[Network] Is WiFi 6 worth it? Part I ~ Client internet speed test comparison: iPhone 11 Pro with Asus Ax11000 Router ~

How much is WiFi 6 faster? Is it worth the price right now? In this first of the series, I have compared internet speed test result of iPhone 11 Pro, Wifi 6 client, and couple Wifi 5 client devices using Asus GT-AX11000 Wifi 6 router.

Background

Are you planning to upgrade home network and looking for new router or mesh network system? Have you just got a new router, increased speed from internet provider? May be you’ve already come across some tests online using iPerf, but you want to see more familiar speed test comparison. Today, I have compared how fast the Wi-Fi 6 is or should be when compared to Wi-Fi 5 using internet speed test.

Wifi-5 vs. Wifi-6

In the past, Wi-Fi versions were named using technical coding like 802.11ac. This coding system has now changed to simple and intuitive numbering system. The most prevalent Wi-Fi technology released back in 2014 is 802.11ac, which is now named Wi-Fi 5. The newer protocol, 802.11ax, is called Wi-Fi 6. So 5 now becomes 6; therefore, we should be getting faster speed.

Now faster speed can mean different things, but most people will consider the speed or performance as one device that is being used can transfer more data in a given amount of time, which is single device throughput. Previous generation of Wi-Fi evolution were indeed primarily focusing on this. Although it is true that Wi-Fi 6 standard will also have increased single device throughput, this is not the primary emphasis. In fact, you may potentially be disappointed if this is your one and only reason of upgrading WiFi 5 system to WiFi 6. The real benefit from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 is for multiple simultaneously connected devices.

So let’s take a look at what Intel says about Wi-Fi 6. The first and foremost, let’s ignore marketing talk where it says 3x faster compared to standard AC 2×2. This is because Intel AC 2×2 is already 2x faster than that. So comparing between Intel AC (Wifi 5) speed and Intel 2 x 2 WiFi-6 speed (1700/1200 = 1.42), they are really claiming maximum speed gain of 40% for single device. So today, I have actually tested to see if this claim is true by using Asus flagship WiFi 6 router, Ax11000 and iPhone 11 Pro.

If you’re using a Wi-Fi router with a single device, maximum potential speeds should be up to 40% higher with Wi-Fi 6 compared to Wi-Fi 5.

Reference: howtogeek.com

Materials & Methods

Home Setup

For Wi-Fi 6 internet speed test, the minimum requirements to conduct it, one must own Wifi 6 capable router and client device because you need both of these to have WiFi 6 communication. Also, one needs at least 1 Giga-bit internet speed; otherwise, internet connection itself can be a bottleneck. Fortunately, I have a setup meeting these requirements.

My current home network setup is fully WiFi 6 capable ASUS AiMesh network with ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 as router and 3 nodes each connected via Cat 6 Ethernet backhaul with one node being GT-AX11000 and two nodes using RT-92U for covering 3800 sqft ranch style old home.

For the purpose of today’s test, my tests were conducted by connecting devices to a router to minimize rest of network variables.

ASUS AX11000 router is a triband router supporting Wifi 6 with each of 5GHz band rated up to 4804 Mbps and 2.4 GHz band up to 1148 Mbps. All bands are 4 x 4 MIMO capable.

For client devices, I used iPhone 11 Pro, MacBook Pro 15” 2016, iPhone X and iPad Pro 11” (2018).

	iPhone X	MBP 15’’ 2016	iPad Pro 11’’ (2018)	iPhone 11 Pro
Wi-Fi support	5	5	5	6
MIMO	2×2	3×3	2×2	2×2

Amongst these 4 devices, iPhone 11 Pro is the only one having WiFi 6 capability. Other three devices are Wi-Fi 5 devices. All are 2 streaming (2×2) MIMO except MBP 15” 2016, which have 3 streaming (3×3 MIMO).

Testing Method

*Of note, following tests were all conducted using internet speed test rather than iPerf. Having said this, since ethernet internet speed was higher than any of the result below, I believe bottleneck is within the Wi-Fi rather than internet. However, in general iPerf (local speed test) can have a bit higher throughput than online speed test though not necessary reflective of most user’s daily experience.

For the testing, all client devices were placed <5 ft from the AX11000 router. Although I did not turn off other devices in home network including AiMesh nodes, I ensured no-one was streaming or playing games during the test. I have also confirmed that internet speed at router to be approximately 940 Mbps via Ethernet connected device.

For the actual speed test site, I used Xfinity speed test. This is because after testing of a few sites including Ookla, Fast and SpeakEasy, Xfinity was found to be the most consistent for my home. The tests were repeated 3 times consecutively to in order to reduce speed variation.

