While testing Wi-Fi quality and network throughput on FreeBSD 14.3 drivers, I realized that before running any benchmarks, it’s important to document my home LAN topology and the network capacity across its zones. It’s essential to understand how different network technologies work, including the gap between their theoretical throughput and the actual achievable performance.
For example, a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) connection might advertise speeds up to 1.3 Gbps, but real-world performance is typically much lower due to factors like signal interference, channel width, and protocol overhead. Similarly, a 1 Gbps Ethernet link theoretically provides 1,000 Mbps, but after accounting for TCP/IP overhead and other factors, the actual throughput is closer to 940 Mbps. Another significant factor impacting real-world throughput is the use of Wi-Fi Mesh with wireless backhaul. While mesh systems improve coverage, they often introduce additional latency and bandwidth reduction because each hop between nodes consumes part of the available wireless spectrum for backhaul traffic. This means that, in practice, a device connected to a secondary mesh node (Extender) might experience only half or even less of the primary link’s bandwidth. Knowing these differences helps set realistic expectations and troubleshoot performance issues effectively.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a diagram illustrating both the theoretical and real-world throughput values in my home network setup.
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| Home LAN zones and Network Throughput |
You can find all the details in the remainder of this blog post.
Home LAN network zones
- Area 1: 10+ Gb
- VMware Virtual Network within single VMware ESXi hypervisor
- physically unlimited network, limited only by software and server hardware
- Area 2: 1Gb
- 1 Gb LAN over Cat5e structured cabling and Dell Force10 S60 enterprise switch
- Area 3 : WiFi 5 (802.11ac)
- Amazon eero Mesh (core AP)
- Gateway Eero 6 (2nd Floor - workroom)
- Area 4a : WiFi 5 (802.11ac)
- Amazon eero Mesh (AP extender connected to core AP over wireless back-haul)
- Eero 6 Extender 1 (1st Floor - livingroom)
- Area 4b : WiFi 5 (802.11ac)
- Amazon eero Mesh (AP extender connected to core AP over wireless back-haul)
- Eero 6 Extender 2 (1st Floor - guestroom)
Network Devices
- 192.168.8.11 wired connection @ Area 1
- iperf server on VMware VM with FreeBSD 14.2 in home lab rack
- VMXNET3
- 192.168.8.12 wired connection @ Area 1
- iperf client on VMware VM with FreeBSD 14.2 in home lab rack
- VMXNET3
- 10.0.4.214 wired connection @ Area 2
- iperf client on MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016) with MacOS Monteray (12.7.6)
- 1 Gb USB NIC
- 10.0.4.74 @ 802.11ac wireless connection @ various Areas
- iperf client on MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016) with MacOS Monteray (12.7.6)
- WiFi 802.11ac (Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.111.1 AirPortDriverBrcmNIC-1710.4)
Network Throughput Methodology
Server @ Area 1 (192.168.8.11)
- iperf3 -s
Clients @ various areas
- upload
- iperf3 -c 192.168.8.11 -t60 -i5 -P4
- download
- iperf3 -c 192.168.8.11 -t60 -i5 -P4 -R
iPerf Throughput Tests
Throughput within Area 1 (192.168.8.11 <---> 192.168.8.12)
- Expected Throughput: 10+ Gbits/sec
- Download: 13.8 Gbits/sec
- Upload: 13.8 Gbits/sec
Throughput between Area 1 and Area 2 (192.168.8.11 <---> 10.0.4.214)
- Expected Throughput: 1000 Mbit/s
- Download: 932 Mbits/sec
- Upload: 790 Mbits/sec
Throughput between Area 1 and Area 3 (192.168.8.11 <---> 10.0.4.74)
- Expected Throughput:
- ~200-300 Mbps for single-stream devices
- ~500-700 Mbps for devices with 2 or 3 spatial streams in good conditions
- In optimal conditions, with high-end devices and close proximity to the router, speeds can reach ~900 Mbps or slightly higher, approaching Gigabit Ethernet speeds.
- Download: 651 Mbits/sec
- Upload: 532 Mbits/sec
Throughput between Area 1 and Area 4a (192.168.8.11 <---> 10.0.4.74)
- Expected Throughput:
- ~200-300 Mbps for single-stream devices
- ~500-700 Mbps for devices with 2 or 3 spatial streams in good conditions
- In optimal conditions, with high-end devices and close proximity to the router, speeds can reach ~900 Mbps or slightly higher, approaching Gigabit Ethernet speeds.
- Download: 126 Mbits/sec
- Upload: 97 Mbits/sec
Throughput between Area 1 and Area 4b (192.168.8.11 <---> 10.0.4.74)
- Expected Throughput:
- ~200-300 Mbps for single-stream devices
- ~500-700 Mbps for devices with 2 or 3 spatial streams in good conditions
- In optimal conditions, with high-end devices and close proximity to the router, speeds can reach ~900 Mbps or slightly higher, approaching Gigabit Ethernet speeds.
- Download: 114 Mbits/sec
- Upload: 78 Mbits/sec
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