MIMO OFDM

Space Time Coding Spatial Multiplexing Increasing Performance and Spectral Efficiency in Wireless Systems Part I Technical Basis

Part II Draft-N (IEEE 802.11n) Performance Measurements of Practical Implementations at the Institut fr Rundfunktechnik (Institute for Broadcast Technologies)
Hermann Lipfert, August 2007 Broadcast Networks and Servers

1 2

Summary........................................................................................................ 3 Comparative Measurements at IRT ............................................................... 4 2.1 Measurement Layout ............................................................................. 5 2.2 Pre-n Products....................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Belkin MIMO Pre-n .................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Linksys MIMO Pre-n .................................................................. 11 2.2.3 Buffalo MIMO Pre-n................................................................... 12 2.2.4 D-Link MIMO Pre-n.................................................................... 13 2.2.5 Netgear Pre-n "RangeMax" ....................................................... 14 2.2.6 Edimax MIMO Pre-n .................................................................. 16 2.2.7 Level One MIMO Pre-n.............................................................. 17 SMC Barricade MIMO Pre-n ................................................................ 18 2.3 Differences in throughput by choosing different security methods ...... 19 2.4 Draft-n 1.0 Products............................................................................. 20 2.4.1 Linksys MIMO Draft-n................................................................ 22 2.4.2 Trendnet MIMO Draft-n ............................................................. 22 2.4.3 Netgear Draft-n.......................................................................... 24 2.4.4 Buffalo Draft-n ........................................................................... 27 2.5 Some detailed measurement results of a Draft-n-Product................... 28 2.5.1 Trendnet: TCP with Line-of-Sight .............................................. 28 2.5.2 Trendnet: Triple-Play measurements - Test Execution ............. 30

3 4

A concrete example : pre-n versus Draft-n................................................... 33 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 34

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

Summary

First implementations of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology in conjunction with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in next-generation Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) show a significant increase in performance and spectral efficiency in comparison to previous WLAN systems. MIMO-OFDM also presents an exciting solution for improving the air interface performance for Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN) that have been set up based on the international standard Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and for fourth-generation (4G) mobile cellular wireless systems. In January 2006 the US standard-setting body, IEEE, approved a proposal of the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) IEEE working group as IEEE-802.11n Proposal Draft. This proposal required for the first time that MIMO-OFDM technology shall be used in wireless communications (in addition to numerous other innovations). In the first and second quarters of 2006 the first so-called pre-n WLAN products were already appearing on the market. The core of these products are the highly integrated MIMO chipsets from Airgo Networks Inc. and Ralink technology Corp. The IRT (www.irt.de) compared eight of these products with each other and with a standard 802.11g product. The first "draft-n" products have been available since the third quarter of 2006 after the acceptance of a new IEEE 802.11n draft. The basic difference between pre-n and draft-n is in the fact that only the latter can be updated to the IEEE 802.11n standard (presumably ratified not until mid-2009) by means of firmware and driver updates alone, without having to tamper with the hardware. Moreover, draft-n works towards raising transmission capacity by further increasing the number of sending and receiving antennas and towards establishing cross-manufacturer methods for securing minimum quality of service (QoS). Draft-n-compatible chipsets are offered by the companies Broadcom Corp., Atheros Communications Inc., Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and MIPS Technologies Inc. The IRT has conducted and is conducting performance measurements on the latest draft-n 2.0 products available on the market (see Report Part II http://www.irt.de/en/themengebiete/digitale-netze/mimo-ofdm.html and [13]).

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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Comparative Measurements at IRT

The Institut fr Rundfunktechnik (IRT) has conducted and is conducting performance measurements on the latest pre-n and draft-n products available on the market (see also www.tomsnetworking.de ). A real comparison of the new technologies with the existing 802.11g standard can be made only if all measurements are performed at channel bandwidths of 20 MHz that is without channel bonding. Unfortunately, several implementations do not allow the restriction of the sending spectrum to one WLAN channel. In selecting the sending location and the different receiving locations, it was ensured that all site situations that occur in practice were mapped against each other as far as possible. The measurements were performed in a two-dimensional area, in other words on one floor of the building. For the duration of the measurement, all other access points in the measurement range were switched off or converted to sending channels whose spectral masks do not overlap in any way with the spectral masks of the measurement channel. Figure 1 shows the floor plan. The location of the MIMO router is shown in green. There are in total seven locations and a measurement laptop with the corresponding MIMO PC card was placed at each one. The separating walls of the individual rooms, as can be seen from the floor plan, consist of brickwork about 15 centimetres thick and four fire protecting walls constructed out of poured concrete 30 centimetres thick. The damping of these fire barriers thus corresponds to the damping provided by conventional concrete ceilings or floors or two layers of thermal double glazing.

