WL18xx SoftAP throughput

Gunter Schmer

Hi all,

with an AM335x EVM and a Murata WL1857 module, I have been testing throughput of the SoftAP. This was using the SDK6.00 with the Addon from

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM335x_WL8_release_download_page

The module has the small antenna connected I think (board antenna), but I am somewhat suspicious of the RF performance in general.

In order to enable 11n with BA, I made the following changes to the hostapd.conf

root@am335x-evm:/etc# diff -Nurp hostapd.conf.orig hostapd.conf
--- hostapd.conf.orig
+++ hostapd.conf
@@ -388,7 +388,7 @@
# 0 = disabled (default)
# 1 = enabled
# Note: You will also need to enable WMM for full HT functionality.
-#ieee80211n=1
+ieee80211n=1

# ht_capab: HT capabilities (list of flags)
# LDPC coding capability: [LDPC] = supported
@@ -424,6 +424,7 @@
# PSMP support: [PSMP] (disabled if not set)
# L-SIG TXOP protection support: [LSIG-TXOP-PROT] (disabled if not set)
#ht_capab=[HT40-][SHORT-GI-20][SHORT-GI-40]
+ht_capab=[SHORT-GI-20]

# Require stations to support HT PHY (reject association if they do not)
#require_ht=1

With this on WL6 I have seen throughput in the range of 30Mbps. With WL8 I was expecting much higher throughput than that. We are targeting the advertised range of approx 70-80Mbps TCP.

Right now I am seeing only about 10-15Mbps using iperf.

How can we achieve the advertised 70-80Mbps?

Thanks,

--Gunter

over 12 years ago

0 Victor_Lin over 12 years ago

TI__Genius 12935 points

Hi Gunter,

Several things to be aware when using AP mode on WL18xx:

WL18xx doesn't support SISO40 in softAP mode, so please configure to 2x2 MIMO20 in your hostapd.conf (aka. ht_capab=[SHORT-GI-20])
Before setting up the softAP, please make sure your FW configuration is configured to MIMO as well. Please refer to this page.
Throughput numbers were acquired with testing chambers. Real world numbers might not accurately match them.

Here's the hostapd.conf I used for testing: http://e2e.ti.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/307/4087.hostapd.conf

0 Gunter Schmer over 12 years ago in reply to Victor_Lin

TI__Genius 14222 points

Hi Victor,

could you resend the link for the FW configuration for MIMO? "this page" is not leading to a good page.

On hostapd.conf i have made sure I am setting

ieee80211n=1

ht_capab=[SHORT-GI-20]

Thanks,

--Gunter

0 Gunter Schmer over 12 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

TI__Genius 14222 points

Hi Victor,

I found the page:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Open_Source_Wireless_Connectivity_wlconf

Could you send me the exact wlconf command you were using to configure the firmware?

I just want to make sure I get this right.

Thanks,

0 Gunter Schmer over 12 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

TI__Genius 14222 points

Hi Victor,

here is what I would do:

#rmmod wlcore_sdio

#cd /usr/bin/wlconf
	#./wlconf -o /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf.bin		\
		-I official_inis/WL8_System_parameters.ini

#./wlconf -i /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf.bin		\
		-o /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/wl18xx-conf.bin		\
		-s wl18xx.ht.mode=0x00

#modprobe wlcore_sdio

Is this correct??

BTW, from the below, do you know which firmware is being used here?

root@am335x-evm:/lib/firmware/ti-connectivity# ls
Android.mk wl18xx-fw-pg1.1.bin wl18xx-fw.ili
LICENCE wl18xx-fw-pg1.1.ili
wl18xx-fw-mc.bin wl18xx-fw.bin

Thanks,

--Gunter

0 Victor_Lin over 12 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

TI__Genius 12935 points

correct.

And the FW wl18xx-fw-mc.bin will be used.

0 Gunter Schmer over 12 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

TI__Genius 14222 points

Hi Victor,

sweet, I am getting good throughput now. But I can see that it depends on how clean the air is. Turning off my own WAP, the throughput went up quite a bit. Both were on channel 6.

Connecting both antennas, and switching the wlconf to MIMO was able to make the improvements.

gunter@gunter-Latitude-E4300:~$ iperf -c 192.168.0.1 -i 1 -t 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.1, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 22.9 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.20 port 43129 connected with 192.168.0.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 1.0 sec 7.50 MBytes 62.9 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 1.0- 2.0 sec 7.88 MBytes 66.1 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 3.0 sec 8.62 MBytes 72.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 3.0- 4.0 sec 8.88 MBytes 74.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 5.0 sec 9.38 MBytes 78.6 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 5.0- 6.0 sec 8.50 MBytes 71.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 6.0- 7.0 sec 8.62 MBytes 72.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 7.0- 8.0 sec 9.25 MBytes 77.6 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 8.0- 9.0 sec 9.50 MBytes 79.7 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 9.0-10.0 sec 9.62 MBytes 80.7 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 10.0-11.0 sec 9.62 MBytes 80.7 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 11.0-12.0 sec 9.38 MBytes 78.6 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 12.0-13.0 sec 9.25 MBytes 77.6 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 13.0-14.0 sec 9.25 MBytes 77.6 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 14.0-15.0 sec 9.50 MBytes 79.7 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 15.0-16.0 sec 8.75 MBytes 73.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 16.0-17.0 sec 8.62 MBytes 72.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 17.0-18.0 sec 8.62 MBytes 72.4 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 18.0-19.0 sec 7.88 MBytes 66.1 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 19.0-20.0 sec 8.38 MBytes 70.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 0.0-20.0 sec 177 MBytes 74.2 Mbits/sec

Regards,

--Gunter

0 Gunter Schmer over 12 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

TI__Genius 14222 points

Hi all,

one more thing: For this case above, I measured about 40% CPU loading using an AM335x EVM with 720MHz.

Regards,

--Gunter

0 wifijacob over 10 years ago in reply to Gunter Schmer

Expert 1245 points

Hi Gunter, Victor. We're seeing similar CPU usage (even for lower transfer speeds) using AM335x. Is such high CPU usage really expected? Best regards, Jacob

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WL18xx SoftAP throughput