Extending Home Networks - A Comparison of G.hn, HomePlug AV2 and Wi-Fi Mesh
by Ganesh T S on December 7, 2016 8:00 AM ESTConcluding Remarks
In drawing this investigation to a close, we once again wish to reiterate that the best way to extend the reach of a home network is to wire up the house with Cat 6 and have a few judiciously placed enterprise access points. Mesh Wi-Fi systems such as the Netgear Orbi are a more consumer-friendly alternative for the latter part. Wi-Fi devices can easily outnumber wired clients in a typical home network. Therefore, depending on the size of the house, multiple access points may be needed.
Consumers with minimal number of wired clients should just opt for the Netgear Orbi. With 3x3 clients being quite uncommon, the 2x2 client-side configuration of the routers and satellites is not a big deal. The important aspect is the 4x4 backhaul that emerges as the best performer in our evaluation. In our opinion, Netgear's Orbi combines the best of both worlds - interesting mesh Wi-Fi features to address the current hot topic in the Wi-Fi market, along with effective performance and reach for covering large areas and a large number of simultaneously active wireless clients.
The Netgear Orbi kit (one router and one satellite) is currently available for $380.
The benchmarks processed as part of this article gave us a chance to compare the performance of G.hn against AV2 2000-class HomePlug AV2. The D-Link DHP-P701AV managed to outscore the ARRIS SBX-1000P in most locations. However, with AV2 2000, HomePlug is already at the frequency limits as mandated by the specifications (85 MHz). Marvell indicated that they have the second-generation G.hn kits currently under trial with several service providers, and delivering a good jump in performance. However, if one is shopping for the best performing powerline networking kit in the market, we have to recommend AV2 2000-class adapters such as the D-Link DHP-P701AV ($129 for a kit of 2).
Beyond the traditional problem of Wi-Fi dead spots, some consumers also need to support multiple rooms with multiple wired clients. In such cases, a mesh Wi-Fi system doesn't fit the bill. Short of a fully wired network, the best bet is a powerline network with wired extenders in each room with a wired client. Certain nodes can be powerline-backed wireless access points. This market niche is very effectively targeted by the ARRIS SURFboard lineup with RipCurrent (G.hn) technology. The lineup includes multiple routers and a wired network extender (SBX-1000P) as well as a wireless access point backed by a power line backhaul (SBX-AC1200P).
It is likely that standalone range extenders or powerline kits can yield better performance compared to the current ARRIS SURFboard lineup. However, the main selling point is the integration and ease of use of the whole package, with additional extenders being added in a seamless manner to the network. The kit used in this review currently retails on Amazon for $330 (SBR-AC1900P ($180), SBX-1000P ($60), and the SBX-AC1200P ($90)). For the price, it is arguably more versatile in terms of delivering wired nodes to more rooms compared to mesh Wi-Fi systems.
Our investigation of various backhauls for extending home networks have led us to conclude that the mesh Wi-Fi scheme (as implemented by the Netgear Orbi) emerges as the best bet. However, note that this was in a single-level detached California residence (no brick walls or concrete). It is possible that a different scenario could prove detrimental to Wi-Fi signals and make powerline backhauls more efficient. It must also be noted that different consumers have different needs when it comes to extending the reach of home networks. There is no single solution that fits every scenario, and it definitely helps to have different approaches in the market such as the G.hn solution offered by ARRIS.
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name99 - Thursday, December 8, 2016 - link
Unfortunately what's missing is the all-important "how long can the damn hardware run before it needs to be rebooted?"My experience has been that the Apple base station has been pretty much unrivaled in this respect -- it just keeps working.
Every other WiFi base station I've ever had to deal with (certainly all the various crappy ones that ISPs give people, along with some common standalone brands like DLink) seems incapable of staying up more than two weeks or so without requiring a reboot. As far as I can tell, the issue is not in the WiFi per se, but in resources leaks in the router part of the device --- something like "each new NAT connection leaks something (bytes?)" and eventually you run out and have to reboot.
Obviously testing for this sort of bug takes time, but given automated tools, it seems like the sort of thing that's totally feasible --- a robot station that simply loops requesting new DHCP requests then some number of different NAT connections --- and we see if that can last indefinitely. Hopefully being pounded with new NAT and DHCP requests every few seconds will shake loose these sorts of resource leakage problems.
And this stuff is IMPORTANT. I'd much rather buy the system whose software was written by someone who knows what they are doing than the system that has 20% higher performance but which randomly stops working under god know what conditions.
Meteor2 - Tuesday, December 13, 2016 - link
Yep, my AirPort Extreme only gets a restart when I upgrade the firmware, which I've done... once in two years. Super-solid and great performance. It sits high on a shelf near the physical centre of my (3-story brick and concrete) house. Nowhere is my LAN speed lower than my broadband (which is admittedly a little 'slow' at 50 Mbps).digitalgriffin - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link
This isn't the best of test. There are a number of variables here which could affect the overall outcome.1. This is a fairly small home on 1 level. Try a larger home, or 3+ story townhome in a congested neighborhood where your neighbors have numerous 5GHz networks.
2. Is there a reasonable signal spot between the router and the wifi mesh repeater?
3. What about lag introduced each time the signal "hops" on a wifi repeater station?
I looked at my options. I had a dead spot between the router and my bedroom just 80 feet away. To get it to repeat reliably using wifi I would have had to use 3 line of sights to get it around the corner into the hall way then up the stairs to the outside of the bedroom.
Option 2 is just plug in a PLN adapter and attach a access point where I wanted. It was actually cheaper in the end and a lot more reliable.
300 Mbps is a lot more than anyone would reasonably need unless they desperately needed that bandwidth for 1 Gbps fiber optic that few of us have to download "Movie preview" torrent files faster. A lot of game servers cap your download limit. So I call shenanigans if you think you need more. And your reflexes aren't going to be faster than even the slowest of broadband connections. Sorry.
mannyvel - Thursday, December 29, 2016 - link
So when you tested you ran X parallel streams from one location at a time? If so, that's generally a poor indicator of actual WiFi performance; according to our WiFi guys router manufacturers will "cheat" and optimize for a one-client case.Instead, why not try doing multiple clients with different PHY rates using multiple streams, which is what happens in the Real World. Your case is basically one person doing something from N locations, which is a test but not a very useful one.
Also, the house is really small. Does extending the network even make sense in this scenario? Why not just have a good router in the middle of the house? Did you baseline the performance of a non-extended wifi setup? Or is the setup just a straw man?
greg_mitch - Monday, January 2, 2017 - link
Just upgraded from the Netgear R7000 to the Orbi in a 3500+, 2-story w/basement house. The difference has been staggering.Basement - Before/After - http://i.imgur.com/kaypSio.jpg
2nd Floor Bedroom - http://i.imgur.com/7tKagF2.jpg
Main Floor Office - http://i.imgur.com/ndMcCR8.jpg
I don't think I will need to add an additional satellite. I have the router on the 2nd floor and the included satellite in the basement. Would recommend to anyone to go with the Orbi solution.
MrZipf - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
This is a great article.It's taken a long time for g.hn adapters to surface in the UK, but now they're here they sell for a nearly 100% price premium over HomePlug AV2 2000. I took some measurements to consider whether they're worth the premium:
https://wordpress.com/post/specklepattern.wordpres...