14 Apr 2021 Cambium Networks: Tolly Report
Cambium Networks: Tolly Report
Cambium Networks recently commissioned the Tolly Group to benchmark the performance of its tri-radio XV3-8 (8×8/4×4 MU-MIMO) and XV2-2 (2×2 MU-MIMO) Wi-Fi 6 Access Points (APs) and comparable APs from Aruba, Meraki (Cisco) and Ruckus (CommScope). Wi-Fi 6 not only brings WLAN performance to a new level but also brings financial benefits. The report showed that Cambium outperformed all competitors in terms of performance, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
WI-FI 6 – THE NEW STANDARD
Wi-Fi 6 brings in a new standard for Wi-Fi and is the biggest leap in technology for Wi-Fi in at least a decade. It was important to benchmark the leading devices, including high performance 8×8/4×4 APs and general-purpose 2×2 APs to quantify the difference in performance in both low- and high-density situations. It was also essential to look at the Wi-Fi 6 solution in terms of price/performance (e.g. Cost-per-Mbps of throughput), as well as looking into the total cost of ownership (TCO) over 5-years.
WHAT WERE THE TESTS?
Two main tests were performed: maximum throughput and high-density performance. The maximum throughput test focused on getting the maximum throughput of an AP with just a few clients. The high-density test involved 50-100 clients and measured both throughput and quality of experience with a denser, larger environment. From this data, Tolly was then able to calculate price/performance for each AP along with a 5-year TCO.
Of course, it is also important to ensure that results are also applicable to the real world. This meant that the client mix included both Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6, as well as Windows, macOS and iOS operating systems deployed on both tablets and laptops. The high-density tests used 100 clients for the 8×8 tests and 50 clients for the 2×2 tests. The high-density tests measured not only throughput but also the quality of experience for VoIP traffic running in the same mix.
THE RESULTS
Finally, here is a brief overview of some of the results:
XV3-8 delivered an average 2.4x price-performance of competitors
XV3-8 had an average of 38% lower TCO than Aruba, Meraki and Ruckus
XV3-8 delivered an average of 47% higher bidirectional throughput in tri-radio mode than competitors
XV2-2 delivered an average of 2x price-performance of competitors
XV2-2 had TCO 35% lower than Aruba, 49% lower than Meraki and 44% lower than Ruckus
XV2-2 outperformed competitors in bidirectional and downstream throughput
Cambiums Wi-Fi 6 solutions are ideal for enterprises, education, retail, smart city and hospital deployments by delivering robust Wi-Fi performance and reliability while at the same time reducing ownership costs, as they deliver more simultaneous data streams and support more users at once than ever before.
Download the full report HERE.