Wireless Reviews

The Test

802.11g wireless performance test results are presented in the table below:

[Details of how we test can be found here.]

Since I don't have a notebook with USB 2.0 interface, I had to skip my usual four location test and stay put for all my testing. So I concentrated instead on checking throughput for four security modes:

• No security
• WEP 128
• WPA-PSK TKIP
• WPA-PSK AES

Figure 5 shows that the RaLink chipset turns in very acceptable performance in all modes, with 21Mbps average throughput and only about 8% worst-case throughput degradation when using WPA TKIP. WPA AES actually had throughput faster than the no-security case, but I chalk this up to normal measurement variation and the built-in hardware encryption engine that the chipset has for supporting AES' beefier computation requirements.

Figure 5: Security mode throughput comparison
(click on the image for a larger view)

Figure 5 also shows nice even throughput with a few "dropouts" that are not unusual for 11g adapters. This is my first experience with the RaLink chipset and I have to say I'm impressed, at least from these close-range results. Note that all these results are for uplink tests. I ran one downlink test that clocked in at 22Mbps average and 23.9Mbps max.