Results

Discussion

Validation

Network speed test has many variables and therefore results varies even when one tries to minimize it. So absolute number of these types of test can only mean so much. Having said this, if the trend or relative relationship of data deviates too much, I believe the test is grossly flawed and untrustworthy. So let’s first do quick validation of my data.

Hypothesis: iPhone 11 Pro should be faster than iPhone X and iPad Pro 11

Reason: All 3 devices use 2×2 MIMO but iPhone 11 is WiFi 6 whereas other two are WiFi 5.

Fact: By a substantial margin, iPhone 11 is indeed faster than other two devices.

Hypothesis: iPad Pro 11 and iPhone X are similar in speed.

Reason: Two devices use 2×2 MIMO WiFi 5 technology, so relatively speaking, the result should be similar.

Fact: There is ~6% average speed difference. I consider this is small enough difference and may well be due to the variation in hardware.

Hypothesis: MBP should be the fastest.

Reason: It is the only system that has 3×3 MIMO. So even though it uses WiFi 5 technology, it should still be faster than iPhone 11 Pro.

Fact: MBP is over 60 Mbps faster than the iPhone 11 Pro on the average speed.

Hypothesis: System efficiency should be between 50-70%.

Reason: PHY is the wireless physical link speed based on the Wifi and MIMO technology. There is well-known 30-50% overhead related inefficiency of the WiFi speed. So the max possible speed is 50-70% of the PHY.

Fact: All four clients perfect fell under this range though almost 10% difference with iPad being most efficiently utilized network in this test; whereas, iPhone the least.

Wifi-6 peak performance gain for single device

So now we know, tests have some credibility/validity, let’s take a close look to see how much faster is Wifi-6.

Looking at 3 devices using 2×2 MIMO technology, iPhone 11 Pro again is the only one having WiFi 6 technology and both iPhone X and iPad Pro are WiFi 5.

Comparing phone to phone, let’s compare iPhone X and iPhone 11 Pro. iPhone 11 Pro recorded average speed of 604 Mbps while iPhone X had 457 Mbps. There is approximately 30% speed gain on 11 Pro. This is not too far from Intel’s claim of 40% maximum throughput gain. In fact, both devices connected at 80 MHz channel width in this test, and probably most of home, this is deviation from Intel’s estimate speed difference setup where channel where they used 160 MHz for WiFi 6 device while kept 80 MHz for WiFi 5. So I’d say in practical setting, peak performance gain of WiFi 6 over WiFi 5 is approximate 30%. The gain is smaller when comparing to iPad.

In practical setting, peak performance gain of WiFi 6 over WiFi 5 is approximate 30%.

Wifi-6 range performance gain for single device

Although 30% gain sounds decent, this test is not the best reflection of the real world use case scenario for the most because the majority of my Wifi use happens not next to the router but rather a bit away from it.

This is why I conducted the second test using iPhone 11 Pro and iPad Pro 11”. The test speed test were performed in the room next to where the router is and in between there is a wall. Once again, both are 2×2 MIMO devices with iPhone 11 Pro being WiFi 6 and the iPad Pro 11” being WiFi 5 device.

	iPad Pro 11”	iPhone 11 Pro
Run 1	332.5	369.5
Run 2	313.4	331.6
Run 3	287.3	353.2
Average	311.1	351.4

The speed difference here is rather much smaller. There is 13% increase in speed for WiFi 6 over WiFi 5. This is actually expected change. Why did this happen?

The main reason is related to what’s called “modulation and coding”. Without going into technical detail, when you are close to the router, WiFi 6 technology can use better modulation (1024-QAM) but at distance both Wifi-6 and Wifi-5 uses the same modulation (256-QAM). This difference in modulation and coding is part of the speed boost Intel assumed when comparing peak performance gain of WiFi 6 over the WiFi 5. So at distance i.e. without the modulation and coding advantage, the wireless physical link speed difference becomes smaller than 40%. In fact, my result is inline with duckware’s website.

‘peak’ speed (one user using the entire channel at distance) changes very little (around 11% improvement over 802.11ac). So, if you are looking for much higher Mbps download speeds (benefiting just one user), 802.11ax is not the solution (eg: PHY speed in 802.11ac of 780 Mbps changes to 864 Mbps in 802.11ax).

https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html

At some practical distance away from the router, Wifi-6 throughput speed gain was 13%.

Conclusion

WiFi 6 devices can be faster for internet speed in an appropriate home setting. The peak performance gain was 30% in typical standard setting of 80 MHz channel width and 2×2 MIMO client when compared to WiFi 5. However, for the practical single device throughput gain i.e. at some distance away from the router, it is more in the range of just little over 10%.

It is really important to understand that to get WiFi 6 benefit both client and router must be supporting the standard. So in my case out of 40+ internet connected devices at home, only one device currently seeing the benefit. In fact, more efficient system can actually overtake the Wi-Fi 5 vs. Wi-Fi 6 speed difference at range speed (see Part II).