News Release
New Jones-Petrick and Associates Study Finds Wide Variation
in Real-World Performance of Top Enterprise Wireless LANS
-- Performance results of seven top 802.11g centralized wireless LAN systems show need for more RF tuning --
ORLANDO, Florida, January 15, 2008 – Jones-Petrick and Associates (JPA) today announced the completion of a competitive wireless LAN (WLAN) test of seven of the most popular 802.11g Wi-Fi systems. The testing, conducted over a two-month period, examined the performance of the latest generation of enterprise WLAN systems within a typical office environment. The objective of the testing, commissioned by Ruckus Wireless, was to determine how current WLAN systems perform at varying locations in a real-world environment with physical obstructions and interference as well as mixed voice and data traffic. “The wireless testing was an eye-opener,” said JPA principal Al Petrick, vice chairman of the IEEE 802.11 working group and co-author of the definitive technical reference, IEEE 802.11 Handbook, A Designer’s Companion. “While the systems performed similarly in the simple locations, their performance in less-than-ideal environments sometimes varied by more than a factor of ten.” Petrick noted that the industry has made great strides in bolstering WLAN security and management but has fallen behind on the fundamental issue of reliable wireless RF performance. “With the plethora of Wi-Fi devices coming on the market, more organizations will be deploying WLANs in less-than-optimal environments,” said Petrick. “Delivering reliable connectivity and consistent performance to wireless users anywhere will become increasingly challenging as the air wave gets crowded and networks get larger and more complex, especially with 802.11n becoming mainstream.”
Test Setup
Testing was conducted in an 18,000 square foot office space in Fremont, California using industry-standard wireless test tools including Ixia’s IxChariot and Iperf. Three separate tests were conducted on the most current hardware and software from each vendor:
- TCP downlink performance on a single client in multiple locations, with and without interference;
- aggregate TCP downlink performance on 20 clients at varying locations, with and without interference; and
- voice quality measured on 19 VoIP-over-WiFi clients at varying locations with background data traffic.
Test Results
The JPA testing revealed that while most WLAN systems performed similarly at short distances (e.g. 20 to 30 feet), performance disparity widened dramatically as distance and obstructions between the AP (access point) and client increased and interference was introduced. At the most challenging location, the best-performing WLAN system beat its nearest competitor by more than twofold and outperformed the lowest-performing system by more than 15 times. The test found that the highest aggregate TCP throughput from a single AP to 20 802.11g laptops dispersed over an average distance of 150 feet was over 15 mbps.The JPA test also measured Voice over Wi-Fi performance with 19 simultaneous voice clients and one data client. All but one system under test exhibited fluctuating voice qualities when the AP was placed at different locations relative to the client.
About Jones-Petrick and Associates, LLC.
Jones Petrick and Associates (JPA) is a technology marketing and consulting firm focused on assisting new venture startup companies, large corporations, and carrier service providers that develop semiconductor and OEM products. JPA also provides services to the wireless home networking, enterprise networking, wireless broadband and hospitality markets. The firm offers strategic marketing, product definition, technology due diligence, business plan development, and competitive product testing and systems design as part of its services to clients worldwide. Founded in 2002, JPA is privately held and headquartered in Orlando, Florida. For more information, visit www.jpasoc.com or send an inquiry to info@jpasoc.com.
About the Author
Al Petrick is a principal at Jones-Petrick and Associates. A pioneer in the field of wireless LAN technology, Al writes frequently on the topic. His more than 25 years of experience is focused on the startup and growth phases of new technology ventures: evaluating new market opportunities, building management teams, cultivating lead customers and strategic technology partners, developing business plans and raising venture capital. Prior to JPA, Al served in executive business development roles at venture capital-funded startups and large corporations. At Harris Semiconductor, he conceptualized the PRISM IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi® product line and pioneered the technology to volume production. Al serves as Vice-Chairman of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standards committee. He is co-author of the definitive industry reference, IEEE 802.11 Handbook, A Designer’s Companion, and has published several marketing and technical papers on wireless communications in leading wireless trade and market and financial analyst journals. He holds a BSET from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, an MBA from Rollins College of Winter Park, Florida, and has studied business strategies at Northwestern University.
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