WiFi Bandwidth?

[DaiShan]

Ok, maybe I am hoplessly confused, but isn't 11mbps ~ 1100k/sec? I am using WiFi between 3 computers, with a wireless router, and my PDA, however the fastest transfer rate I can get between them is around 150k/sec, even though all of them are set to only transfer at 11mbps, and link quality is classified as excellent. Is this the norm, or is there a way to speed it up? I'm trying to stream music via WiFi to my PDA (jornada 568) using pocketlan, I get around 45-55k/sec with this(which is ok, it only skips occasionally) as opposed to the 175 when I am trying to transfer files across the network. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

In reality 802.11b provide 4 to 6Mb/sec. = 4000Kb/sec to 6000Kb/sec. = 500KB/sec. to 750KB/sec.

Your system seems to be in trouble.

 

[cmetz]

DaiShan, your application is at least part of the problem -- why does streaming music work at 55k/s while file transfer work at 175k/s -- it's likely the application's fault.

802.11b has a peak rate of 11Mb/s, and that is basically never ever achievable. First off, it has to drop the rate down if there's adverse signal conditions in order to keep a SNR margin, and that first drop happens pretty quickly (so you're likely really running at 5Mb/s or so). Second, it's a half duplex medium, with a lot of protocol chatter that happens, and the protocol chatter is slow and user data can't be carried while it's going on. So in practice, 802.11b should be expected to deliver about 1-2Mb/s usably when all is said and done. Maybe more under optimal/synthetic circumstances, but it's what happens in practice that matters.

 

[Soybomb]

I don't consider myself to know all that much about 802.11b but all the stuff I've played with I get about 4-7Mb/s throughput. 1-2 seems to be selling it a bit short if you have a strong signal I think.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
In reality 802.11b provide 4 to 6Mb/sec. = 4000Kb/sec to 6000Kb/sec. = 500KB/sec. to 750KB/sec.

Your system seems to be in trouble.

Any ideas on what I can do to get more out of it? I just did a clean install of 2k advanced server on that machine, and all of the computers are running the latest drivers for the adapters, as well as the same (and latest) firmware for the adapters. Anyone know the limitations of the CF type I slot? That doesn't explain my 1-2mbit transfers on the pc network, but I would like to be able to guage the maximum speed for the PPC. Thanks for the replies.