel 10th generation ice lake laptop processors and possibly the iPhone 11 we will see even more performance benefits especially in high density situations.

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Blazing Wi-Fi 6 performance with Ruckus R750

The R750 is the new high end Ruckus Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Access Point it is 4×4 on both bands and can handle up to 1024 connected clients!

Ruckus has the only Wi-Fi 6 Access Point with BeamFlex+ Antennas the secret sauce to high density and interference mitigation in heavily congested environments . The R750 also supports all the latest Wi-Fi 6 advancements with MU-OFDMA, TWT and MU-MIMO capabilities

The R750 addresses the increasing client demands in transit hubs, auditoriums, conference centers, and other high traffic indoor spaces

The R750 is a multi-gigabit ready Wi-Fi AP with a 2.5Gbe port it will handle all the traffic you can throw at it. But it will also work with your current 1Gb PoE switches it only requires 802.3at or PoE+ for full 4 stream operation.

Contact us Today for help with your Wi-Fi design and a quote for your project.

Click here for more information on the Ruckus R750

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Securing your Sonos Wi-Fi network from your customers.

Many small businesses like restaurants, hotels and bars rely on a Sonos Systems for multi room audio they also want to offer free Wi-Fi to their customers.

However a problem arises when you connect your sonos system to your public Wi-Fi network. Anyone that has the sonos app can take control of the music because there is no facility for passwords in the sonos controller.

Now this can be fixed by having a separate Wi-Fi network for staff and customers but a few more steps must be taken.

You could put the staff network on a separate VLAN but this requires a VLAN enabled router and some tricky configurations that most small businesses are not going to be able to accomplish.

You could put the customers on a guest network this will isolate them from the staff network and the sonos system. You will need a guest network option built into your Wi-Fi access point or controller. This can break some application and sometimes requires a captive portal or splash page that doesn’t play well with mobile devices.

Or the best option for most is to enable L2 Isolation on the customer Wi-Fi network and then connect the sonos to the staff network. This stops Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi client traffic so the guests will not be able to access the sonos controller. As a added bonus they will not be able to see any other Wi-Fi connected devices like printers or shared folders on PC’s. Now this trick will only work if the sonos devices are connected to Wi-Fi if they are hardwired to ethernet and using sonosnet you will need to use one of the other methods above.

Wi-Fi connected Sonos devices need a strong Wi-Fi signal to work well so first you want to make sure you have enough Wi-Fi Access Points and they are located as close as possible to your sonos units.

Click here to see some of our Wi-Fi Access Points that support L2 isolation.

Here is the best Sonos device for businesses the connect you can connect it to your own amp and speakers use multiple connects for different areas.

The Sonos one is great for smaller areas like a coffee house you can pair 2 in stereo mode no amps or extra speakers required.

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Ekahau Sidekick All In One Wi-Fi Site Survey Device

Here is a video review I did on the Ekahau Sidekick it works with ekahau pro software or ekahau connect for iPad. It has 2 built in Wi-Fi survey adapters a state of the art dual band spectrum analyzer and a all day rechargeable battery . You can purchase from our store here https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=508

Or contact me for more information keenanj@keenansystems.com

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What good is a 4×4 MIMO Access Point when all my Wi-Fi clients are 2×2 MIMO?

You may have noticed that Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax and Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac Access Points come with multiple radio chains to support MIMO either 2×2 3×3 4×4 or even 8×8. Simply put MIMO adds more capacity without using more spectrum. Each radio chain will increase speed but the client and AP must match to take advantage of this.

However most clients like smartphones, tablets and laptops only support 2×2 MIMO to save power. So what is the advantage of those extra antenna / radio chains?

If there is a mismatch in MIMO levels between the client and AP the antennas do not go unused, but are used for ‘diversity’ and ‘beamforming’, which extends range, and improves speed at range.

So a AP with more radio chains is better for all types of clients and usually has more memory and CPU allowing the AP to manage more connections faster.

Check out the EWS377AP it supports Wi-Fi 6 and has 4×4 radio chains https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=564

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Do you need multi-gigabit switches to deploy Wi-Fi 6 access points?

Today, most business and enterprise-class switches have one-gigabit access ports and there are not many multi gigabit switches yet on the market. The ruckus ICX7150-C10ZP-2X10GR is a compact switch that can support 1/2.5/5 and 10Gb and also the new PoH power standard with up to 90W per port.

A 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) AP has the potential of more than one-gigabit throughput. Therefore, a 1 GbE access port could now possibly be the bottleneck to performance for Wi-Fi users. So many of the Wi-Fi 6 AP’s released will support up 2.5 Gbit/s using the multi gigabit ethernet standard NBASE-T / 2.5GBASE-T. Basically you can use the same Cat 5e or Cat6 ethernet cabling at higher speeds up to 100 meters.

All Wi-Fi 6 AP’s will fall back to standard 1Gbit/s and usually feature a second 1Gb only port. There are not many Wi-Fi 6 clients out in the world at this point so saturating a 1Gb port would be very difficult with legacy clients. There is no issue with deploying Wi-Fi 6 AP’s using your current gigabit switches and then plan to upgrade to multi-gigabit at a later time.

One other thing to plan for is PoE most Wi-Fi 6 AP’s require full power 802.3at or PoE+ like the engenius EWS377AP and ruckus R750 . There are a few like the engenius EWS357AP that only need half power 802.3af PoE. And some like the ruckus R730 ultra high density AP need PoH for full 8×8 stream function but will fall back to 4×4 streams with PoE+ power.

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Ruckus Wireless releases the R750 a mainstream Wi-Fi 6 Access Point for ultra dense client situations.

Ruckus has just release their second Wi-Fi 6 Access Point the R750.

It is a 4×4 11ax AP with built in radios for BLE and Zigbee. The R750 has dual ethernet ports one supports 1 / 2.5GbE and the secondary secondary 1GbE. The R750 only requires 802.3at PoE+ for full 4 stream operation so you can leverage your current switches.

Click here for more information on the R750

https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=570

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EWS377AP a 4×4 high performance Wi-Fi 6 AP from EnGenius

With the release of the EWS377AP EnGenius now has a high performance Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) AP for business networks. The EWS377AP has 4 streams supports 1 and 2.5GbE and only requires a 802.3at PoE+ injector or switch for power. You can configure them stand alone or in a managed network with a EWS switch or ezmaster.

More information here

https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=564