TCP Throughput Measurement and Comparison of IEEE 802.11 Legacy, IEEE 802.11n and IEEE 802.11ac Standards

Objectives: This paper focuses on extensive TCP throughput measurement for different IEEE 802.11 standards. TCP being the reliable protocol in the multi-network environment, we measure the TCP throughput to benchmark the performance. Methods: The TCP throughput measurement setup includes Ix-Charriot tool which generates traffic between the source and destination clients. To measure throughputs of IEEE 802.11 a,b,g,n, we used single clients while, for IEEE 802.11ac we did a multi-client throughput measurement. The throughput is measured upstream and downstream. Findings: In the evolution of IEEE 802.11 standard, the major amendments have been with respect to the data rates. In our work we are trying to analyze how the enhancements made in IEEE 802.11 standards have affected the data rates, by measuring the TCP throughput and comparing the values in every case. TCP being the reliable protocol in the multi-network environment is the preferred choice of protocol to benchmark the performance in terms of throughput. Conclusion: From the performance testing results we conclude that with the enhancement in the IEEE 802.11 technology, there has been tremendous improvement in the performance of the latest standards, i.e., 802.11n and 802.11ac. As the IEEE 802.11n standard uses OFDM technology rather than DSSS or FHSS, the throughput is better. This is because in OFDM multiple frequencies are used for data transmission whereas DSSS uses single frequency to transmit the data. Thus the throughputs for IEEE 802.11b/g are lower compared to IEEE 802.11n. Also in IEEE 802.11n MIMO technology is used, which enables more data transfer over larger distances.