Wireless: What is the maximum throughput of wireless?

This FAQ isn't directly related to pfSense, rather it applies to wireless on all platforms, from any
vendor. Jim Thompson (netgate.com) posted the following (with some edits from me) to the list on
December 2, 2005.
The overhead in wireless isn't limited to beaconing and CSMA/CA. The largest 'overhead' is that the
802.11 MAC can't keep the air "full". There are delays due to turn around (for ACKs), overheads
due to the preamble and headers, etc. 802.11g has a further requirement for "protecting"
existing 802.11b clients by sending a CTS frame prior to sending the data frame (though this can be
disabled).
In theory (and I stress *theory*) the performance of 802.11's PHYs over TCP, with 1500 byte frames
(802.11 allows larger frame sizes, but Ethernet does not) expressed in terms of maximum thoughput
for a single pair of stations (or a STA and an AP, if you prefer) looks like this:
802.11b: 5.6Mbps
802.11a 27.3Mbps
802.11g (no protection frames) 27.3 Mbps
802.11g (with CTS protection frames) 13.0Mbps
And, you'll find that as you add users to an AP, the throughput does not fall-off linearly with each
new associated station.
In theory the 'turbo' modes can get you 2X this, but sending twice the signal through the PA means
that not only does tx power get pulled back, but the rx sensitivity drops, and the likelyhood of an
error sufficient to destroy the modulation envelope goes up as well. You will find that
you can't get as many frames through (undamaged) running 'turbo' as you can with the same
"standard" modulation rate.
802.11e offers an alternative MAC which can eliminate some of the 'dead spaces' in 802.11's
standard DCF MAC. This can increase performance
quite a bit. (And, in keeping this "on" the subject of pfSense, pfSense should be able to support this
newer MAC, though I need to go see if
there is a way to enable it.)
The Atheros chipsets also support compression of the datastream, and something called "fast
frames" where the intra-frame protocol is changed
to reduce overheads as well.
If you put it all together, and have near-perfect conditions, (and the moon is in the correct phase) a
pair of Atheros cards can stream data (say, a ton of zeros) back and forth around 90Mbps using
TCP. Cut the compression out and this falls to around 65Mbps. Cut turbo and this falls to around
33Mbps. See above for throughputs without frame
bursting and "fast frames".
Of course, at short range required to actually see 90Mbps, you might as well use an Ethernet cable.
The real news here is that, with a bit of work (say to add the 4-address frame support that madwifi
currently enjoys) pfSense should be able to 'bridge' across wireless with 30Mbps or more at
Page 1/2
(c) 2007 <>
URL: http://faq.pfsense.org/index.php?action=artikel&cat=12&id=112&artlang=en

Wireless: What is the maximum throughput of wireless?

reasonable distances. This is a marked improvement over the current situation.
Unique solution ID: #1099
Author: Chris Buechler
Last update: 2005-12-27 20:57

Page 2/2
(c) 2007 <>
URL: http://faq.pfsense.org/index.php?action=artikel&cat=12&id=112&artlang=en