802.11a saves the day
Since the 55AG uses a second generation 11a Atheros radio, I was hoping it might provide the higher speed that the 11g radio didn't deliver. Figure 13 shows that I wasn't disappointed.
Figure 13: 802.11a throughput
(click on the image for a full-sized view)
The plots show a top throughput of around 20Mbps, lower throughput variation, and decent performance even at my longer-range test locations. The performance wasn't as good, though, as what I saw with the NETGEAR WAB102 / WAG511 combination shown in Figure 14.
Figure 14: 802.11a throughput - NETGEAR WAB102 and WAG511
(click on the image for a full-sized view)
The only explanation I can offer for the 55AG's inferior performance is its single-antenna / non-diversity design, since the radios in both products are essentially the same.
I didn't run any Turbo mode tests, since Linksys chose not to provide that feature. I did, however, check WEP-enabled performance, and, as I expected, found performance virtually identical to that with WEP disabled.
802.11a Wireless Performance Test Results
| Test Conditions
| Firmware/Driver Versions AP f/w: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test Description | Signal Quality (%) | Transfer Rate (Mbps) | Response Time (msec) | UDP stream | |
| Throughput (kbps) | Lost data (%) | ||||
| Client to AP - Condition 1 | 0 | 8.6 [No WEP] 7.9 [w/ WEP] | 4 (avg) 16 (max) | 494 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 2 | 0 | 6.9 | 2 (avg) 9 (max) | 475 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 3 | 0 | 6.3 | 2 (avg) 8 (max) | 485 | 0 |
| Client to AP - Condition 4 | 0 | 5.3 | 6 (avg) 28 (max) | 495 | 0 |