Wi-fi company VP discloses real Wi-fi speeds

A COMMONLY ASKED question from our readers is, what are actual speeds of wireless networks, tipically known as Wi-fi (Wireless Fidelity).

Naturally, there is a difference between marketing and real-world speeds, but we know that readers may not be aware of the real difference.

While attending an Esys Tech day in a 17th Century castle somewhere in northwest part of Croatia, Doc Albert Yeh, the VP of OvisLink Corporation came up with a gloves-off approach and started explaining the current state of Wifi today, outlining the real challenges that manufacturers of Wi-fi equipment face.

In his look at the industry, he began to explain the real difference between the advertised and real speed of your Wifi router, .

Basically, the marketing approach dicates that the advertised bandwidth is the one that is achieved at physical layer, and this is the value you usually get shoved down your throat - 54Mbps, 125 Mbps and so on.

But the real bandwidth is actually far lower, since it depends on the MAC Layer speed. The MAC Layer is vastly slower than the advertised speed, and it is interesting to see the comparison.

Without further ado, and for those without eye-strain, here's a screenshot. µ

As you can see for yourself, MAC speed is something that you should expect