Measurement locations (LOS, LOC1...6) MIMO Wireless LAN

Beton

Standort MIMO AP

concrete

Beton

Loc4

LOS Loc5 Loc6

Loc3

Loc2

Loc1

concrete

concrete

concrete concrete

Wall thickness (brick + plaster) about 15 cm Wall thickness concrete about 30 cm Steel cabinets in many rooms

Figure 1: The WLAN measurement environment at the IRT on the upper floor of building 17B, with its concrete and brick walls and book shelves with glass doors, represents a good model of the real conditions of European, and in particular German, construction.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

2.1

Measurement Layout

The MIMO-AP was placed at a height of about 1.8 meters at the spatial position that can be seen in Figure 1. The measurement locations of the MIMO laptops were each at about one meter above the floor. A measurement location was located in the sending room at a three-meter distance with direct line of sight (LOS); all other six measurement locations were non-line-of-sight locations (NLOS). A view of the building plan shows that wave propagation in the 2.4 GHz range within the floor is marked with manifold dispersions and reflections. Since the send signal reaches the recipient at NLOS in the most varied and indirect ways, this automatically leads to phase displacements and variable weakening of the individual signals. The overlapping of the individual signals at the receiving location (Figure 2) leads to signal fall-offs that fluctuate over time and frequency (multipath fading). However, these negative effects of multipath fading in SISO systems can be turned to a positive by using space time coding or spatial multiplexing in MIMO OFDM systems.

Multipath

Scattering

Reflection

WLAN

Receive

Figure 2: Principle of multipath propagation

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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Figure 3 shows the measurement equipment used. The measurement software "IxChariot from IXIA was used. This software is designed for professional performance and QoS measurement based on protocols such as TCP or UDP.

IxChariot Console

IxChariot Endpoint 1

MIMO WLAN 802.11Draft-n 802.11 pre-n

Laptop PC With MIMO card

IxChariot Endpoint 2

Figure 3: The measurement equipment for the MIMO measurements at IRT consists of a Gigabit Ethernet switch, to which the WLAN access point to be tested is connected, a laptop with the counterpart to be tested the WLAN client card, as well as another laptop on which the measurement software is running. [Independently of this system, a third laptop with WLANadapter monitors the WLAN spectrum.]

Channel 13 was selected for the measurement. However, for purposes of comparison each product was randomly tested again on channel 6. There were no noteworthy changes in the results. The MIMO PC card to be measured was inserted into a Siemens/Fujitsu Lifebook (model S7010D S-Series Centrino). Random measurements were repeated and compared here as well, using a Samsung X10 laptop. The results of the measurement were not dependent on the laptop used here either. Windows XP Professional with current patches was used as the operating system in all PCs.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

The driver and utility software for each individual MIMO PC card was installed on the respective measurement laptop from the accompanying software CD and deinstalled after completion of the measurements. Prior to the draft-n measurements conducted in November/December 2006, the then most current firmware for the MIMO-WLAN router and the most current driver and utilities for the MIMO client cards were installed from the respective manufacturer websites. The individual measurements with the first five pre-n products took place in the first quarter of 2006. The products which were available at the end of the 2nd quarter, and the draft-n products which were available in the 4th quarter of 2006, and the draft-n 2.0 products which were available during the 2nd quarter of 2007 are shown and discussed in detail in this Part II of the report. Finally a Part III will be available on the IRT Web Server. This Part shows the newest most udated measurements with Draft-n 2.0 products available on the market. All measurements are done according to the strict defined and crucial testing conditions specified by IRT together with the tomsnetworking guys from germany (www.tomsnetworking.de). Part II is available and Part III will be available from October 2008 in an always updated version at the IRT web-server: http://www.irt.de/en/themengebiete/digitale-netze/mimo-ofdm.html)

TCP performance measurements were conducted at all seven locations. The transmission direction was "downstream", in accordance with the expected applications, that is, directed from the access point to the client. Each individual measurement lasted three minutes and each one was performed three times. Bar graphs show the average values from the three measurements in each location (and this is an average of 9 minutes length of time which means IRT examined very carefully). By using the newest version of the measurement software, IxChariot (V6.4), test transmissions could be done on the pre-n, draft-n 1.0/2.0 products themselves especially using the High Performance Throughput script which is provided by IxChariot. This script is perfectly suited for doing comparative measurements of maximum TCP performance over certain kinds of networks. With predefined scripts from IxChariot also IPTV streaming, MPEG2 video streaming and VoIP measurements can be done and highlighted according to quality criteria such as delay and jitter. Several SD- and HDTV streaming measurements were carried out as well at the IRT using data rates reaching from 4Mbps up to 20Mbps per stream (these measurements and graphs are not added to the report Part II but were carried out in a diploma thesis in 2007 at IRT).

