Wireless N questions

[Hopeless]

I'm seeing routers and adapters labeled as say 300+300 or N600 for example.

Does that mean that if both ends have this config that it will actually use both frequency bands at the same time to achieve higher speeds? Or is it just more marketing speak and they only use one band or the other at a time?

 

[azazel1024]

I'm seeing routers and adapters labeled as say 300+300 or N600 for example.

Does that mean that if both ends have this config that it will actually use both frequency bands at the same time to achieve higher speeds? Or is it just more marketing speak and they only use one band or the other at a time?

Almost all clients are not concurrent dual band. Most routers and access points these days are concurrent dual band. That means that the routers and access points can have clients connected on both 2.4 and 5GHz and potentially hit those numbers of say 600Mbps, but the clients never will, even if the client is dual radio and 2.4+5GHz capable.

There are a small handful of bridges, routers and access points that support high speed wireless bridging where they can bridge a wired connection using both bands at the same time with another bridge/router/access point that supports the same thing. I just am not aware of a single client that can connect on both bands simultaneously.

Also keep in mind, the 600Mbps is RAW rate of both bands combined, not the actual data payload rate. On 11n you lose about 40% to overhead and data correction making the absolute MAXIMUM possible speed about 60% of the stated. That is with a really good client and router, close to each other with no interference.

For example, I have an N300 router and I see around 180Mbps absolute max on my laptop (Intel 7260AC card in it, no competing networks, close to the router).

5GHz 11n versus 2.4GHz 11n tends to be a little faster if you are close to the router, but that is a combination of 5GHz radios tending to be a little better, fewer competing/interfering wifi networks and fewer interfering devices (IE wireless phones, microwaves, other potential emitters). Still roughly the same max speed after overhead.

 

[Hopeless]

Ok, I haven't paid much attn to wifi since setting up some g routers many years ago.

The router I'll be buying at the end of the month says 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Concurrent Dual-Band (RT-N66U).

The adapter I'm looking at for my desktop doesn't come out and say concurrent so I take it that it's not but it has blurbs saying
* Up to 300+300Mbps Wireless Data Rates
* Dual-stream (2x2), dual-band, 802.11a/g/n
* (300 Mbps is based on the theoretical maximum bandwidth enabled by 1x1 802.11n implementations with 1 spatial stream


So is the router using the concurrent dual-band to have the lab rated speed of 450+450 / N900 ? Or is that coming from something else?

If the client adapter isn't concurrent where is the 300+300 rating coming from?

I'm probably missing things due to all the added features that n has over g besides just raw speed ratings.

 

[JackMDS]

When one says that a Car has an engine of 500 Horse Power (HP)!

That does not mean that there is a stable with 500 Horses under the Hood.

It also does not mean that cars is necessarily faster the a 300 HP Car.

The speeds of the cars is also depending on the Tires the Aero-dynamic of the body, the road that it is going on, the skill of the driver, etc.

500 HP is a physical power unit rating the Torque of the Engine output to the driving shaft.

300 Mb/sec. mean that the chipset on the Wireless card is Lab rated for being capable to run at a 300Mb/sec. it is conceptually similar to the 500 HP Torque of an engine.

This card wiil be able to function well with a Good Router.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833106192

 

[Blastman]

If the client adapter isn't concurrent where is the 300+300 rating coming from?

You can have a computer using the wireless n 2.4GHz connected to the router at 300mbps and another computer connected using wireless n 5.0GHz at 300mbps at the same time = 300+300.

Netgear Simultaneous Dual Band