Powerline Networking with the Western Digital Livewire
by Ganesh T S on August 24, 2010 7:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- Networking
- Powerline Adapters
The main issue with powerline networking is that it is heavily dependent on the usage environment. The other issue with powerline networking products is that most of them are based on the same chipset, and offer similar performance. It is not the case for a consumer that one powerline networking product performs better than the other. Ideally, we would have liked to benchmark the WD Livewire against a product based on a chipset from Gigle Networks. Unfortunately, we are not in possession of a Belkin Gigabit unit. On the other hand, we did manage to lay our hands on a couple of other Atheros/Intellon based powerline adapters. As expected, they gave similar sort of benchmark figures as the WD Livewire.
We decided to do nothing fancy in our benchmarking methodology for the WD Livewire. The kits were connected to the two power outlets to be tested and two notebooks with GbE ports were connected to them to set up a P2P network. Both machines were running Windows 7 and the hard disks had more than enough performance to surpass the 100 Mbps rate at which the interfaces were capped by the powerline kit. It is quite well known that nothing can be as inefficient as the Windows SMB network sharing protocol. We set up 5 files of varying sizes (5 MB, 700 MB, 1.4 GB, 4.37 GB and 16 GB), and transferred them from one computer to the other four times. The average of the time taken to transfer each file was recorded. The experiments were repeated across one outlet in each room of the house, and transfer rates corresponding to the worst performance are reproduced in the table below. The experiments were conducted in two houses, the first of which (Location 1 in the table) was a 23 year old single bedroom apartment of approximately 700 sq. ft. The other house (Location 2 in the table) was a 10 year old five bedroom single family dwelling spread across two floors, with an approximate area of 2800 sq. ft.
| SMB Transfer Rates with the WD Livewire (Mbps) - Higher is Better | |||||||
| File Size | Worst Case @ Location 1 | Worst Case @ Location 2 | |||||
| 5 MB | 23.98 | 28.19 | |||||
| 700 MB | 32.57 | 38.62 | |||||
| 1.4 GB | 31.99 | 38.07 | |||||
| 4.37 GB | 31.79 | 37.95 | |||||
| 16 GB | 31.86 | 38.12 | |||||
Surprisingly, better results were obtained in the bigger house, but this can probably be explained away by the fact that there is probably too much noise in the power lines in an apartment setting. Also, note that the figures quoted above are probably the worst case bandwidth measurements. That said, it is probably what an user would encounter while trying to use the powerline network for file transfers within the home network. As the figures indicate, it is not quite possible to stream Blu-Ray bitrate movies from a PC or NAS to a media streamer with this generation of powerline networking products. Compressed 720p copies work reliably (and this was confirmed to be without issues in both our test locations). Netflix and YouTube streaming, which used to stutter on a Wireless-N network in Location 2, was managed without breaking a sweat, once the WD Livewire units were set up. In this respect, the WD Livewire achieves what it was intended/advertised to do by Western Digital.
Readers contemplating powerline networking must remember that the usage scenario heavily influences perceived performance. There are a number of good resources on the Internet about how to make the best of your powerline network. SmallNetBuilder has one such excellent piece. Also, it must be remembered that capacitive loads close to the routing unit result in reduced performance, while inductive loads improve performance. Also, the topology of the electrical wiring in the house heavily influences effective bandwidth. In places such as the UK, where the electrical wiring has a ring topology, the wires almost act equivalent to running an Ethernet cable around the house. In places such as the US, a ring / mesh topology is often seen. The performance does go down in such cases. Physical separation between the locations of the units often doesn't matter. It is often characteristics such as electrical distance, and whether the units are on opposite sides of a circuit breaker which matter more. All in all, it is best to try out a powerline adapter kit and see whether it fits the intended requirements in one's own place of usage, rather than relying on the advertising.
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PlcBooster - Saturday, September 11, 2010 - link
Hi Souka,Firstly, I would like to convey my Big KUDOS! to Mr. Ganesh T S on his good and inside report on the Powerline Networking with the Western Digital Livewire. He furnished us with very informative good and un bias reports.
I bet many people, end users or rather consumers are quite dismay after they use the PLC adapters and put them into real action ie use at home or at their office.
But hold on your dismay, cos, there is a company in APAC that I know can help or overcome this 10 years inherent issues that have been plaguing these PLC manufacturers, they will be planning to launch their product once they find the right business partner, may be Western Digital Livewire, if WD are keen to explore with them. So that the PLC adapters adoption and acceptance rate will surely flourish worldwide with an affordable price of course. :)
Cheers! to Mr. Ganesh!
PlcBooster - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
There is light at the end of the tunnel for all PLC adapters manufacturers, distributors & end usersKindly feel free to view these three short informative videos at the following links below:
PLC-adapters have been proven to perform better with Surestreamer
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84C7k...eature=rela...
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV6Jn...eature=rela...
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQuQg...eature=rela...
Thank you very much & Merry Christmas!
casteve - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
Ganesh, thanks for the review. Since WD wants this device to be plugged into the wall and not into a surge protector power strip or UPS:1) How much AC power do the two units use?
2) Do they have an on/off switch?
3) Is there surge protection circuitry built in and are there any guarantees to it? Seems like there would be a surge path via the ethernet ports.
ganeshts - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
casteve,The device acts as a router of sorts, consuming around 3 - 3.5 W. Load or no-load didn't make much of a difference with the Kill-a-watt I was using (it is not really accurate at such low power numbers).
It does have an on-off switch right next to the power connection point.
I will get back to you on the surge protection circuitry in a bit.
ganeshts - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
casteve, I have unofficial confirmation from outside sources that the board design also has surge protection circuitry built in. I am still waiting to hear back officially from WD PR.casteve - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Thanks for the power usage info.yyrkoon - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
Yes, sometimes it is very hard to fish cabling though a wall to get what you want exactly where you need it but come on folks. There are so many neat and tidy ways to run cabling, surely most anyone can find a way to get it done.Such as pulling the floor trim off of the wall, and running cable behind it. Wont work for you ? Raise it up a bit, and run the cabling just under the floor trim(sometimes all that is needed is a wedge, and a screwdriver). Or how about; Under the carpet in the corner of the wall . . . all that is required is a little imagination, and wiliness to spend some time to get it done.
*Or* if things are extremely tough, you can drill a few strategic holes where you *know* you will not cut into anything important ( like power runs or plumbing, etc ), and fish from point A to B to . . .Z. It is not as though doing wall patch work is all that difficult. Again, all that is required is a bit of imagination, and time to achieve. Anyone can make excuses.
I shudder to think of the alternative. Which is *hoping* your electrical is clean / noise free enough to use something that in this persons humble opinion should never have even been given a second thought.
Brucmack - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
I've been using two Amitech home plugs for a while to connect my media box under my TV to the rest of my network. There are a couple of "gotchas" to consider. First, if you have a house with really old wiring, don't expect to get a very stable or fast connection. Second, some chargers can interfere with the signal, especially if you use the homeplug on a power strip. But basically if you can get a stable signal, it's quicker and more reliable than wireless.kwlinca - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
Powerline technology only works when connecting 2 locations on the SAME circuit. My computer is located on one circuit in the front of the house and my AV equipment is located on a different circuit in the back of my house. It is only when you read the fine print that you find this out.Welshtrog - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
The problem with these units is that they are effectively broadband transmitters and cover a large section of the radio spectrum which is why radio users object to their use and objectors can cause them to be removed. by ofcom