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.2

Pre-n Products

Table 1 and Table 2 show the Pre-n products tested by IRT.

Manufacturer Model APRouter Model ClientCard ChipManufacturer Concept of Improvement

Netgear

WPN 824 RangeMax Airstation WZR-G108 F5D8230-4

WPN 511 RangeMax Airstation WLI-CB-G108 F5D8010

Atheros Video54 Airgo Networks Airgo AGN-103 Airgo Networks Airgo AGN-103 Atheros AR5005VL (Super-G) Airgo Networks Airgo AGN-103

ChannelBonding Beamforming Spatial Multiplexing Spatial Multiplexing ChannelBonding Spatial Multiplexing Spatial Multiplexing

Buffalo

Belkin

D-Link

DI-634M

DWL-G650M

Linksys Table 1:

WRT54GX SRX400

WPC54GX SRX400

first test session of Pre-n-MIMO-products

Manufacturer

Model APRouter

Model ClientCard

ChipManufacturer

Concept of Improvement

Edimax

BR-6216Mg(G)

EW-7608Pg

Ralink RT2529 RT2661 Ralink RT2529 RT2661 Ralink RT2529 RT2661

Spatial Multiplexing

Level One

WBR-5400

WPC-0500

Spatial Multiplexing

SMC Barricade

SMCWBR14GM

SMCWCB-GM

Spatial Multiplexing

Table 2:

second test session of Pre-n-MIMO-products

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

Standard-IEEE-802.11g-Referece: Funkwerk Artem W1000

Figure 4: the model Artem W1000 from Funkwerk AG - CPD-XT-g.

In order to compare performance of the new MIMO-products with a standard 802.11g product, the TCP performance measurements were conducted at all seven depicted measurement locations, applying the same criteria as in the later MIMO measurements. These reference results are shown in Figure 5. For this purpose the access point, Artem W1000 from Funkwerk, which is equipped with two antennas, came into operation.

Standard 11g AP mit WPA-TKIP

25

20

15 Standard 11g AP mit WPA-TKIP 10

0 LOS 3m Ort 1 ca.12m Ort 2 Ort 3 ca.16m ca.16m Ort 4 ca.18m Ort 5 Ort 6 ca.28m ca.40m

Figure 5: standard 802.11g WLAN Access-Point Artem W1000 from Funkwerk with its TCP/IP throughput at 7 different locations

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.2.1

Belkin MIMO Pre-n

Figure 6: Belkin Wireless Pre-N RouterF5D8230-4 with Airgo-Chipsatz AG-103 and 3 antennas

The WLAN-Pre-n-Duo from Belkin, consisting of access point F5D8230-4 and pc card F5D8010, shows no significant performance improvement for LOS and NLOS-close up range, in comparison to the standard WLAN G reference product. However for reaching locations 2 through 6, which are subject to high attenuation and fading, the employed MIMO technique from Airgo Networks shows highly improved throughput rates due to multipath receiving (Figure 7). For location 5 the measured TCP throughput stays constant above 10 Mbps. The structure of the Belkin access point equals exactly the Pre-n-routers of Linksys, as shown in the Test of Tom's Networking Guide Germany. [11]

25

Belkin
20

15 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 10 Belkin Wireless Pre-N MIMO WPA-TKIP

0 LOS 3m Ort 1 ca.12m Ort 2 ca.16m Ort 3 ca.16m Ort 4 ca.18m Ort 5 ca.28m Ort 6 ca.40m

Figure 7: Belkin-Acces-Point F5D8230-4 with True MIMO and Pre-n-Client-Card F5D8010 reaches higher throughput at location 1 with NLOS than with LOS an evidence for the operation mode spatial multiplexing.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

2.2.2

Linksys MIMO Pre-n

Figure 8: Linksys-Access-Point Linksys WRT54GX SRX 3 antennas and built in Airgo-Chipsatz AN-103

