OpenWRT 10.03.1-rc4 has just been released, so I’m once again upgrading my Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH home router. Each release candidate in the 10.03.1 series has improved performance of the Atheros wireless chipset, but I still see occasional network interruptions when the laptop is idle overnight. How does wireless on rc4 stack up against rc3?
I followed the same upgrade process as I used to upgrade to rc3. I ran tests with fping and iperf before and after upgrading. All tests were performed from my laptop (on 802.11g wireless) to gozer (on gigabit Ethernet) and frances (another laptop on 802.11g wireless). fping results:
# 10.03.1-rc3 gozer : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/389/2%, min/avg/max = 0.79/9.55/273 frances : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/387/3%, min/avg/max = 1.80/22.8/230 # 10.03.1-rc4 frances : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/393/1%, min/avg/max = 1.75/15.3/1158 gozer : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/388/3%, min/avg/max = 0.86/5.06/144
For the iperf tests, I send various streams of UDP traffic between my laptop (wireless) and gozer (gigabit Ethernet). I monitored the running throughput with bwm-ng, which confirmed iperf‘s output.
10.03.1-rc3 – 29.0 mbit
10.03.1-rc4 – 29.5 mbit
Conclusion: general wireless performance hasn’t changed since rc3. Now to wait and see if it disconnects in the middle of the night.
I also note that the rc3 results vary from the results in the last upgrade post. The slight improvements there fall within the margin of error. Wireless performance varies with numerous external factors, and the 2.4 GHz spectrum is notoriously crowded in London. What matters is that these tests were performed within an hour of one another, and presumably are subject to the same interference issues. I’m concerned only with the difference between them, not the absolute numbers.
As with previous releases, it is still not possible to support multiple wireless networks with different encryption types.
Update: yes, rc4 still has problems with disconnections on this hardware.
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