Question Can a router that receives 1GB of internet transmit WIFI at 3GB?

[roynany]

Can a router that receives 1GB of internet transmit WIFI at 3GB?

Routers list speeds for their WIFI as 3 GB or 4 GB
But what is that worth if the internet line speed is 1 GB?

 

[mikeymikec]

(Assuming for a second that a mainstream WiFi device can actually handle >1GB/sec in a real-world situation... I doubt it)

Two scenarios I can think of where "higher speed" WiFi routers might play a useful role:

1) If you have multiple users wanting to download at high speed off the 1GB connection, a router capable of higher speed transfers can *probably* handle this scenario better (assuming that it has multiple aerials so it can receive and transmit in full duplex)
2) If you have multiple devices on the local network and you want to transfer data internally as fast as possible (at which point I would ask "why aren't you using ethernet?")

 

[JackMDS]

If you have 10 Burgers in your car and you drive them home at 40 Mph you get home with 10 Burgers.

If you drive home at 60 Mph you get to home faster but you still have only10 Burgers.

 

[iamgenius]

The WiFi link between your device and router/AP can be > 1Gbps, but the real internet speed can't exceed 1 Gbps because that's what's provided by the router. In other words, if you use your WiFi network to do local file transfer you can get higher than 1 Gbps theoretically, but if you use this same device to download files from different websites, you can't exceed the speed given by your ISP (i.e. 1Gbps).

 

[mindless1]

Can a router that receives 1GB of internet transmit WIFI at 3GB?

Routers list speeds for their WIFI as 3 GB or 4 GB
But what is that worth if the internet line speed is 1 GB?

What router? What data rate can it sustain with client to client transfers on the lan, when benchmarking that? "Up to" wifi speeds are less in real life and based on concurrent connections adding up to the total.

You don't need the router's max to match the ISP plan max, better to have a router rated for higher than the ISP plan rate, within reason... I wouldn't pay a premium if you won't need the extra performance for a few years, at which point it may be time to upgrade the router again and save some money in the mean time. For most people the more significant factor is wifi coverage area, weak SNR causing lower wifi performance.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Also to expand on what mindless1 said, the WiFi part of the network is shared bandwidth between all devices within range (not just limited to "your" devices, but "any" WiFi device that is transmitting on the same channels). Most WiFi now uses multiple channels for providing higher bandwidth, and as such that means it is more likely that you will be sharing one or more channels with other devices owned by other people who are nearby. All the radios within the area that are operating on the same channel need to slow down to the slowest devices on the channel as only one device can reasonably transmit at the same time (beamforming and mu-mimo doesn't really help with this, as it simply uses the the multiple antennas and radio chains to try and listen/transmit better to the locations that you have client devices, but that still does not prevent other wifi devices from transmitting in the area that overlaps your locations).

So, long story short, due to the shared bandwidth of the wifi network, you really want a wifi network that is capable of multiple times total bandwidth of the individual devices connected to it due to all the time based multi-plexing that occurs as the devices sit and wait while other devices transmit and need to handle re-transmitting when a collision occurs when two wifi radios broadcast at the same time on the same channel.

 

[Garion]

Can a router that receives 1GB of internet transmit WIFI at 3GB?

Routers list speeds for their WIFI as 3 GB or 4 GB
But what is that worth if the internet line speed is 1 GB?

Your wifi can be used for more than just connecting to the Internet. If you do video editing, for example, you would probably have a home server that stores all of your video content. If you have a 3 Gb/s wifi, you can transfer data from your server to your editing machine at 3 Gb/s. (Granted, most people wouldn't use Wifi for that and would likely have 10Gb/s NIC's connected to a switch, but the idea works)

Think of your home network as if it was a small city of its own, with local streets, etc. Your Internet connection is like the onramp to the freeway system. You might have a lot of traffic within your town that never goes to the the freeway.

 

[mindless1]

^ Even the best wifi 7 routers on the market, will not achieve data transfer of 3Gb/s, that's an "up to" # depending on concurrent client access. Real per-client throughput is more like 1.8Gb/s or lower the further away the client.