For the Linksys Duo, consisting of access point Linksys WRT54GX SRX and client PC card WPC54GX SRX, good performance results are measured even in the far field. For location 5 constant 15 Mbps can be obtained in comparison to zero connect ability for 802.11g, which is a demonstrative prove of the functional capability of MIMO technique (Figure 9). These results are also documented by the independently executed measurements from Toms Networking Guide Germany. [13]
25

Linksys
20

15 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 10 Linksys SRX WRT54 GX WPA-TKIP

0 LOS 3m Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m

Figure 9: Pre-n-Duo from Linksys, composed of the Access-Point-Router WRT54GX SRX and Client-PC-Card WPC54GX SRX reaches better throughput than Belkins Pre-n technique with same chipset, Airgo-AG-103, especially at far distances.

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.2.3

Buffalo MIMO Pre-n

Figure 10: MIMO Wireless Cable/DSL Router WZR-G108 from Buffalo AirStation series is another pre-n-equipment comprising theTrue-MIMO-Chipset from Airgo Networks.

While the capability of the Buffalo pre-n-products in the close-up range turns out to be rather moderate, the products demonstrate high throughput in reflection and multipath situations (Figure 11).

25

Buffalo
20

15 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 10 Buffalo Airstation MIMO WPA-TKIP

0 LOS 3m Ort 1 ca.12m Ort 2 Ort 3 ca.16m ca.16m Ort 4 ca.18m Ort 5 ca.28m Ort 6 ca.40m

Figure 11: Buffalo Airstation Router WZR-G108 combined with Airstation WLI-CB-G108 PC-Card pre-n

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

2.2.4

D-Link MIMO Pre-n

The MIMO pair from D-Link (Figure 12) demonstrates very good results in the close up range. Despite suffering from some performance dents in the mid range the overall picture of the D-Link pair exhibits good throughput, also in the far field (Figure 13).

Figure 12: WLAN-Access-Point-Router DI-634M includes two external and two internal sending and receiving antennas for MIMO-mode

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 LOS 3m Ort 1 ca.12m Ort 2 ca.16m Ort 3 ca.16m Ort 4 ca.18m Ort 5 ca.28m Ort 6 ca.40m

D-Link

Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP D-Link 108G MIMO DI-634M ohne Turbo WPA-TKIP

Figure 13: D-Link employs the "Super-G"-Chipset AR5005VL from Atheros. With its pre-n access devices like access point router DI-634M and (pc card?)DWL-G650M it outperforms the Airgo technique even at LOS

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.2.5

Netgear Pre-n "RangeMax"

Figure 14a: Inside Access-Point WPN 824 from Netgear all antennas are fixed. The rotating "clavilux" on top is cosmetic.

Figure 14b: Beneath its animated cover a PCB from Video54 is implemented. With its seven various arranged stripline antennas it also allows beamsteering.

The RangeMax technique from Netgear works with channel bonding and beamforming (Figure 14 a/b). In the close up range channel bonding obviously generates high throughput but only accounting of spectral efficiency. Due to the fact that RangeMaxs channel bonding, which works with 40 MHz bandwidth and therefore allocates two times the original spectral range, is not disengageable, the results of these measurements are not directly comparable with other products results. For completeness reasons the Netgear results are presented in the following. Comparing these results exposes an interesting fact. Neither beamforming nor channel bonding has the capability to keep up with True-MIMO in the far field. This is also proven in tests from Toms Networking Guide Germany. [12]

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 LOS 3m Ort 1 ca.12m Ort 2 ca.16m Ort 3 ca.16m Ort 4 Ort 5 ca.18m ca.28m Ort 6 ca.40m Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP Netgear Range Max WPN 824 WPATKIP Channel-Bonding

Netgear

Figure 15: pre-n-WLAN Netgear Access Point WPN 824 Router from RangeMax series, in combination with PC-Card WPN 511. RangeMax exposes inferior throughput at critical receiving locations compared with True-MIMO products (like Airgo).) The high throughput at LOS and location1 is outcome of Channel bonding and not of MIMO spatial multiplexing. This is accounting of frequency spectrum and therefore the spectral efficiency is not improved.

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.2.6

Edimax MIMO Pre-n

Figure 16: With its pre-n-Router BR-6216Mg Edimaxs focus lies on the MIMO-Chipset from Ralink.

The first tested pair with Ralink chipset was the access point BR-6216Mg(G) in combination with pc card EW-7608PG both from Edimax (Figure16). In the close up range with LOS and NLOS the Edimax pair achieves a throughput which is almost as high as Neatgears RangeMax, only using half the bandwidth. In the far field the Ralink True-MIMO chipset is not able to keep up with the performance of products equipped with Airgo chipset (Figure 17).

