Is ethernet/wifi bi directional

[The Elder Smurf]

I never thought about this before due to the totally underwhelming speeds of my local isps (30mbps down, 5mbps up) but i am getting fios next week which is "gigabit" (940 down, 860 up) and im curious if a standard 1gbps ethernet/wifi device can actually handle bi directional traffic at those speeds

[emosun]

Yeah.

How would you pull something from the network if the system couldn't be those speeds in both directions?

[The Elder Smurf]

well if it has 1gbps total bandwidth, that would mean it would max out at 1gbps, regardless of how much is download and how much is upload, 1gbps bi directional would be 1gbps downs and up

 

[The Benjamins]

2 hours ago, The Elder Smurf said:

well if it has 1gbps total bandwidth, that would mean it would max out at 1gbps, regardless of how much is download and how much is upload, 1gbps bi directional would be 1gbps downs and up

 

Ethernet is bi directional when it is in full duplex (standard settings) it will give you the rated speed up and down at the same time. (10, 100, 1000, 10000)

 

on Wifi you will never get close to 1Gbps down and up with the current tech.

[Lurick]

Ethernet is 99.99% of the time what we call "line-rate" meaning so long as the device on either end can handle the traffic, it will be sent at the rate. 1Gbps is Full-Duplex and can send AND receive at 1Gbps in both directions at the same time.

 

WiFi on the other hand is NOT bi-directional or "line-rate" by any means. It has a mechanism in place where it will listen and then transmit so if something is transmitting then it will wait before sending it's data. Wifi can only send OR receive data and cannot do both at the same time. Speed is impacted by a very large number of factors such as interference from other appliances, other wifi devices, radar, EM presence, walls, etc. and those "1.4Gbps" or "2.whatever Gbps" speed ratings are pretty much bullshit. They are tested in a lab under perfect conditions and will never represent what you'll see in real life.

[skywake]

for the tl;dr

1. Gigabit Ethernet will not be a bottleneck for your Gigabit Internet

2. WiFi will be a bottleneck but to what degree depends on your gear/conditions

3. Most of the time you won't be able to saturate your 1Gbps internets anyways

[The Elder Smurf]

15 hours ago, skywake said:

for the tl;dr

1. Gigabit Ethernet will not be a bottleneck for your Gigabit Internet

2. WiFi will be a bottleneck but to what degree depends on your gear/conditions

3. Most of the time you won't be able to saturate your 1Gbps internets anyways

well my wifi card is a 1.75gbps card, so i dont get how that would bottleneck. also i was really looking for uploads as i want to start streaming (and not at potato quality) and not consume my entire home internet

[skywake]

1 hour ago, The Elder Smurf said:

well my wifi card is a 1.75gbps card, so i dont get how that would bottleneck.

WiFi numbers are misleading. "AC1750" actually means:

- Theoretical 225Mbps UL on 2.4Ghz

- Theoretical 225Mbps DL on 2.4Ghz

- Theoretical 650Mbps UL on 5Ghz

- Theoretical 650Mbps DL on 5Ghz

 

Your device will connect to either 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz and the above numbers are purely theoretical. On AC1750 if you can push ~400Mbps you're doing well.

 

1 hour ago, The Elder Smurf said:

also i was really looking for uploads as i want to start streaming (and not at potato quality) and not consume my entire home internet

If that's what you're worried about I wouldn't be worried. Even the highest bit-rate video that's commercially sold ATM (UHD BluRays) is "only" ~100Mbps or so. For game streaming at what I assume is probably 1080p. Typically if you're streaming a game at a high quality you'd be uploading at ~5Mbps.

[Tsuki]

17 hours ago, The Benjamins said:

on Wifi you will never get close to 1Gbps down and up with the current tech.

the new wireless 802.11AD standard has a theoretical max speed of 7Gbps. it runs at 60GHz as opposed to wireless ac running at 5GHz.

you could get gigabit downloads on wireless as long as there is nothing more than 1ft of nothing but air between the router and the receiver in your computer.

 

its very possible, just not probable.

[The Benjamins]

Just now, Tsuki said:

the new wireless 802.11AD standard has a theoretical max speed of 7Gbps. it runs at 60GHz as opposed to wireless ac running at 5GHz.

you could get gigabit downloads on wireless as long as there is nothing more than 1ft of nothing but air between the router and the receiver in your computer.

 

its very possible, just not probable.

ya my point is that you should invest or expect to get a setup to do it.

[The Elder Smurf]

1 hour ago, skywake said:

WiFi numbers are misleading. "AC1750" actually means:

- Theoretical 225Mbps UL on 2.4Ghz

- Theoretical 225Mbps DL on 2.4Ghz

- Theoretical 650Mbps UL on 5Ghz

- Theoretical 650Mbps DL on 5Ghz

 

Your device will connect to either 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz and the above numbers are purely theoretical. On AC1750 if you can push ~400Mbps you're doing well.

Well when I said 1.75gbps, i meant on the 5ghz band, but it would be 885Mbps each.

[skywake]

2 hours ago, The Elder Smurf said:

Well when I said 1.75gbps, i meant on the 5ghz band, but it would be 885Mbps each.

It doesn't really change anything, it's still going to be slower than Gigabit. To be specific you'll at most get ~600Mbps

 

3 hours ago, Tsuki said:

the new wireless 802.11AD standard has a theoretical max speed of 7Gbps. it runs at 60GHz as opposed to wireless ac running at 5GHz.

And even if you can get enough signal strength to get those speeds odds are there's a Gigabit connection somewhere along the line that's restricting it anyways. One of the 802.11ad routers Linus tested had 10Gbps ports but they didn't actually work, the other one only had 1Gbps ports. Last I checked there were only a couple of APs that had >1Gbps ports. They were all enterprise grade, wave 2 AC APs but were built with large numbers of clients in mind rather than single >1Gbps links

 

specifically this AP: http://www.netgear.com.au/business/products/wireless/business-wireless/WAC740.aspx

[Tsuki]

37 minutes ago, skywake said:

And even if you can get enough signal strength to get those speeds odds are there's a Gigabit connection somewhere along the line that's restricting it anyways. One of the 802.11ad routers Linus tested had 10Gbps ports but they didn't actually work, the other one only had 1Gbps ports. Last I checked there were only a couple of APs that had >1Gbps ports. They were all enterprise grade, wave 2 AC APs but were built with large numbers of clients in mind rather than single >1Gbps links

 

specifically this AP: http://www.netgear.com.au/business/products/wireless/business-wireless/WAC740.aspx

ive seen testing for 802.11 AD, you actually do get amazing speeds, but literally, if theres anything thicker than a sheet of paper in the way, you get nothing. a monitor, or persons hand is enough to completely kill the signal

[The Elder Smurf]

besides me getting the answer I was already looking for, the wireless here is a ac setup, not ad. and as of now, actively monitoring link speed, its sitting at the 1.8* without fluctuation. so i doubt ill get anything lower than the 885 which honestly is close enough that i dont care (even if i only get 800, still)

 

*windows rounds it up to the nearest tenth.