Ping times across different cards

2

Edit: I have added a new card, the Intel Ultimate-N 5100 to the list and performed the same battery of tests. Retested the others at the same time to account for any effects due to the time-of-day.

Situation

Different ping latency averages across different card models, with the newer cards performing more poorly.

Cards Tested

The 6230 is the newest unit, while the 1030 is an entry-level card. The 5100 is also a higher-end unit, but is a couple years older than either of the others.

Network Setup

All tests are done on a 802.11g single-band network, so the dual-band features of the 6230 and 5100 are not being used, to even the playing field.

Testing Process

  1. Install the card.
  2. Factory-reset the laptop.
  3. Run 25 speed tests at several pre-measured points/distances from the wireless router.
  4. Eliminate outliers and calculate averages.
  5. Remove card from the laptop, insert into the next one, and repeat from step 2.

Laptops Used

A Dell Inspiron 1545 and two Dell XPS 15 L502X machines.

Question

Is there any explicable reason for the ping differences? I have tried moving both computers, and even swapping the network cards between them. Tried factory reset too.

Update

Added the new results for the 5100 card to the list. It has the best ping yet, with throughput comparable to the 6230. The 6230 still averages the highest upload speeds, while the 5100 consistently returns the lowest ping latency.

Wireless-N 1030 (2nd best download, 2nd best upload, 2nd best ping)

  • Bluetooth support: Yes
  • Download: 12.1 Mbps
  • Upload: 0.6 Mbps
  • Ping: 18ms

Advanced-N 6230 (tied for best download, best upload, worst ping)

  • Bluetooth support: Yes
  • Download: 12.6 Mbps
  • Upload: 0.7 Mbps
  • Ping: 21ms

Ultimate-N 5100 (tied for best download, 2nd best upload, best ping)

  • Bluetooth support: No
  • Download: 12.6 Mbps
  • Upload: 0.6 Mbps
  • Ping: 15ms

Summary

Since Bluetooth capability is not as important to me at the moment, I am using the Ultimate-N 5100, as the ping time is more important to me than throughput. However, I would still like to figure out the reason for the consistent differences.

user73728

Posted 2012-01-19T04:20:06.080

Reputation:

Do you shutdown other wifi devices during your ping tests to ensure there isn't contention? – Paul – 2012-01-19T04:27:20.530

The actual thruput numbers and ping times would be useful for comparison. – Garrett – 2012-01-19T05:48:32.137

It seems to me that you are measuring those values using an on-line speed test. Unfortunately it is not the proper way to do it. Since you have two machines, you can connect one of them to your access point using Ethernet and perform a bandwidth test between the two machines without using your internet connection, thus measuring the true throughput of the wireless link. For this, you will need Iperf for which you can get a windows binary here installed on both machines. You can also Jperf which is a GUI written in java.

– phil – 2012-01-19T20:42:57.167

Answers

0

Based on the numbers you added for each device, I would postulate that the small differences in throughput and response time can be attributed to one or more factors:

  • Chipset differences (see below)
  • State of the machines (load, etc.)
  • Distance to the wireless access point

Now, from the product briefs on both cards, from what I can tell, only the 6230 supports the 5Ghz band. If you happen to have a wireless access point that is dual-band, it is quite likely that the 6230 is on the 5Ghz band whereas the 1030 is connecting using the old 2.4Ghz band. The 2.4Ghz band has much more interference in its spectrum, and thus this in and of itself would explain the differences between the two.

Garrett

Posted 2012-01-19T04:20:06.080

Reputation: 4 039

Disregard the point about the dual-band then, the other comment(s) are still relevant. We're talking about very small differences. – Garrett – 2012-01-20T00:51:53.883

Asked: 2012-01-19T04:20:06.080

Viewed: 249 times

Active: 2012-02-05T19:30:32.093