I’ve been experimenting with WiFi access points in the past few weeks and have tested the performance of the wireless link. The max speed of 802.11 n (most of my devices are n devices with a few ac and even a g device or two) is 300 Mbps or 450 Mbps depending on the number of antennas. That may sound fast, but actual performance is a lot less than that and in my testing, I was able to get about 225 Mbps using Iperf. Usually I can get between 50 and 150 Mbps. That should be plenty fast enough to max out many Internet connections; I currently pay for 50 Mbps down/5 Mbps up.
At the end of November, Time Warner Cable should be rolling out its MAXX service here in San Diego and will have a maximum speed of 300 Mbps down/20 Mbps up. I’ll be opting for 200/20 which will lower my bill each month at the same time quadrupling my Internet speed. So where does that put me? That would put my wireless link at about the same speed as my Internet service! I really didn’t think this day would come where the airlink can’t keep up with my Internet. Of course all these speeds are theoretical and performance will varying depending on conditions, but it now becomes even more important to tune my WiFi network in order to get the most performance out of it otherwise I could be paying for Internet speeds that I can’t use.