1. The Ultimate Wi-Fi “Stress Test”
Taking Industry-Leading APs to their Breaking Point

2. Test Overview
Keith Parsons
Managing Director
o Conceived and performed by Wireless
LAN Professionals, based in Orem, UT
o Vendor-agnostic WLAN integrators and consultants
o Enterprise WLAN design and deployment specialists
Wi-Fi Stress Test developed to determine:
1. The breaking point at which a given access point fails
2. How and why similar access points perform differently
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3. Testing Goals VENDOR PARTICIPANTS
o Stress test industry-leading
Wi-Fi APs for capacity 1
o 16 APs from 7 different WLAN suppliers
o Use typical devices and applications 2
o iPads, MacBook Pros, etc.
o Keep testing real world using 3
standard test tools
o Make tests repeatable 4
o Eliminate any unfair vendor advantages
o eg. Ruckus BeamFlex
5
o Maintain complete independence 6
o No vendor donations or underwriting
o No vendor influence over testbed
o Vendors present for all testing 7
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4. Testing Methodology
32‟ x 28‟
portable
classroom
donated by
Canyons
School
District
(-3dB walls)
o No load throughput baseline established
o FTP file transfer (600MB file up and down) to server
o iPerf run (20 seconds) using default TCP setting
o Capacity test: 5 iPads at a time added until AP breaks
(Breakpoint = 50% of clients freeze or FTP download exceeds 20 minutes)
o Video test focused on client experience APs restricted to
o Video freezes count as error, video restarted 20MHz wide channels,
o At 10 errors, iPad counts as „dead‟; video restarted 2.4GHz (11) and
5GHz (36) used
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5. Test Process
1-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25
FTP client
602MB
FTP iPerf Video ACCESS POINT UNDER TEST 3x3:3
Server Server Server
1. Unicast HD video streams initialized on iPads
iPerf client
o iPad count increased by 5 per round
o First round is baseline - 0 iPads and no video
2. Add ‘throughput’ traffic (one case at a time)
o FTP download of 600 MB to MacBook Pro
o FTP upload of 600 MB from MacBook pro
o iPerf on MacBook Pro – 20 seconds, default TCP settings
3. Repeat for 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 iPads
o NB – no AP succeeded with 30 iPads
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6. Results at a Glance
AVG. TCP THROUGHPUT
20 Highest, most reliable performance
18 Ruckus 7982 Cisco 2602i
16 HP 430
Cisco 3602i Xirrus 4820
14
Aruba 135
12 Juniper 532 Aerohive HP 460
AP330 Aruba 105
10 Meraki MR24
Aerohive AP121
8 Meraki MR16
Linksys
6 EA4500 Ubiquiti
UniFi Pro
4
2
Lowest, least reliable performance
0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
VIDEO ERRORS
WI-FI STRESS TEST

7. A Clear Winner: ZoneFlex 7982
ZoneFlex 7982 receives top marks for the HIGHEST aggregate
TCP throughput with the LOWEST number of video errors
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8. Average Throughput Results
AVERAGE TCP THROUGHPUT
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Ruckus Cisco Xirrus Cisco Aruba Juniper Aruba
HP 430 Aerohiv HP 460
7982 2602i 4820 3602i 135 532 105
e AP330
average tput 18.27 17.87 16.78 13.98 13.95 13.76 13.47 13.2 12.52 10.08
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9. 9
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0
Ruckus 7982
WI-FI STRESS TEST
Ruckus 7363
Lower
Juniper 532 is better
Cisco 3602i
Aerohive AP121
HP 430
VIDEO ERRORS (bad)
Aerohive AP330
Cisco 2602i
HP 460
Lowest Video Transmission Errors
Xirrus 4820

10. Why Did Ruckus Fair Better?
ANSWER: BeamFlex Statistical Optimization
o AP with statistically higher data rates faired best
o BeamFlex always optimizes for performance
o Constantly is picking the highest PHY data rate for any given client
because it uniquely supports the “degrees of freedom” to do so
o Antenna pattern + rate control = BeamFlex algorithm
o Environment changes: people move, obstacles change and interference
comes and goes
o Statistical sampling is essential for high data rates
o Sampling quickly narrows in on statistically optimal pattern + data rate
o Sampling quickly adapts to changes
o Drives related features – packet scheduler, ChannelFly
o Superior band steering implementation
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11. More Information
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