35 30 25 20 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 15 10 5 0 LOS Radius 3m Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m Edimax MIMO Wireless Router BR6216MG(G) WPA TKIP

Edimax

Figure 17: Edimax pre-n Access Point BR-6216Mg(G) with PC-Card EW-7608PG is exploiting the spectrum very well in close up range.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

2.2.7

Level One MIMO Pre-n

Figure 18: Level One pre-n Router comprises the MIMO-Chipset from Ralink.

Although the pre-n products WBR-5400 and WPC-0500 from Level One (Figuer 18) are equipped with the same Ralink chipset as the Edimax products, its throughput in the close up range turns out to be smaller. On the other hand Level Ones Ralink performance is almost able to keep up with products employing Airgo True-MIMO chipset in the far field (Figure 19).

30

25

Level One

20

15

Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP Level One MIMO AP Router WBR-5400 WPA-TKIP

10

0 LOS Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius 3m ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m

Figure 19: Pre-n products from Level One with Ralink chipset Access Point WBR-5400 and PC-Card WPC-0500 demonstrate that in the far fieldt its throughput is by far better than Edimaxs Ralink-Chipset offers.

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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SMC Barricade MIMO Pre-n

Figure 20: SMC Barricade Router with Ralink MIMO-Chipset

The SMC-Duo Barricade WBR14-GM and SMCWCB-GM (Figure 20), also equipped with the pren chipset from Ralink demonstrates very good throughput results in close up range. In the mid range its performance values are superior to all other tested competitors but in the far field the throughput clearly falls below 5 Mbps (Figure 21).

35 30 25 20 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 15 10 5 0 LOS 3m Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m SMC Barricade MIMO SMCWBR 14-GM WPA-TKIP

SMC Barricade

Figure 21: access point router SMC Barricade WBR14-GM combined with pc card WCB-GM achieves best results at medium distances.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

2.3

Differences in throughput by choosing different security methods

The performance analyses show that different security settings result in considerable differences in net throughput performance (Figure 22). All measurement tests were performed with the ciphering mode WPA-TKIP (WPA1). In Particular for many pre-n products a proper Hardware support is missing, while it is already existent for mode WPA2-AES. This leads to the issue that WPA-TKIP (preshared key) counts as most critical operate mode, because it still relies on the RC4 algorithm and (at least for all pre-n products in these tests) operates without any Hardware support.

30

25

20

15

Buffalo Airstation MIMO WPA-TKIP Buffalo Airstation MIMO WEP Buffalo Airstation MIMO WPA-AES

10

0 LOS Radius 3m Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m

Figure 22: Different security settings result in different performance used modes WEP, WPA1-RC4, WPA2-AES

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.4

Draft-n 1.0 Products

With high expectations the tests of the first available draft n-products were carried out. Supplied with the chipset Atheros AR 5416, which represents the so called XSPAN-technique, the products are supposed to advance into new performance dimensions. For the first time this TrueMIMO chipset transmits three parallel sub data streams into one channel. All draft-n products tested by the IRT are detailed in table 3.

Manufacturer

Model AP-Router

Model ClientCard

ChipManufacturer

Concept of improvement

Linksys

WRT 300N

WPC 300N

Atheros AR5416 XSPAN

Channel bonding Spatial Multiplexing Channel bonding Spatial Multiplexing UBICOM StreamEngine Technique

Trendnet

TEW-631BRP

TEW-621PC

Atheros AR 5416 XSPAN

Netgear

RangeMax Wireless Router Gigabit Edition WNR854T100ISS

RangeMax Wireless Notebook Adapter WN511T100ISS und RangeMax Wireless SB 2.0 Adapter WN121T100GRS Nfiniti WirelessN Notebook Adapter WLICB-G300N

Marvell Topdog 88W8360

Channel bonding Spatial Multiplexing

Buffalo

Nfiniti WirelessN Router & Access Point WZR-G300N

Broadcom Intensi-fi

Channel bonding Spatial Multiplexing

Table 3: tested draft-n 1.0 MIMO-products

Colourful marketing inscriptions on top of packages, like 12 times faster or 4 times the distance, or up to 300 Mbps, raise highest expectations, concerning performance jumps, compared to standard 802.11 b/g. Even though the IEEE 802.11n standard does not explicitly support Quality of Service (these features were implemented in the IEEE 802.11e standard), the promised performance improvements can add to improved transmission properties. Preceding the passing of the current draft-n standard was a tenacious struggle of two opposing syndicates which lasted for more than a year.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

