Well, first we need to clear up some misconceptions.
Firstly, wireless never operates at the quoted speeds.
True, the actual wireless communication may go at, say, 54Mbps, but the actual throughput of data is typically 60% of that. This is for two reasons:
- As well as the actual data, you have protocol and signalling information going over the same link. This takes up some of the available bandwidth.
- Wireless communication is very prone to errors, so data often has to be retransmitted.
For a 54g wireless you can expect to get around 20 to 30 Mbps of actual throughput.
Secondly, and this is the biggie, 802.11n does not work at 300Mbps. It works at 150Mbps, and some routers and adaptors allow a dual channel mode where it uses two channels at once in order to double the data rate. In order to use this mode, all wireless devices on your network have to both support it and be configured to use it. So if your laptop has built-in 54g then no device will be able to use the bonded 300Mbps when your laptop is turned on.
On a single-channel 802.11n network you can typically hope to get an absolute maximum of 80Mbps throughput on a good day if you have no other networks nearby and all your devices run at 802.11n speeds. I have 54g devices on my network and my 802.11n devices never get above 38Mbps.
So yes, internally you may see a speed increase, but it won't be the blistering speeds you are expecting from what they advertise. I have had to resort to 200Mbps HomePlug for my video streaming because the 802.11n is just too slow.
decreased latency maybe? N is also supposed to be better at working through/around walls etc – Xantec – 2011-03-17T22:35:53.633