Cutting all Cables: Phoneline vs. Wireless Networking

The Test

We took a good hard look at both the theoretical throughput and the actual throughput, looking at a typical case (normal usage) and an ideal case (short distance, little interference) to give an accurate estimate of the performance of each technology across a broad range of environments.

Tests were performed using NetIQ's Qcheck software. It provides point-to-point network statistics, including throughput and latency of a variety of network protocols including TCP, UDP, IPX and SPX. Since IPX and SPX are rapidly going the way of the dodo, we chose to focus only on TCP and UDP performance.

Test Beds:

Windows 2000 Server SP2
Athlon 900
512MB RAM
3Com 905c 10/100 PCI Ethernet (for access point interface)

Windows 2000 Professional SP2
Dell Inspiron 3700 Laptop
Mobile Celeron 433
160MB RAM

For the wireless test, we used Lucent's well-known Orinoco brand PCMCIA card, interfacing with 2wire's access point.

For the HomePNA 2.0 testing, we used Linksys' PCMCIA card in combination with the Linksys PCI adapter.

While we were going to use Dlink's Wireless and PNA devices for the remote computer, both devices are limited by the 12Mbps USB interface and concerns over potential I/O bottlenecks caused us to decide to the Linksys cards.