Only the intervention of the EWC in the end of 2005 brought movement into the effort of achieving a standard. Also the fact that manufacturers are now pushing into the market, shows that (especially the consumer industry) they are interested in and were waiting for improved wireless solutions in the end consumer market. The results the Linksys duo was showing were very disappointing, though. In the beginning the broadband router WRT 300N and its counterpart the pc card WPC 300N together with the provided software on the measurement laptop, were put into operation. In the close up range the measured values stayed even below the 802.11g reference. Indeed the achieved throughput stayed approximately constant for all measured distances. Also with an additional ap/pc card pair no improvement was detectable. The functioning of the MIMO chip is supposedly not working correctly. For the draft-n products the IRT was applying additional streaming tests on UDP (User Datagram Protokol) basis, for the first time. These tests show a slightly better throughput attitude as the TCP tests. A possible explanation for this low performance could be the TCP congestion control with its sliding window mechanism in combination with MIMO. All transmitted sub data streams are recombined into a single data stream at the receiver. In the Transport Layer all TCP packets, which are sent block wise, are receipted with an acknowledgement (ACK) message. In case of a transmission error the ACK message is hold back and the whole packet has to be retransmitted. In the MIMO case a transmission error on only one of the sub data streams leads to a transmission error of the recombined single data stream.

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.4.1

Linksys MIMO Draft-n

Figure 23 : Linksys Draft-n Broadband Router WRT 300N

An update to the current software version (firmware version 2.0.0.17 for the router and software version v2.14.05 respectively driver version 6.0.2.9 for the client card) brought for the Linksys WRT 300N (Figure 23) considerable improvements in the close up range. The hoped for 11n effect still did not kick in, though. The net TCP rate stays at 22 Mbps for LOS and NLOS-close up range. In mid range (location 3) the results vary around 15Mbps and in the far field (location 4 through 6) the transmission rate stabilizes above 6Mbps. Since the disappointing performance in close up range seems much too low, compared to the claims about considerably higher throughputs, by the company side, all tests with Linksys products were discontinued. All comparing tests are going to be repeated with updated Firmware/Software versions from Linksys and will be published in Part III.

2.4.2

Trendnet MIMO Draft-n

Figure 24: With WLAN Access Point Router TEW-631BRP Trendnet implements the StreamEngine from Ubicom which is supposed to reduce transmission delays and jitter during streaming applications like VoIP, video or gaming via a technique of prioritization.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

With access point Trendnet TEW-631BRP and pc card TEW-621 (Figure 24) the performance jump, as expected from the new technique, was finally obvious. In close up range with LOS the throughput was climbing onto more than 60 Mbps and for NLOS at location 1 it still offered 50 Mbps, which was definitely achieved with only one channel bandwidth of 20 MHz not accounting of spectrum (Figure 25). With this capacity the parallel transmission of a few HDTV streams is thinkable. In the physical layer these products work with three parallel transmissions. Unfortunately in the mid range and the far field the results came out rather meager. It seems like a lot of work still needs to be done when it comes to the synchronization of software, firmware and hardware.

Figure 25 : Trendnet Draft-n devices show a top performance at close-up range - LOS and location 1. At mid range and far field the deployed technique does even achieve the pre-n performance.

IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

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2.4.3

Netgear Draft-n

The Netgear RangeMax Wireless Router Gigabit Edition WNR854T (figure 26) was tested in combination with a pc card, as well as a USB2.0 wireless adaper. Testresults can be seen in figure 27 and 28. While testing the Netgear WNR854T Wireless Router and WN121T USB2.0 Client-Adapter the spectrum analyser Laptop Analyzer from Airmagnet detected that the connection is built up with a bandwidth of 40 MHz, for LOS and location 1. For location 2 through 4 the connection is switched to a 20 MHz bandwidth (lower S/N ratio adaptive channel expansion). For location 5 a frequent switching between OFDM and CCK modulation is identifiable by the spectrum displayed on the analyzer. This implies that while still using a 20 MHz bandwidth the SINR is even lower here. For location 6 finally, a higher modulation was used again. Here the SINR seems to be higher than at location 5, which it also was in all other measured cases, for these two locations. The used firmware on the router was version 1.3.44GR. Driver and configuration software was version 1.0.16.319 (31.10.2006). As pc card software, version 2.1.4.3 (4.10.2006) was used and as utility software, version 1.1.8.11 (31.10.2006) installed. The driver version of the USB adapter was 1.0.3.7 (29.09.2006) at time of the measurement.

