I wanted to test maximum Wi-Fi speed of the iPhone 13 Pro so first I used speedtest.net I have a 1Gb Internet connection and I saw just under 600Mbps.
Next I used iPerf between my 10GbE connected workstation and my Ruckus R750 connected to the same ECS2512FP gigabit switch at 2.5GbE and Again saw just about 600Mbps throughput.
I tested with 2 different access points in 80Mhz mode and get the same results. This is quite a bit less then the 800Mbps I saw with the iPhone 12 Pro. Please comment below if you have seen similar results with the iPhone 13 Pro?
Above is a graph of a 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 laptop (green) and the iPhone 13 Pro (blue) throughput.
The ECS2512FP is a great switch it has 8 2.5Gb ports and 4 SFP+ slots but it is designed to be rack mounted in a closet so the stock fans can be loud in a office environment.
So I purchased 2 of the Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX fans and installed them into the switch. These fans come with multiple wire adapters one of them fits the engenius switch but I did have to rewire the connector to reverse the polarity.
After the install the switch is silent and has been running fine for months without issue. The error light is triggered on the front display but the switch works as normal.
If you want to try this yourself the Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX is available here https://amzn.to/2RWqo2K
Many times someone asks me if the Wi-Fi system will mesh. What they really mean is will my Wi-Fi devices automatically roam throughout my areas.
For Wi-Fi roaming to work you really only need to specify the same SSID and encryption for all your wired Access Points they can even be from different vendors. The client devices are responsible for the roaming if you notice your devices are connecting the a farther away Access Point you might want to turn down the power or move them.
Wi-Fi meshing is something all together different and not a feature you want to use often. Wi-Fi meshing will backhaul the network connection wirelessly between Access Points. This might first sound like a great idea you do not have to run ethernet and can located your Access Points wherever you want Wi-Fi. In reality meshing just does not work well. First you lose %50 of the available bandwidth for every wireless mesh hop. Second you have to place the Wi-Fi mesh repeaters in a area that has strong signal for them to work at all. Then if anything in your environment moves or you have a new source of interference the network will drop.
So there is the difference Wi-Fi roaming is something that is easy to setup and should be used. Just say no to Wi-Fi meshing if you wire your Access Points in the first place you will eliminate problems from the get go.
The FCC opened new channels in the 6 GHz spectrum back in April 2020 for new Wi-Fi standards. It is widely believed that the iPhone 13 will have a 6Ghz Wi-Fi 6E chipset immediately flooding the market with 6E capable client devices . We saw fast adoption of Wi-Fi 6 largely because of the iPhone 11.
Wi-Fi 6E offers the features and capabilities of Wi-Fi 6, including higher performance, lower latency, and faster data rates, extended into the 6 GHz band. See the graphic above which depicts the huge increase in channels over 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. The additional spectrum will provide a lot more airspace beyond existing 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, resulting in increased bandwidth and less interference for devices that support Wi-Fi 6E.
If you are deploying new Wi-Fi networks today using Wi-Fi 6 AP’s like the EnGenius ECW230 or Ruckus R750 you will be able to supplement the network later when Wi-Fi 6E AP’s become available. They are running on different frequencies and can coexist alongside each other. Likewise all future Wi-Fi 6E devices will be able to connect to your current Wi-Fi 6 AP’s. 6GHz band will be best suited for close-range connections, ideally between devices that are in the same room as one another so you will want a mix of lower cost Wi-Fi 6 AP’s along with strategically located Wi-Fi 6E AP’s to start.
One thing is for sure you will need fast switches with plenty of PoE power budget to support all these new devices. The Wi-Fi 6E AP’s will for sure support multi gigabit and have higher power requirements so you would be smart to build out your wired network now with cloud managed switches like the EnGenius ECS2512FP.
One of the advantages of Wi-Fi 6 is faster speeds and distance. Mesh access points can take advantage of these increased speeds as well as client devices. Once you have a access point connected to Wi-Fi mesh you can then use it’s wired port to connect to a device or switch to extend a network inside or between buildings.
I did some testing with two of the EnGenius ECW230 V3’s a 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 access point with 2.5Gb ethernet port. I used a laptop with a 5Gb Sabrent USB 3 ethernet adapter and external power supply for the ECW230. The other ECW230 was connected to a EnGenius ECS2512FP 2.5Gb PoE switch my desktop was also connected to this switch at 10Gb using a SPF+ twinax cable.
I setup a hidden SSID on the EnGenius cloud and deployed it to both ECW230’s. This way there are no client devices connected and we will get full throughput. I used iPerf on both computers to test speed.
I first tested at 5 feet and was able to maintain close to 1Gbps.
Next I tested at 50 feet with multiple walls in between the AP’s I was able to maintain 350Mbps.
So another advantage of Wi-Fi 6 access points is they make a great bridge. You could also use the outdoor ECW260‘s to bridge between two buildings at fast speeds. More information on the ECW230 here
Sometimes you need to start fresh and reset your switches to factory default maybe because you forgot the IP address or password or maybe the switch will not boot the current firmware. You can try using the hardware factory reset button on the front of the switch but it can be tricky to hold the button for the correct amount of time.
The old school console reset method will always work and lets you see exactly what is happening on the switch. I tried this on the ECS2512FP Cloud managed switch but all the current EnGenius switches should be similar. Every EnGenius switch ships with a white console cable in the box. You will need a 9 pin rs232 serial port to connect it to I used this one https://amzn.to/3nyp7JN. Next download puTTY and use the following settings replacing COM3 with your serial port.
Next login to the switch with username admin and the password you set (default is password) and issue the following command
This will reset your switch to factory default.
You can also use the console to troubleshoot boot issues and load new firmware if your image is corrupt.
