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EWS377AP V3 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point Testing

I did a quick performance test of the new EWS377AP Version 3 There have been some minor revisions including a new ethernet chipset and more memory. These upgrades should allow the EWS377AP to handle more connection in highly dense business environments.

The EWS377AP is heaver than the V1 and has a larger aluminum heat sync on the back.

I connected the EWS377AP to my ECS2512FP 2.5Gb PoE switch and then configured the EWS377AP for channel 149 with 80Mhz channel width using the enwifi app.

I then did a speed test with my iPhone 12 pro on my 1 Gb down 40M up Internet connection.

If I run speed test on a wired station I get about 940M down so this is not far off.

The lights flash like crazy during a speedtest.

Lastly I ran jperf a graphical iperf client with 8 parallel stream to my iPhone 12 pro iperf server.

I saw a maximum combined throughput of 1,077Mbps on one of the runs not too shabby.

You can purchase the EWS377AP V3 here

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

and the ECS2512FP 2.5Gb PoE switch here

https://www.keenansystems.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=48&products_id=597

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Exactly How Fast is the Wi-Fi 6 in the iPhone 11?

With the release of the iPhone 11 it will quickly push the installed base of Wi-Fi 6 clients over 180 million by 2020. We know that the iPhone 11 pro and max have a 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ax Wi-Fi chipset. So how fast is it exactly?

To figure this out I started with 2 of the best Wi-Fi 6 Access Points currently on the market the EnGenius EWS377AP and the Ruckus R730. I took the iPhone out of it’s case connected to power and held horizontal at about 5 feet from the AP for the fastest speeds. I used a IPerf server on a iPhone 11 pro and a JPerf client on gigabit wired desktop and here are the results.

First I tested with the EnGenius EWS377AP it is a 4×4 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi 6 AP. I averaged 800Mbps with spikes as high as 845Mbps.

Next I tested against the Ruckus R730 it is a 8×8 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi 6 AP. I averaged 750Mbps with spikes over 800Mbps.

So how does this compare to the iPhone 10 with a Wi-Fi 5 chipset? You can see my testing here it averaged around 600Mbps so we are getting a solid 200Mbps gain with the iPhone 11! This is similar to what I saw with the Samsung Galaxy S10.

Short range speed is one advantage of Wi-Fi 6 but another one of the real benefits is increased speed at distance see my testing here.

For more information on the Wi-Fi 6 AP’s I used during this testing go here

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EnGenius SkyKey brings your managed Wi-Fi system into the cloud

The EnGenius Skykey is a hybrid cloud device running the ezMaster Access Point and Switch management software. The Skykey is is a PoE powered device connect it to a switch for both power and data it has a secondary ethernet port, a micro SD slot for local backups, and a magnet for easy mounting .

If you are already running ezMaster you can backup your configuration and load it into the Skykey . The Skykey will manage up to 100 devices you can access it remotely from the EnGenius Cloud or by local IP address. And as with all EnGenius cloud devices there is no subscription fee!

Once the SkyKey is configured you can onboard Access Points and switches across multiple sites with projects and AP groups.

The EnGenius Skykey is now shipping click here for more information

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EnGenius launches Cloud Wi-Fi products with no subscription cost!

EnGenius technologies has just launched a line of cloud managed Wi-Fi access points and PoE switches with no subscription cost! These are business class Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 access points that can handle traffic from many users in both large and small venues including outdoors. You can manage your chain of coffee houses from one interface or your entire school campus. There is a 48 port Cloud managed PoE switch available for large businesses and the enterprise down to 8 port desktop switch for small businesses. The hybrid cloud skykey will also bring EnGenius EWS access points and Switches into the cloud. See the full lineup of products here

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The iPhone 11 doesn’t have 5G, and that’s totally fine because it has Wi-Fi 6!

The iPhone 11 specs were just announced and as expected it doesn’t support 5G. While 5G is all the rage right now, the technology is still very much in its infancy don’t expect coverage in anything but the largest city’s until 2021. Furthermore adding 5G to a phone requires bulky antennas and power hungry chipsets and this point.

More importantly all iPhone 11’s support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)! Wi-Fi 6 will give the iPhone 11 super fast gigabit speeds while increasing range, speed at range and battery life. See our testing of the Samsung Galaxy S10. Offloading your data from the costly cellular networks to Wi-Fi 6 will always be faster and will not incur a monthly charge per device.

Now to use the iPhone 11 at its full potential you will need Wi-Fi 6 access points. We have been testing several and the EnGenius EWS377AP is very good. For high density situations look at the Ruckus R730 or new R750.

Contact me with any questions about designing your Wi-Fi network to be optimized for Wi-Fi 6.

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8×8 MIMO Wi-Fi 6 Range Testing with the Ruckus R730

I wanted to test if the additional MIMO radio chains on a Wi-Fi 6 Access Point improve speed at distance even for a 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi client like a smartphone. I setup a Ruckus R730 802.11ax Access Point with zonedirector firmware 10.3 using a external power supply for full 8×8 capability on a clear 80Mhz channel at 5Ghz. This is currently the highest capacity Wi-Fi 6 AP on the market.

Next I placed a Samsung Galaxy S10 at my 50 foot indoor test location running a iperf server app. Here are the results I saw an average of 200Mbps throughput with spikes to 230Mbps and lows of 150Mbps.

When we compare this to my test with the EnGenius 4×4 Wi-Fi 6 EWS377AP where we saw a 160Mbps average at the same location we can see those additional radio chains do not go unused. We saw a 40Mbps bump in single client performance with the Ruckus R730! Some of this can be attributed to the beamflex antenna elements I am sure.

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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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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