From the WiFi 5 standard, the possibility of having 160MHz of channel width in the 5GHz band was introduced, instead of the typical 80MHz of channel width. Having more channel width means having more real speed, especially we will notice it in places near the WiFi router or WiFi access point. With the new WiFi 6 standard, this functionality is also “optional”, so not all WiFi clients, WiFi routers or WiFi access points incorporate this important functionality. Today in this article we are going to show you a comparison between using 80MHz of channel width and 160MHz of channel width with WiFi 6, do you want to know the speed differences achieved?
Test scenario and equipment used
The test scenario where we have carried out the different speed tests is the same as always in our analyzes. We will place the main router in the location “Living room”, and we will check the real speed that we can achieve in the same room, and in the different locations that you can see below. Depending on the location where we are, we will achieve a higher speed or a lower wireless speed, because we will not only have distance but also obstacles and even interference with other neighboring WiFi networks.
As for the equipment used, below, we will detail the WiFi clients used and also the main router, all of them support WiFi 6 and the 160MHz channel width in the 5GHz frequency band.
Physical testing scenario
Regarding the distance from the different locations to the living room (which is where we put the main WiFi router) is the following:
- Kitchen : is located about 10 meters as the crow flies from the router.
- Main room : it is right on the upper floor with respect to the living room, we can check the vertical coverage of the router and client. It is about 3 meters across the ground.
- Room 2 : it is on the upper floor with respect to the living room, we will check the vertical and horizontal coverage. The distance between the router and the client is about 10 meters in a straight line, but we will have to cross an entire floor.
- Attic : the vertically furthest room is located on the second floor. The vertical distance between the router and the WiFi client is approximately 6 meters (in a straight line), crossing two floors.
In the following photo you can see the floor plan of the house and where we carry out the tests:
In the blue point we will always place the main router or Wi-Fi access point, and in the red points the Wi-Fi wireless clients. In the case that we are testing the performance of a Mesh Wi-Fi, we would place the Mesh nodes in the red dots as well, and we would test the Wi-Fi / wired performance in the same room.
WiFi router used in the tests
The router we have used in these performance tests to compare 80MHz channel width and 160MHz channel width is the ASUS RT-AX86U , a top-of-the-line router in the AX5400 class. The main wireless characteristics of this router is that it is simultaneous dual band and WiFi class 6 AX5400 . We can achieve a speed of up to 861Mbps in the 2.4GHz band , thanks to its three removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 3T3R configuration and WiFi 6 with 1024QAM of quadrature amplitude modulation. In the 5GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 4.804Mbps , thanks to its four antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, WiFi 6 and the 160MHz channel width that this model supports.
In the following image you can see how is the synchronization of the WiFi clients used in the same room, making use of 2-stream and the 160MHz channel width:
This router has a 2.5G Multigigabit port for the LAN , where we will connect the iperf3 server to carry out all the tests, if we had connected a PC to a Gigabit Ethernet port we would have a bottleneck, because the WiFi 6 network is 160Mhz wide Channel is faster than wired Gigabit connection. In addition, this equipment has a highly configurable firmware that will allow us to choose the channel width, the WiFi channels used and much more.
WiFi clients used in the tests
Thanks to the manufacturer Xiaomi, we have been able to have its current top of the range to be able to carry out the WiFi 6 tests with 80MHz and 160MHz of channel width, the model used is the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra updated to the latest version available. This smartphone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 main processor, this processor integrates a FastConnect 6900 chipset that will provide us with wireless connectivity WiFi 6, WiFi 6E and also Bluetooth. The main characteristics of this FastConnect 6900 chipset is that it has support for Wi-Fi 4, WiFi 5, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E standards, in addition, it supports 160MHz of channel width, the 6GHz band (WiFi 6E), it also supports OFDMA and MU-MIMO as well as WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise security strictly, that is, with protected management frames, not like other mobile devices.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has two internal antennas, therefore, we can achieve a speed of up to 574Mbps in the 2.4GHz band (WiFi 6, 1024QAM and 40MHz of channel width), and we can achieve a speed of up to 2.402Mbps in the 5GHz band (WiFi 6 in 5GHz, 1024QAM, 160MHz channel width). In the case that we use WiFi routers that only support 80MHz of channel width in 5GHz, we can achieve a speed of up to 1,201Mbps only.
In the following gallery you can perfectly see the status of the WiFi connection with the ASUS RT-AX86U router. We are using WiFi 6 technology, the synchronization speed is at the maximum speed depending on the frequency band and the channel width configured in the router, and, in addition, we have WPA3-Personal in use. Therefore, this smartphone supports the latest wireless technologies with WiFi 6. We must not forget either that this smartphone supports WiFi 6E, the next version of WiFi based on WiFi 6 but using the 6GHz frequency band.
The other wireless client that we have used in the tests is the Intel AX200 WiFi card, which is dual-band selectable in class AX3000, exactly like the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, so we can achieve speeds of up to 574Mbps in 2.4GHz and up to 2,402 5GHz Mbps (with 160MHz channel width). The laptop used is a Lenovo X1 Carbon with Intel Core i7-5600U with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe SSD, therefore, we will not have a hardware bottleneck.
