Expected speed with two 2x2 clients on 4x4 access point

[HenryOlsa]

I bought the WIFI 6 tp-link EAP660 access point with a 4x4 5GHz antenna configuration. When I connect with a single WIFI 6 2x2 client I get speeds of up to 750 Mbit/s. When I connect another WIFI 6 2x2 client simultaneously the speeds more than half. So a total of 600 Mbit/s combined for the two clients. I expected a higher result with a 4x4 access point. It is advertised as reaching 2400 Mbit/s on the 5GHz band. I know that is the phy link speed but I do expect something around 1500 Mbit/s. Am I missing something? If yes, what is the practical benefit of a 4x4 access point above a 2x2 access point?
I use iperf3 on both clients simultaneously connecting to two different computers to test the speeds, the channel width is 80MHz. The access point does not support 160MHz.

 

[Sachb]

A 2x2 client on 80 MHz client has a max link speed of 867 Mbps, and 660 Mbps is the max throughput one can get. It may even reach 700 Mbps.

1500 is not achievable on 2x2 client cause the link speed itself is limited to 867 Mbps.

See, this is my speed with 4x4 WiFi router on 80 MHz with 2x2 client.

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @HenryOlsa.

What clients? What is the test setup? Please give more details.

How can one client get ~750Mbps and two combined get a total of ~600Mbps?

If that is correct as stated, I would be returning this TP-Link product now.

 

[HenryOlsa]

"A 2x2 client on 80 MHz client has a max link speed of 867 Mbps, and 660 Mbps is the max throughput one can get."

I don't think that's true. If you look at the Ruckus product guide you can see that every WIFI 6 2x2:2 access point has a maximum PHY rate of 1200 Mbps. Every WIFI 6 4x4:4 access point has a maximum PHY rate of 2400 Mbps.

RUCKUS Product Guide (commscope.com)

I use two laptops with a intel AX200 network card. They both connect to the wireless access point EAP660. I run iperf3 on both of them, both to another computer on the network. If I run the same test using a network cable I get the expected 949Mbps on both clients.

 

[Sachb]

I don't think that's true. If you look at the Ruckus product guide you can see that every WIFI 6 2x2:2 access point has a maximum PHY rate of 1200 Mbps. Every WIFI 6 4x4:4 access point has a maximum PHY rate of 2400 Mbps.

Ok it's WiFi 6, I thought you were asking for WiFi 5 speeds @ 5 GHz.

 

[Tech Junky]

What's the port speed on the AP? If it's 1gig then that's your max unless you get a 2.5 or 5ge port on the AP. You can only go as fast as your slowest port.

I can hit 150MB/s on my NWA210AX with a 2.5G port in 160 mode with an ax210 card.

 

[HenryOlsa]

What's the port speed on the AP? If it's 1gig then that's your max unless you get a 2.5 or 5ge port on the AP. You can only go as fast as your slowest port.

I can hit 150MB/s on my NWA210AX with a 2.5G port in 160 mode with an ax210 card.

It is connected with a 1 Gbs cable but I run the test with one client uploading and the other downloading and ethernet is full duplex. Still, if I would test with both clients downloading you would expect at least 900 Mbps, not 600.

I also wonder why practically no reviewer tests with more than one client. Does anybody here have a 4x4 access point and two 2x2 clients and achieves at least 1 Gbps combined?

 

[Tech Junky]

Overhead makes a difference. You'll never see those speeds on that device but, a single device should hit a bit higher with a clean channel and 160 bandwidth.

 

[Tech9]

what is the practical benefit of a 4x4 access point above a 2x2 access point?

Better sensitivity and range, more MU-MIMO streams.

 

[shoman94]

Does anybody here have a 4x4 access point and two 2x2 clients and achieves at least 1 Gbps combined?

I can get it with one 2x2 client (Samsung s21) in wifi 6 to my 4x4 AP (nwa210ax @80mhz) or 2 clients... If my core switch was 2.5GbE then I'm could get more.

 

[Metroguy]

U will get 866mbps+ link rate with a 2x2 client if U standing next to router, as that the max possible achievable speed The actual download speed maybe will be lower depending on yr isp plan

 

[sfx2000]

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