Draft 802.11ac Revealed! Buffalo WZR-D1800H AirStation Reviewed

[claykin]

Tim

Thanks for the Part 2 update. Not surprising results, though I have a few comments.

1) I opened the 2.4 and 5Ghz comparison charts and it seems the unit comparisons were run with different clients/drivers. This can certainly throw off the results and leaves as many questions as answers. Why didn't you use the same client/drivers for all 4 units? The only 2 units that were tested on parity were the WNDR4500 and E4200V2 and these were only meant to be used to compare to the subject of the review.

2) The comparison charts do not scroll horizontally. Same issue in IE and Firefox.

 

[Albatross]

I do, however, wonder how the Netgear R6300 (the only other 802.11ac router on the market now) with the Broadcom chipset will perform.

A couple of reviews on the R6300 appeared on Amazon.

It looks like some firmware issues (Guest network and PS3 connectivity). A Netgear rep has commented to both. Mid-June firmware update should fix Guest network issue.

 

[thiggins]

The reference to the Intel 5300 client was a copy and paste error. The Intel 6200 was used for the two-stream tests, as described in the Part 2 text. I have updated the Charts information.

Thanks for the flag on the non-scrolling image. Fixed.

 

[Mark Uhde]

How do these devices handle 802.11a/n networks on part of their channel? Do they automatically use a narrower channel, and if not - how bad is the interference? Do they absolutely destroy either (or both) networks? Thanks for the great info on here!

 

[thiggins]

In 5 GHz, all channels are non overlapping. So all 802.11 collision avoidance/coordination mechanisms work fine.

 

[Mark Uhde]

They're spaced 20MHz apart, 802.11ac allows channel bonding up to 8 of those channels. What happens when you're using say, an 80MHz channel and there's a 40MHz 802.11n or a 20MHz 802.11a channel on part of it? Does it pause transmission on the whole 80MHz chunk, or go to a narrower channel?

 

[thiggins]

Don't know. I doubt the number of channels auto adjusts. I'll have to do an experiment.

 

[Mark Uhde]

Don't know. I doubt the number of channels auto adjusts. I'll have to do an experiment.

That would be great, very interesting. Ideally it would, or it would run each channel at the highest bitrate that channel could sustain.

 

[sfx2000]

Hi Tim - can you review the WLI-H4-D1300 as a stand-alone article - would be curious as to performance of that bridge against other 802.11n/802.11ac Access Points.

I think it would be good to compare against the highly regarded Trendnet device in 802.11n 3stream mode as well...

 

[sfx2000]

That would be great, very interesting. Ideally it would, or it would run each channel at the highest bitrate that channel could sustain.

Just doing some reading up - the spec does have mechanisms in place to auto-tune bandwidth and channels, but much is left to implementation...

Good news here I guess is that it is 5GHz, so co-channel interference from neighbours is not as big of a problem as it would be in 2.4Ghz with bonded channels.

 

[tipstir]

802.11ac looks interesting but it seems better for 5GHz band @ 80MHz and 160MHz like for the latest. I see this going to be a another draft. If hardware companies start to adapt to this new standard would be something to consider to use in the coming months or years

 

[thiggins]

Hi Tim - can you review the WLI-H4-D1300 as a stand-alone article - would be curious as to performance of that bridge against other 802.11n/802.11ac Access Points.

I think it would be good to compare against the highly regarded Trendnet device in 802.11n 3stream mode as well...

Don't hold your breath. Still have other new draft 11ac routers in the queue. These products take a lot of time to review due to all the modes and even then I don't get them all.

 

[tipstir]

Linux new code for WiFi standard 802.11ac well when it comes to that point shows 80VT 80MHz and 160VT 80MHz+80MHz with higher throughput doubling the 40HT 40MHz ORSize. I'll need to work on the code and get out Power versions when Android Tablets get 802.11ac hardware. Should be a blast!

 

[thiggins]

Linux new code for WiFi standard 802.11ac well when it comes to that point shows 80VT 80MHz and 160VT 80MHz+80MHz with higher throughput doubling the 40HT 40MHz ORSize. I'll need to work on the code and get out Power versions when Android Tablets get 802.11ac hardware. Should be a blast!

Uh, can you try saying this again? It makes no sense at all...

 

[sfx2000]

Uh, can you try saying this again? It makes no sense at all...

There was a checkin on the mac80211/cfg80211 for linux-wireless back late last june... which means now it can be integrated his work in a consistent manner that is easier to maintain.

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/93316

sfx

 

[tipstir]

Uh, can you try saying this again? It makes no sense at all...

Let clear up your confusion..

Current

IEE802.11n is HT 20 / HT 40 MHz mix for High Throughput where the octets are much lower than those octets in VHT are much higher.

IEE802.11ac is VHT 80 / VHT 160MHz mix for Very High Throughput is where I was referring to the above..

VHT160 channel width would be 160 MHz 80+80 channel widths
Supported chan width would be VHT160 or VHT160-80PLUS80.

Well anyway this is what I'll be doing for the re-programming for Android tablets that will support these features right now it's only HT is support.

 

[tipstir]

There was a checkin on the mac80211/cfg80211 for linux-wireless back late last june... which means now it can be integrated his work in a consistent manner that is easier to maintain.

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/93316

sfx

Interesting but the data can be easier to clear up for most who are not so in-depth of the technical coding language. But good you have shared the above.
Now to get it to the point where Android tablets can use this new code to make them function quicker as I've done with current 802.11g HT 20MHz and 802.11n HT 40MHz.

Hopefully Tim can cover his testing of Android devices as well as the normal WiFi laptop.

 

[stevech]

IEE802.11n is HT 20 / HT 40 MHz mix for High Throughput where the octets are much lower than those octets in VHT are much higher.

IEE802.11ac is VHT 80 / VHT 160MHz mix for Very High Throughput is where I was referring to the above..

VHT160 channel width would be 160 MHz 80+80 channel widths
Supported chan width would be VHT160 or VHT160-80PLUS80.

Google et al tell me that "HT" may mean High Throughput and "VHT" may mean Very High Throughput. Perhaps VHT means the hoped-for burst rates in excess of 1000Mbps (burst, not IP layer).
Those abbreviations were associates with IEEE 802.11 working groups.

In my world, we speak of channel bandwidth, ratio-combining, modulation order and coding rates.

 

[tipstir]

Google et al tell me that "HT" may mean High Throughput and "VHT" may mean Very High Throughput. Perhaps VHT means the hoped-for burst rates in excess of 1000Mbps (burst, not IP layer).
Those abbreviations were associates with IEEE 802.11 working groups.

In my world, we speak of channel bandwidth, ratio-combining, modulation order and coding rates.

Those are the options for WiFi Routers and Android Smart Phones and Tablets. Since I basically deal with Tablets daily on my Android forums those needs to be raise to higher standards than the defaults. Where the defaults fall in and means slower downs and upward speeds.

IEEE802.11ac has some hope for all us here who uses WiFi on a daily bases.

 

[stevech]

802.11ac...

The Nice Thing About Standards Is...

There Are So Many From Which To Choose!