With VDSL, Wi-Fi Is Now The Bottleneck

Interesting to see how the bottleneck of my Internet connection at home has been shifting recently. With my new 25 MBit/s VDSL connection I am having difficulties shuffling peak data rates over my Wi-Fi network. So far with a 6 MBit/s ADSL connection that was no problem even for my notebook with a 802.11g adapter and a throughput of 21 MBit/s under the best of conditions.

For a 25 MBit/s downlink and 5 MBit/s uplink, however, that's not enough anymore. I've upgraded to 802.11n but even so I find it difficult to really squeeze the 25 MBit/s out of the wireless link. The 2.4 GHz band is quite crowded and the Wi-Fi access point is in another room so I don't get the signal conditions necessary for the highest transmission rates. I've tried the 5 GHz band that both the access point and the notebook support but the attenuation of the walls between my office and the router make the throughput even worse.

On the other hand, you first need to find a host on the Internet that delivers data at such high speed. In practice to really saturate the line several things need to go on in parallel. Not too difficult with kids using the connection, too I suppose…

3 thoughts on “With VDSL, Wi-Fi Is Now The Bottleneck”

  1. What’s even more interesting, I found that many inexpensive WIRED internet access routers become a bottleneck when you have an internet connection that is faster than 10-20 Mbps. I found a useful router performance rating chart at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/ , but note that these numbers should be taken as a relative measure, not as an absolute one. In real life you’ll get lower speeds due to things like encryption, so the rule of thumb is to choose a router that is rated for a speed that is several times bigger than you need.

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