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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk AX8 Mesh Extender Max Download Speed
I recently bought a Nighthawk AX8 Mesh Extender to supplement my existing Nighthawk RAX80 Router. With the RAX80 router or even with a device connected to the router via WiFi, I can achieve download ...
link speed isn't the same thing as actual throughput speed.
Hitting 1 gig (ish) hardwired in is expected. And if you're rebroadcast speed is 400mbps, its a little more than the 50% speed hit I explained.
So even if router -> extender is ~2900Mbps and extender -> device is ~2200Mbps, the extender has to time-share the same band such that router -> device actually has a link speed of about 2200 * {2900 / (2200 + 2900)} = 1250Mbps? And this router -> device link speed of ~1250Mbps translates to about 400-500Mbps actual throughput? Is that the right way to think about it?
Usually actual throughput speed is roughly 55-65% of link speed. You also have an antenna setup to worry about.
I don't have an EAX80 to test with so I'm not sure with AX if the router---extender connection links and transmits at 4x4 if the client is only using a 2x2 or if the router----extender just connects at a 2x2 since that's what the clients using. Most client devices (phone/laptop are only 2x2 antenan arrays). I've emailed netgear mods asking about it a couple times but haven't gotten any responses. I even asked them about the potential since AX has concurrent broadcasting, to use 2x2 of the antennas for backhaul with the other 2x2 for fronthaul. Didn't receive a response either.
So if you're at 2900mbps link speed (4x4) you'd be roughly 1450mbps over a 2x2. Again, link speed.That'd put actual throughput around 700-1000mbps without the retransmits (50% loss) issues. With the retransmit 350-500mbps actual throughput. And thats under conditions without interference, objects, distance problems, etc.
This is just rough numbers based off loses of speed based on link speed vs actual throughput and then retransmist. Plus add in the antenna confuration for devices you're using. It can be a significant speed difference. Its why wired backhauls and using triband extenders have such better speeds. They don't take the speed hit because they have a dedicated connection back to the router.
I'd be interested to test an EAX80 against my EX8000 triband extender just to see if there's much difference in speeds performance. Someday maybe but can't quite justify buying a EAX80 when my current setup is already over the top.