Round 1 - Wireless power - Intro

So the one aspect of The Hubs that seems to net the most complaints in the wireless. And wireless is where most of my networking expertise lies, so that's what I'll test first and foremost.

In round 1, I'll look at the wireless output ("signal") of the comparison group. In this test, I only measure the wireless signal strength and distribution of the equipment in question, and at this stage make absolutely no representation as to the quality, reliability, or performance of that signal. In addition, only output power is measured, as there is no reliable method to measure input signal levels consistently across all devices.

Since I don't have an integrating sphere, and haven't been able to locate a sufficiently cheap nearby wireless test lab to use, it'll have to be done on the cheap with what I have to hand - i.e. a hundred or so £400 Cisco wireless access points and a few £20k controllers.

Aims:

To measure the wireless output power of the devices in question, as well as beam pattern (mainly because one of the devices has its internal antennae partly occluded by the main PCB and I want to know if this makes any difference).

Method:

Each device will be placed, in turn, on the same marked spot in a building with a very high density of Cisco managed wireless access points. Each device will be placed on said spot in the same orientation, and then powered up.

Our managed APs constantly scan the radio spectrum looking for other nearby wireless networks, both to detect and avoid interference as well as to detect rogues. The wireless output (primarily beacons) will be measured simultaneously by the hundred or so existing wireless APs surrounding the test point on all sides, vertically and horizontally. The device will then be rotated through 360 degrees horizontally and vertically and signal levels received by each measuring AP at every angle recorded. This'll form the basis of our signal level comparisons and beam pattern calculations.

Sure there's a lot of variables, but we eliminate most of them by averaging readings over numerous receivers and measuring the output at every angle, from every angle.

All devices will be set to channel 6 on the 2.4Ghz band (pretty much in the middle of their operating range) and 44 on the 5Ghz band. While the 5Ghz band is wide, containing 24 overlapping channels in the UK, the Superhub can only use 4 of them, which means the total wireless capacity available at 5Ghz is no different to at 2.4Ghz for Superhub users.

Because of the nature of the measurements, these numbers can't really be used as an absolute reference point, but can be used to accurately compare the relative performance of each test subject.

And again, only the signal strength is measured at this stage, so this is largely a synthetic benchmark to get an idea of what we're dealing with. No attempt is made to connect to or use the wireless networks in question. How each device performs in actual use will become clearer in later - i.e. "real-world" - tests.