Practice and planning

How fast your Wi-Fi link can be

Choose a router and client capabilities. See the connection rate, useful throughput and limits from airtime, cable, internet plans or mesh.

Router profile2×2 · 5 GHz · 80 MHz · 1 GbEManufacturer specifications ↗

Connection standard Band Router channel width Maximum client channel width Modulation / MCSFor Wi-Fi 4 this is MCS per stream: for example, MCS 7 with 2 streams corresponds to device HT MCS 15. Client spatial streams External channel utilization, % Simultaneously active clientsCount only devices transmitting at the same time. The result shows a shared airtime budget. Internet plan: download, Mbps

Radio link, traffic and mesh

Transport protocol Traffic directionBidirectional traffic is split equally: 50% download and 50% upload. Internet plan: upload, Mbps Useful bytes per packetUseful IPv4 payload, MTU 1500, without VLAN or TCP options: 64–1460 bytes for TCP, 64–1472 for UDP. Small packets increase the overhead share. TX power, dBmReference only. Allowed power depends on the region, channel and device. Client RSSI, dBm Noise floor, dBm Guard interval, μs Retries, % Reserve of remaining airtime, %Margin from airtime left after external channel utilization. Useful PHY share: lower, %Useful PHY share before external utilization, reserve and retries. Includes MAC and transport overhead; do not count the same loss twice. Useful PHY share: upper, % Measured PHY, Mbps0 calculates from settings. Enter the client connection rate; it is capped by common capabilities. Wired uplink Topology Useful backhaul throughput, Mbps Mesh hops

One Wi-Fi 4–7 link. MCS is selected manually; MLO and puncturing are not modelled.

LINK BUDGEThAP ax² · 5 GHz

PHY rate of the selected radio link 1,201Mbps

80 MHz · MCS 11 · 2×2 · GI 0.8 μs

PHY1,201

MAC / traffic601–841

Available airtime450–631

Ethernet / WAN450–631

Useful radio throughput450–631Mbps, using the chosen useful PHY share

To a LAN client450–631after the useful Ethernet throughput limit

To the internet450–631after the WAN plan limit

Per active client225–315with an equal share of airtime

Ethernet limit949.3 MbpsUseful payload, accounting for packet size

Per direction450–631 MbpsBidirectional traffic shares the budget equally

SNR37 dBRSSI − noise; MCS selected manually

TX power63.1 mWdBm → mW, not a throughput multiplier

Bottleneckradio airtimeEthernet and the internet plan exceed the radio estimate

Formula for the selected standard 2 × 980 × 10 × 5/6 ÷ (12.8 + 0.8)

Channel, streams and wired port fit the profile; transmit power is reference input only.

The useful PHY share already includes Wi-Fi MAC and transport overhead. Ethernet is a separate ceiling. Channel utilization and reserve are entered independently.

PHY is a connection rate, not download throughput. Client capabilities, airtime, retries and mesh can reduce useful throughput. Identical active clients share the airtime budget equally, without a MU-MIMO uplift. MLO, puncturing and automatic MCS selection from SNR are not modelled.

Verifiable source data

Method and sources

Wi-Fi

MikroTik · hAP ax² MikroTik · hAP ax³ TP-Link · Archer AX53 ASUS · RT-AX58U

Method

Cisco · Wi-Fi 4 MCS MathWorks · Wi-Fi 5 MCS Cisco · Wi-Fi 6/7 testing Cisco · Wi-Fi 6 PHY tables Meraki · throughput limits

PHY uses the standard, width, MCS, spatial streams and guard interval. Useful PHY share is an editable assumption, not a device guarantee. Ethernet is limited by packet size and protocol.