The synchronization speed of this WiFi 6 card that we have installed to update the previous Intel, is always the maximum possible of the wireless link. Currently this laptop and WiFi card is the one we are always using in all wireless performance testing of routers, WiFi Mesh systems, access points and more.
Test lab: actual speed achieved
Once we have already known the physical test scenario and also the router used, as well as the wireless clients, we are going to carry out the first performance tests with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra in the same room as the router, in this way, we will check the maximum speed that we can achieve with this smartphone via WiFi. The app used to carry out the tests is “MagicPerf” which is available in the official Google Play store:
This app allows us to use both iperf2 and iperf3, in all tests with WiFi 6 and speeds above 1Gbps we always use iperf3 because it is much more efficient and is capable of squeezing even more the wireless or wired network than the previous version. The iperf3 server is located on the main desktop PC and connected to the router via 2.5G Multigigabit with the ASUS XG-C100C network card.
The speed achieved by the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra in the 2.4GHz band has been 316Mbps, an excellent speed because we must bear in mind that the maximum theoretical speed that we will achieve is 574Mbps, but we will never reach these theoretical speeds.
In the case of the 5GHz band, we have configured the router with 160MHz of channel width, the synchronization speed of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra smartphone is 2.402Mbps theoretical, but we will never reach these speeds, as it happens with the Intel AX200 that we have been using for months in all our tests. The real speed that we have achieved in these tests is 909Mbps real, excellent performance, and it is the fastest smartphone in WiFi 6 that we have tested so far.
Currently 1Gbps speed Internet connections allow reaching up to approximately 940Mbps via cable, due to the loss of effective speed due to the different packet headers. With this mobile we will achieve the same speed as a computer connected via cable to the router and with the maximum Internet connection speed that currently exists in Spain.
As for the rest of the WiFi 6 tests carried out with both WiFi clients in the different locations, we are going to offer you some graphs with the speeds achieved in the different scenarios.
2.4GHz WiFi speeds
In the 2.4GHz band with WiFi 6 and the 40MHz channel width activated, we can see that the maximum speed that we can achieve is around 320Mbps. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has been able to achieve a speed of 316Mbps and the Intel AX200 card has been able to achieve 331Mbps of speed, in both cases it is an excellent result.
In the rest of the locations, depending on the circumstances, the speed of one or the other client is higher or lower, you can see all the details below:
WiFi speeds in 5GHz
In the 5GHz band with WiFi 6 and the 80MHz channel width activated, we can see that the maximum speed that we can achieve is 850Mbps, achieved by the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. In this case, the Intel AX200 card has achieved 777Mbps of speed, in both cases the speed is outstanding, but the Xiaomi is clearly better in this case. In the rest of the locations, depending on the circumstances, the speed of one or the other client is higher or lower, you can see all the details below:
In the 5GHz band with WiFi 6 and the 160MHz channel width activated, we can see that the maximum speed that we can achieve is 1125Mbps, achieved by the Intel AX200 WiFi card. In this case, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has achieved 900Mbps of speed, in both cases the speed is outstanding, but the Intel AX200 WiFi card is clearly better in places close to the AP, however, we have been impressed that the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra it performs really well in the main room, beating the tested Intel AX200 card for 40Mbps speed.
In the rest of the locations, depending on the circumstances, the speed of one or the other client is higher or lower, you can see all the details below:
As you have seen, the difference of using 160MHz of channel width instead of 80MHz is clear, in near-medium places we will achieve higher wireless speed if our device and router uses 160MHz of channel width, however, in places away we will not notice an appreciable improvement. Normally we are always going to be located near or in the middle of the main WiFi router, in addition, we must bear in mind that, thanks to WiFi Mesh systems, today we can have the best coverage in our home without problems, therefore, have access to 160MHz of channel width in all our devices (smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra or in our laptop) is something very important.
Next, you can see the speed comparison of the WiFi network with 80MHz of channel width and with 160MHz of channel width.
As you can see, using 160MHz of channel width improves the speed in the living room, kitchen and main room, in the guest room we could say that the speed is more or less similar, and in the attic there are hardly any appreciable differences in general. . That is, in near-medium places the speed improvement is clear, and in remote places not much difference is noticed.
Taking into account the tests carried out in this article, making use of an ASUS RT-AX86U router and two WiFi clients (Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and the Intel AX200 WiFi card) we can affirm that yes, it will always be worth it. In near-medium places we will notice a great improvement in wireless speed, for example, in our case with the Intel AX200 the difference in the same location with 160MHz or with 80MHz is 350Mbps speed, an abysmal difference. In the case of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the difference is 50Mbps in favor of having 160MHz of channel width, but the most noticeable differences in this smartphone are when we are in the kitchen, and that is that we can have a difference of 260Mbps real, for the simple fact of having this double channel width on the 5GHz band.
