EnGenius Now Shipping Its 4x4 Wi-Fi 6 AP for SMBs

[thiggins]

Thanks for sharing your results.

Are both APs Qualcomm-based? What link rate did the phone report in each case?

 

[keenanj]

Thanks for sharing your results.

Are both APs Qualcomm-based? What link rate did the phone report in each case?

Hey Tim, Not sure about the chipset of the Ruckus R720 it is not in the spec but the EnGenius EWS377AP is qualcomm based I had a 866Mbps link on both at short range.

I just ordered a Samsung Galaxy S10E to do the same test with a Wi-Fi 6 client.

 

[keenanj]

Ok I just finished the first round of Wi-Fi 6 speed testing with the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the EWS377AP results are looking good!

Here is my writeup https://www.keenansystems.com/wordp...client-speed-testing-with-samsung-galaxy-s10/

 

[thiggins]

Ok I just finished the first round of Wi-Fi 6 speed testing with the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the EWS377AP results are looking good!

Thanks for sharing.
Being 5 feet away from the AP, why didn't you get 1024 QAM?
Did you test 2.4 GHz?

 

[keenanj]

Thanks for sharing.
Being 5 feet away from the AP, why didn't you get 1024 QAM?
Did you test 2.4 GHz?

Tim so this morning I am double checking my results and I was able to get 1024-QAM 1200Mbps but my throughput results are about the same ~800Mbps. I also put a laptop on the same switch port and was able to average over 900Mbps so we are not hitting up against GbE limits yet.

I am not testing throughput on 2.4Ghz my area is just to contested to get good results. I will test it for range later.

I also tried testing the S10 with the ruckus R730 (broadcom) and although I get the Wi-Fi 6 icon I can not connect faster than 866Mbps??

This might be due the the chipset differences so for SOHO the qualcomm EWS377AP might be the best way to go.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the additional information.

Make sure HE is enabled in the Ruckus. They may be shipping with HE disabled.

 

[keenanj]

I just did some real world Wi-Fi 6 speed at range testing with the EWS377AP here are my results

https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/08/06/wi-fi-6-client-range-testing/

 

[thiggins]

I just did some real world Wi-Fi 6 speed at range testing with the EWS377AP here are my results

https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/08/06/wi-fi-6-client-range-testing/

Was the AP in 80 MHz or 160 MHz mode?
The 10 Mbps difference is not really significant and can be due to many factors, given you used two different test devices.

 

[ACwifiguy]

I just did some real world Wi-Fi 6 speed at range testing with the EWS377AP here are my results

https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/08/06/wi-fi-6-client-range-testing/

What is interesting is the 40 mbps improvement at 80 MHz you got in your next article on a 2x2 client with an 8x8 MIMO router. That is a big jump.

 

[keenanj]

Was the AP in 80 MHz or 160 MHz mode?
The 10 Mbps difference is not really significant and can be due to many factors, given you used two different test devices.

80Mhz 160 is not yet supported in zone director 10.3 firmware.

here is the post https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/08/07/8x8-wi-fi-6-range-testing-with-the-ruckus-r730/

 

[keenanj]

I just finished speed testing the iPhone 11 pro with the EWS377AP results are
here https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/10/03/exactly-how-fast-is-the-wi-fi-6-in-the-iphone-11/

 

[thiggins]

I just finished speed testing the iPhone 11 pro with the EWS377AP results are
here https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/10/03/exactly-how-fast-is-the-wi-fi-6-in-the-iphone-11/

Did you measure 2.4 GHz? Were the APs using 80 MHz or 160 MHz bandwidth?

 

[keenanj]

Did you measure 2.4 GHz? Were the APs using 80 MHz or 160 MHz bandwidth?

No 2.4Ghz yet the AP's were at 80Mhz channel 149

 

[thiggins]

Thanks. A more interesting test would put some distance between AP and phone to see how rate adaption works.

80 MHz bandwidth is probably a fairer test since the S10's BRCM radio doesn't support 160 MHz. I'm not sure what the iPhone 11 is using.

 

[Krisbi]

I just did some real world Wi-Fi 6 speed at range testing with the EWS377AP here are my results

https://www.keenansystems.com/wordpress/2019/08/06/wi-fi-6-client-range-testing/

Did you test with latest firmware 3.6.5? =>
https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws...150706/EWS377AP_FWv3.6.5_c1.9.30_20190927.zip


Btw, do you have some information from Engenius, if and when OFDMA will be available on those access points?

 

[rafale77]

Anybody knows the difference between the v1 and the v2 of these puppies? I am finding it odd that they take different firmwares which would indicate that the hardware is different but I am only seeing a very recent FCC filing for a v3 version based on the Qualcomm IPQ8072A chipset instead of the IPQ8072 of the v1. Nothing about a "v2"...

Note that my testing of these units as drop in replacement for a unifi UAP AC-XG which based on the IPQ8064 gave me an average of 2x increased throughput at a distance under the exact same conditions.

 

[Trip]

@rafale77 - Not sure on the differences, but just wanted to confirm it was the UAP that gave you 2x throughput, not the 377? Thanks.

 

[rafale77]

Sorry if I wasn’t completely clear. It is the EWS377 which gave me 2x the throughput of the UAPs:
Peak at 0 distance from a rMBP (3x3 wifi5 Broadcom based client):
UAP AC HD 600mbps
UAP AC XG 580mbps
EWS377AP 830mbps

From a distance of about 15ft through 2 walls
UAP AC HD 280mbps
UAP AC XG 270mbps
EWS377AP 580mbps

For kicks, I even tried to run on a 2.4G SSID and...
EWS377AP 300mbps 2.4G
yeah I get better throughput on 2.4Ghz on the EWS377 than I did with the most expensive UAP on 5Ghz.

All APs running with 20 concurrent client distributed across 2 SSID on both 2.4G and 5G. I made sure that channels, power are all equal. Only setup difference was using WPA2/WPA3 for the EWS377 vs WPA2 only for unifi. So there is benefit to using wifi6 APs even for wifi5 clients and yes I obsoleted my unifi setup which I found was lacking a lot in performance and configurability but also added >$2000 to my bank account In the upgrade process since the majority of unifi devices are so outrageously overpriced.

 

[Trip]

Very interesting observations, rafale, thanks. Yeah, I've mostly resisted the UniFi "pull" on behalf of a lot of my customers and stuck to Ruckus wherever possible, but it's nice to see a lower-price option (other than TP-Link) to serve that market that performs well.

 

[rafale77]

I am actually seeing a number of other players with on premise controller AP environment. Prices vary quite a bit but between Zyxel, Aruba and cisco, choices are increasing. The Engenius controller has its plus and minus. It definitely is not the eye candy unifi is but it offers some controls unifi doesn't and doesn't do what it shouldn't. I posted my thoughts on the ubiquiti forum as well about this. I think they have gone too far in the automated control of the environment, adding overhead and taking control away from the users leading to reliability and performance degradations instead on focusing on products/hardware and performance which is underwhelming to begin with. The product offering goes from exceptional value to some using sub-consumer grade components along with very strange mixtures (Why would you have a 4x4 wifi6 AP on gigabit uplink for example?) to maximize profit.
The engenius is actually a great find. Only wish there was better support/documentation. Still curious about this undocumented v.2 and the upcoming v.3 which seems like it will support wifi6E.