The N Crowd: Wireless N Put To The Test

Ruckus ZoneFlex 7942
The Ruckus ZoneFlex 7942 impressed reviewers with its strong feature set and performance, earning a first-place finish. Though Ruckus and Meru don't directly compete in the market, Ruckus outscored its opponent in areas such as quality and reliability, automation features, ease of deployment, ease of use and price/performance.

Ruckus offers a Web-based management interface to its ZoneDirector WLAN switch, which was used effortlessly to set up the test wireless environment. From there, IP addressing, SSID and security methods are configured. Ruckus' system supports up to four SSIDs (the next release will support up to eight). Total time for initial configuration was about five minutes.

After the initial configuration, the interface opens up into a dashboard view. From the dashboard, detailed information of each currently managed access point is displayed; MAC address, model, IP address, channel and number of clients connected are all listed for each access point. From the dashboard, access points can be remotely restarted.

The dashboard contains a log of recent user activity with a corresponding severity level. Activities tracked include users connected to individual access points, signal strength, user idle time and disconnects. System activity is also logged and detailed info on occurrences with access points are listed.

For a quick view, summarized information is listed on the left side of the dashboard. System overview of the ZoneDirector controller is displayed as are a devices overview and a usage summary.

The interface also has a Monitor view, outside of the dashboard. With this view, a floor plan can be uploaded; access point locations can be graphically represented throughout a facility. This view also gives total number of access points, rogue devices and overall number of clients connected. Generated PSKs and Guest Access passes can also be displayed here.

From the interface's Configure view, access controls can be set for users. Devices can be outright blocked and this is also the area where guest access is granted—access points, users, alarm settings and authentication servers are configured in this view. Ruckus supports a variety of authentication methods; not only is RADIUS supported, but authentication can also be set up against Active Directory and other databases, allowing for the integration of security from a wired network. The company also has a patented dynamic PSK security solution: Each user is assigned a dynamic PSK key that is revocable.

A minor complaint: The refresh rate of the dashboard is automatic, and seemed a bit too frequent. During testing, the constant refresh of the interface caused the browser to stop responding. Reviewers did not see a readily apparent way to control the refresh.

Ruckus' interface is detailed, allowing for complete remote management while at the same time avoiding a cluttered and daunting look. Ruckus' overall performance test results were admirable. Keep in mind that the Ruckus access point technology uses patent-pending horizontal and vertical polarized antennas that are able to coordinate multiple paths as signal strengths change on a client. The antennas are designed for high performance in semi-penetrable walls because it uses beam steering to refocus access to connected clients. Other vendors use omni-directional antennas, where client position makes for a more significant difference in performance.

Ruckus' downlink test results against two 802.11n clients were on average 56.7 Mbps. With the addition of an 802.11g Acer client, the Ruckus access point ran slower at an average of 48.9 Mbps. On the uplink test, the 7942 access point ran faster. The access point scored an average of 65.9 Mbps.

The uplink/downlink test was the toughest because of the large set of data passed between the server and each client. The 7942 access point performed well due to its innovative technology and received an average of 56.6 Mbps, using wireless-N clients only. With the 802.11g client, the 7942 access point received an average of 48.9 Mbps for downlink-only traffic and a score of 66.41 Mbps. On the uplink/downlink, the access point scored 48.9 Mbps.

After changing orientation at 45-degree and 90-degree angles, the Ruckus access point performed equally well. For instance, at 45 degrees with all three clients running, the access point scored an average of 61.1 Mbps. When encryption was used on all three clients, testers noticed a 1 percent to 2 percent drop in overall average performance.

Next: Meru AP320