AP Testing - Real Vs Virtual Client Challenge

Recently I have got a chance to test the Performance of an Access Point. It has the following capabilities:

Now to test the Access Point I have used LANforge which is a network testing and emulation tool. One of its features is to create virtual clients and run various kinds of traffic when those clients are connected to the access point.

As a quick start I just wanted to run a basic throughput performance test, in which we will connect the maximum number of clients to the access point and run 1Gbps of intended load to all the clients connected to it. In LANforge GUI we can monitor Data-rates, RSSI’s, during the test.

So, I have connected 70 Virtual clients to the Access Point in the following trend:

We have run the test for 10 minutes duration with total 1Gbps Intended load. The total achieved throughput in the downlink direction using the TCP protocol is 640 Mbps. Here are the individual throughput results for all 70 virtual devices.

Now, these numbers look great, but is this expected performance in the real world??

To check the real-time performance of the Access Point we need to test with real devices. LANforge has a sophisticated feature of testing real-devices using an application referred as LANforge interop.

The Lanforge Interop is a software application which can be installed on the end user devices and it allows the test server to control these devices and run various tests. The endpoint application is made available on various operation systems (Android, Linux, Windows, MacBook).

Consequently, we connected an equal number of real clients, distributing them evenly across both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

Under the identical target load of 1Gbps, the cumulative downlink throughput using the TCP protocol reached 614 Mbps. Here are the individual throughput results for all 70 Real devices.

In summary, Access Point's performance is impressive. The results consistently show it effectively handles a large number of virtual and real clients, delivering the desired throughput. Both virtual and real clients achieve nearly identical throughput, confirming its reliability and robustness.