Figure 26: Netgear Draft-n RangeMax Wireless Router Gigabit Edition WNR854T-100ISS is supposed to build up stable wireless connections via its Steady Stream Technique.

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IRT Broadcast Networks and Servers Hermann Lipfert

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 LOS Radius 3m Ort 1 Radius ca.12m Ort 2 Radius ca.16m Ort 3 Radius ca.16m Ort 4 Radius ca.18m Ort 5 Radius ca.28m Ort 6 Radius ca.40m DraftN Netgear WNR854T - WN511T PCCard im Kanal6, 40MHz-Kanalreite bei LOS und am Ort1, 20 MHZ an den Orten 2-6, WPA TKIP Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP

Figure 27: WNR845T AP in combination with a WN511T pc card. Netgears Draft-n technique comes very close to Ethernet link speed at close-up range...

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 LOS Radius 3m Ort 1 Radius ca.12m Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Radius Radius Radius ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m Ort 5 Ort 6 Radius Radius ca.28m ca.40m DraftN Netgear Router WNR854T mit WN121T USB Adapter 40MHzKanalbreite bei LOS und Ort1, 20MHz Kanalbreite Ort2-Ort5, WPA TKIP Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP

Figure 28: and provides acceptable throughput at mid range with the USB-2.0 adapter WN121T.

The draft-n products from Netgear automatically allocate double the bandwidth (40 MHz) when detecting good SNR values. Unfortunately the user itself may not decide how the available spectrum should be used. The spectral diagrams underline the bandwidth usage at doubled channel width (Figure 29 and 30).

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Figure 29: Used spectrum in case of channnel bonding (almost 40 MHz) like the example for Netgear WNR854T shows

Figure 30: The Trendnet example shows how the spectrum looks like for a 20 MHz channel bandwidth.

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2.4.4

Buffalo Draft-n

With the Buffalo Nfiniti Router WZR-G300N (Figure 31) throughput data rates of over 30Mbps for LOS and 25 Mbps for NLOS at location 1 (20MHz channel) are achieved in combination with client pc card Nfiniti Wireless-N WLI-CB-G300N. These results are not superb but still better than 802.11g. Disappointing results do the Buffalo products show in more critical receiving situations, as for location 3 through 6 (Figure 32). A more interesting comparison to an older Buffalo pre-n product can be seen in the later. The access point WZR-G300N was tested with firmware version 1.44 (1.0.37-1.07-1.03) and the client pc card Nfiniti Wireless-N WLI-CB-G300N with driver version 4.80.17.0 (15.05.2006), both being the newest available software versions at testing time.

Figure 31: Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-N Router & Access Point WZR-G300N exclusively operates in mixed b/g/n-modes ( n-mode alone is not possible).

35 30 25 20 Funkwerk Artem 11g WPA-TKIP 15 Buffalo WZR-G300N mit PC-Card WLI-CBG300N 10 5 0 LOS Radius 3m Ort 1 Radius ca.12m Ort 2 Radius ca.16m Ort 3 Radius ca.16m Ort 4 Radius ca.18m Ort 5 Radius ca.28m Ort 6 Radius ca.40m

Figure 32: Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-n Router WZR-G300N with Client PC-Card Nfiniti Wireless-N WLI-CBG300N. Results are better than for 802.11g in case of LOS and at locations 1 and 2. Performance is meagre in more critical situations like locations 3 through 8.

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2.5 2.5.1

Some detailed measurement results of a Draft-n-Product Trendnet: TCP with Line-of-Sight

Trendnet TEW-632 BRP shows a very high TCP throughput data rate in close up range in cooperation with pc card TEW-621PC. While the average stays over 63.5 Mbps, peak values of around 65 Mbps can be reached (Abbildung 27).

Figure 33: TCP-Throughput Trendnet MIMO Draft-n w LOS.

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Also with NLOS-close up range (location 1) very high performance is achieved (Figure 34).

Figure 34: Comparing TCP-Throughput measurements - Product: Trendnet MIMO at location 1.

