EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved

Testing The Limits:Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) 2.0 Performance Trials

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UW Lecture Hall Validation

ClassroomPresenter

• Location: Lecture Auditorium, Architecture Building, University of Washington

• Test Objective: Network & Application Performance• Learning Application Performance• ARM 2.0 Feature Validation• Dense deployment - 100 Laptops• Heterogeneous mix of PCs & Macs• Single AP & Multiple AP testing

• Analyst Onsite Review/Validation• Farpoint Group, Craig Mathias

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 3

100x Laptops for High Density Tests

ClassroomPresenter

• 22x Broadcom 4321agn NICs• Dell XP, Macbook, HP Vista, Acer Vista

• 63x Intel 4965agn + Intel 5300agn NICs• HP XP, Dell Vista, Gateway XP

• 10x Broadcom 1490abg + Intel 3945abg NICs• Toshiba Vista, Lenovo Vista, Dell Vista

• 5x Cisco CB21abg NICs• IBM Thinkpad XP, Acer Vista

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 4

UW Architecture Hall – Floor Plan

AP125 - 3

AP125 - 4

AP125 - 1

AP125 - 2

5 Rows,50 Laptops 5 Rows,

50 Laptops

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 5

.11b .11g

Total

.11b

.11gTotal

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

Default Access Preferred Access

11b vs. 11g TCP Throughput (Mbps)

Preferred Access for .11g over .11b (2.4GHz)• With Default Access: 802.11g throughput only 20%

higher than 802.11b throughput• With Preferred Access: 130% increase in 802.11g

throughput and 40% increase in total throughput

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 6

.11b .11g

.11nTotal

.11b.11g

.11nTotal

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

Default Access Preferred Access

11n (2.4GHz, 20MHz) vs. 11b/g TCP Throughput

Preferred Access for .11n over .11b/g (2.4GHz)

• With Preferred Access: 65% increase in 802.11g throughput, 20% increase in 802.11n throughput and 20% increase in total throughput

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 7

.11a

.11nTotal

.11a

.11nTotal

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

Default Access Preferred Access

11n vs. 11a TCP Throughput

Preferred Access for .11n over .11a (5GHz)

• With Preferred Access: 20% increase in 802.11n throughput and 10% increase in total throughput

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Effect of Band Steering on Network Performance• 1x11b + 1x11g + 1x11a + 1x11n client mix• 108% increase in 802.11b throughput, 162%

increase in 802.11g throughput• 217% increase in 802.11n throughput, 70%

increase in total throughput

0.010.020.030.040.050.060.070.080.0

.11n Total

Effect of Band Steering on Client Throughput

w/o Band Steering w/ Band Steering

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25x 11g Clients per Radio: No Traffic Shaping

• 0.58Mbps standard deviation, 2.73Mbps difference between maximum and minimum performing clients

“Bursty” clients are not controlled and always consume more channel

time, preventing fair access

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25x 11g Clients per Radio: With Traffic Shaping

• > 30% less standard deviation and 30% less diff. in maximum and minimum performing clients

“Bursty” clients are controlled with shaping; fair access to the channel is guaranteed over time

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Co-Channel Interference Management• Designed for high-dense AP deployments, in order

to maintain 802.11 channel performance even in the presence of excessive co-channel interference

0.02.04.06.08.0

10.012.014.016.018.020.0

1x AP 2x APs, w/o co-channel int mgmt

2x APs, w/ co-channel int mgmt

25x 11g Clients, Single Channel Throughput

EMBARGOED UNTL 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 © Copyright 2008. Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved 12

Multicast Video with Video Furnace

• Video Furnace• Streaming Lecture Videos or Classroom Presentations• Live TV and Radio Channels over 802.11 and Wired

• Test Streams• 3x separate channels with pre-recorded HD videos

• Test Infrastructure • Single AP, 15x 11n + 10x 11abg clients• IGMP Snooping for selective transmission of multicast

traffic from Aruba controller to Aruba APs• Multicast rate optimization on the APs to prevent loss

of channel time during over the air multicast• Results

• Presence of legacy clients did not disrupt delay sensitive multicast video transmission

• No delays were observed during subscription to video streams and during tranmission

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100x Clients – Real World Application Performance

• Single AP• DyKnow – Classroom presentation application with low

latency requirements, server across the public WAN• Less than 2 seconds delay on average was observed

across 100 clients as the instructor changed slides

• 4x APs• Load balancing across channels based on client

density, noise and traffic load• 17x on channel 1, 15x on channel 11, 15x on channel 36+, 18x on

channel 44+, 14x on channel 149+, 20x on channel 157+

• Classroom Presenter – In-house application built by UW, local server deployed in the data center• Less than 2 seconds delay on average was observed across 100

clients as the instructor changed slides

• ExamSoft – Exam submit applications, server across the public WAN• 100 separate exam submissions within less than a minute with no

failed attempts or any observed delays

ClassroomPresenter

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