RAX80 speed tests with an AX/AC clients and some interesting findings

[mjc775]

Early this morning I did some speed tests with my Netgear RAX80 (FW 1.0.1.70_), iPhone 11 Pro Max (AX client), and Pixel 3 (AC client). I chose early morning to help minimize interference and noise from nearby network traffic particularly on the 2.4 Ghz network - however both should be minimal since I've manually set Channel 3 as the best for me to use based on WiFi analyzer apps.

Testing environment
Tests were performed in a marked location with the clients placed horizontally near the edge of a table. The 10' location is in the same room and line-of-sight to the router, the 25' location is in a hallway with 1 sheetrocked wall obstructing the signal, the 50' test is in a bedroom with 2 sheetrocked walls obstructing.

Interent service is Charter Spectrum Ultra, where I get about 460 Mbps download on a wired connection.

Wireless channel bandwidths are 20 Mhz on 2.4 Ghz, 80 Mhz on 5 Ghz. MU-MIMO is disabled due to poorer speeds noticed in prior testing.

Interesting findings

• With AX Mode disabled, on 2.4 Ghz the iPhone 11 speed varies dramatically during the test - often quickly reaching top speed, but then slowing then recovering to the final mediocre speed. I did a screen recording which I will post if anyone is interested in watching it. Basically it shows a test initially jumping to around 85, dropping to around 2, the ultimately going back up to about 65. This up-down-up behavior doesn't happen on 5 Ghz, nor 2.4 Ghz with AX enabled. Thoughts on why this is happening on the iPhone?
• With AX Mode enabled, the AX client clearly outperforms the AC client on 2.4 Ghz.
• On the same-room tests on Pixel 3, on 5 Ghz speeds notably vary during the test. I'm guessing this is due to strong multipath signals. That didn't happen on the iPhone.
• My former router was the Netgear R7000. I don't recall ever breaking above 100 Mbps on 2.4 Ghz, so clearly the RAX80 provides some benefits over an AC router even for the AC client. I'm not sure if it's due to more MIMO, better implicit beamforming, ?? Thoughts?

 

[Enthusiast]

802.11AC does not exist on 2.4 GHz. When using your old router on 2.5 GHz woud were using compatibility in 802.11n.

802.11ax deos work on 2.4GHz and 5.x GHz. Did you use a 20MHz channel in your test ?

 

[thiggins]

What application were you using to run your test?

11ax does provide benefit in 2.4 GHz for 11ax devices due to link rates about 2X higher.
See https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...-fi-6-performance-roundup-five-routers-tested

 

[mjc775]

802.11AC does not exist on 2.4 GHz. When using your old router on 2.5 GHz woud were using compatibility in 802.11n.

802.11ax deos work on 2.4GHz and 5.x GHz. Did you use a 20MHz channel in your test ?

Ah yes. While testing 2.4 GHz (20 MHz channel), my old router must’ve been 802.11n, and on my Pixel 3 it must be using 802.11n as well.


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[mjc775]

What application were you using to run your test?

11ax does provide benefit in 2.4 GHz for 11ax devices due to link rates about 2X higher.
See https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...-fi-6-performance-roundup-five-routers-tested

I used the Speedtest app. Here’s some of the results that made it to the chart.

Thanks for the links to your testing - will check it out.


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[mjc775]

For those interested, here’s the screen recording showing the widely variable speed during tests while my iPhone 11 Pro Max is connected to my RAX80 in 802.11n mode. All other modes (ac & ax) quickly jump to max speeds and stay there for the duration of the test. It appears to be an issue with the iPhone because this behavior doesn’t happen with my Pixel 3.

Unfortunately when connected to public WiFi, I don’t have a choice on what mode/band my phone can connect to.


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