Group/ Pair

Average (Mbps)

Minimum (Mbps)

Maximum (Mbps)

Throughput 95% Confidence Interval

Measure d Time (secs)

Relative Precision

Ort1_Messung1.tst All Pairs Pair 1 Ort1_Messung2.tst All Pairs Pair 1 Ort1_Messung3.tst All Pairs Pair 1

56,194 56,194 56,214 55,642 55,642 55,662 53,011 53,011 53,028

36,815 36,815 36,815 46,485 46,485 46,485 13,002 13,002 13,002

59,613 59,613 59,613 58,055 58,055 58,055 58,097 58,097 58,097

0,616

179,314

1,096

0,279

179,657

0,502

2,819

179,529

5,317

Table 4: Three performance measurements at Location1 Product: Trendnet MIMO.

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2.5.2

Trendnet: Triple-Play measurements - Test Execution

The Trendnet TCP throughput measurements gained the highest performance values (for 20 MHz bandwidth) with LOS and at location 1. Exemplary tables and diagrams are listed in the following. These are showing the streaming behavior in the close up range without line of sight (location 1) and in the mid range (location 4). In order to test QoS, Triple Play data streams were used. The baseline group consists of DNS, HTTPtext and NNTP. The second group consists of five MPEG2 video streams which are send downlink. The third group consists of four IPTV streams, of which two are send up- and two are send downlink. A fourth group consists of three bidirectional Voice over IP connections with different codecs (Table 6).

Figure 35 : Throughput Triple-Play at Location1 Product: Trendnet

The MPEG2 streams, each with 3.75 Mbps, are cleanly transmitted without data rate recession (dashed line on the very top of figure 35). The four IPTV streams, each with 1 Mbps, are also operated without errors (straight line at 1 Mbps in figure 35).

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The jitter is staying very low, below 2 ms problems are only faced for values over 50 ms.

Figure 36: Jitter for Triple-Play at location 1 Trendnet .

The MOS values of the VoIP connections are presenting excellent quality at location 1. All values above 4 refer to excellent values on this scale.

Figure 37: MOS-values for VoIP connections at location 1 Trendnet

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The one way delay stays below 4 ms and is therefore exceptionally small.

Figure 38: One-Way Delay location 1 Trendnet

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A concrete example : pre-n versus Draft-n

Pre-n versus Draft-n
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 LOS Ort 1 Ort 2 Ort 3 Ort 4 Ort 5 Ort 6 Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius Radius 3m ca.12m ca.16m ca.16m ca.18m ca.28m ca.40m Buffalo Airstation MIMO pre-n mit AigoChip WPA-TKIP Buffalo Airstation Draft-N WZR-G300N PC-Card WLI-CB-G300N

Figure 39: The knockdown results of a direct comparison: Draft-n 1.0 is only better at close-up range (LOS, LOC1). Nevertheless in the case of difficult sending and receiving conditions the pre-n technique from Airgo is demonstrating by far the best performance.

The blue bars in the diagram show the successfully transmitted data rates of the pre-n chipset whichs market entry was over one year ago. All draft-n products currently available on the market, seem to ignore that this True-MIMO technique from Airgo Networks is achieving a considerable increase in throughput especially in difficult transmit and receive situations. One can only hope that the promising approach from Airgo Networks will also be included into the IEEE 802.11n standard and does not fail due to patent litigations, even after Airgos acquisition through Qualcom. All comparable solutions from the draft-n standard partially stay far behind the expectations.

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Conclusion

Since radio resources are scarce and data rate requirements keep increasing, spectral efficiency is a stringent requirement in present and future wireless communications systems MIMO-OFDM has become a new star in the constellation of wireless and mobile communications. Its potential to increase spectral efficiency has not been reached by any other technology before. In addition to increasing spectral efficiency, MIMO can also be used to reduce transmitting power while keeping coverage areas constant. The use of MIMO technology in future transmission systems for broadcasting, multicasting and unicasting represents real business logic also for broadcasting corporations because of the possible reduction in transmission stations. The measurements conducted at IRT also show, as described in [9], very good MIMO properties with line of sight in the indoor area. What is important is that adequate multipath scattering and thus "gain-bringing multiple reception" emerge. Something that has been regarded as an annoyance in transmission in radio technology for a hundred years has become an advantage to users through the smart application of physics and mathematics. Because signal transmission is always analogue digital bits come into being only through calculation. This Part II of the report (Draft-N Performance Measurements) is also accessible under: http://www.irt.de/en/themengebiete/digitale-netze/mimo-ofdm.html Part III of the report (Copious Draft-N 2.0 Performance Measurements of topical 11n products) is accessible from October 2007 under: http://www.irt.de/en/themengebiete/digitale-netze/mimo-ofdm.html

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