Wireless network performance Monitoring test tool Iperf method of use

Many companies are upgrading their wireless networks to 802.11n to achieve greater throughput, wider coverage, and greater reliability, while ensuring the performance of wireless LANs (WLANs) is particularly important to ensure adequate network capacity and coverage. Below, we'll explore how to measure network performance through IPERF, a tool that is easy to use to measure tcp/udp throughput, loss, and latency.

Pre-application Preparation

Iperf is a tool specifically designed to simplify TCP performance optimization, and it makes it easy to measure throughput and bandwidth maximum values. When used with UDP, Iperf can also measure data loss and latency (jitter). Iperf can be run on any IP network, including local Ethernet, Internet access and Wi-Fi network.

Before using IPerf, you must install two components: the IPERF server (for listening for incoming test requests) and the IPerf client (for initiating a test session). Iperf can be obtained either through open source or executable binary, which supports many operating system platforms, including Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS X, OpenBSD, and Solaris. You can download the Iperf Win32 installer on Nlanr, while the Java GUI version (JPERF) can be downloaded from sourceforge.

To measure Wi-Fi performance, you may need to install iperf--This is your test server in the upstream position of the Ethernet host of the Access point (AP) being tested. Next, install iperf--on one or more Wi-Fi notebooks that will be your test client. This is the typical application network between the Wi-Fi client and the wired server. If your goal is to measure AP performance, you can place the Iperf server on the same LAN as the AP and connect via high-speed or ultra-high-speed Ethernet. If your goal is to clear the bottleneck, you can put the Iperf server in the same place as the actual application server, so there will be a comparable network channel.

In addition, IPERF servers and clients can be installed on a Wi-Fi notebook at the same time. This is useful for measuring client to client performance when you want to support video or voice communication on a wireless client. Again, make sure IPERF traffic passes through the entire network channel you want to test. For example, if you want to measure the best performance on a Wi-Fi client in a neighboring location, you must connect your Iperf client and server to the same AP. If you want to see how routing through a high switch or WAN affects network performance, you can connect your IPERF server to a central AP and link the Iperf client to an AP in a different location.

Monitoring wireless network performance with test tools Iperf: Running Iperf