A Powerline Networking Update: Gigle's Running Late, While Atheros Is Looking Great

Speaking of powerline networking (with thanks to Jon for that Cypress coverage)…when I met with Gigle Networks at CES in early January, the company told me that the improved v2 firmware for its twice-tested, twice-underwhelming and Belkin-branded powerline networking adapters would be ‘likely to be within the next 2 weeks’ and that the company would ship the adapters back to me for further evaluation after doing the upgrade for me. That was three months ago. I still don’t have hardware (which precludes me from doing the update-and-retest myself), the adapters are (and have been for some time) listed as ‘ temporarily out of stock’ on Belkin’s website, and my last few attempts to contact company representatives over email have been unsuccessful. The situation at Gigle seems grim, although the company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts remain active (for whatever that’s worth); I’ll report back if there’s a positive communication shift in the future.

Fortunately, in contrast, the fortunes of ‘vanilla’ HomePlug AV continue their upward trend. Back in late October of last year, I tested Netgear’s XAV1004 adapters with built-in four-port 10/100 Mbps switch, based on Intellon’s (now Atheros’) third-generation INT6400 chipset:

My results were encouraging, but since they didn’t exactly match my desired end configuration, I returned to my prior setup, which I’ve discussed several times before. Here’s the quick summary:

• A Netgear XAV101 adapter (shown above), based on Atheros’ second-generation INT6300 chipset, at my router.
• Another XAV101 at my living room entertainment tech stack (including, among other things, an Xbox 360), connected to a D-Link five-port 10/100 switch
• A third XAV101 at my bedroom entertainment tech stack (including another Xbox 360), this time connected to a SMC Networks five-port 10/100 switch, and
• A fourth XAV101 direct-connected to my Universal Devices ISY-26 INSTEON home automation controller
• For testing purposes, I can connect my Dell XPS M1330 to the router via yet another XAV101, although I normally employ a dedicated dual-stream, wide 5 GHz 802.11n channel for this purpose.

As you can see from the above description, I can really only leverage the XAV1004’s integrated multi-port switch with two of the powerline network nodes, those the bedroom and living room. Also, as I learned from Netgear product manager Chris Geiser, the XAV1004’s power cord translates to slightly reduced performance (due to added impedance effects) versus with a single-port, integrated-power plug powerline adapter, particularly with synthetic benchmarks such as iPerf. So it was that a few days ago I re-ran last October’s tests, using single-port INT6400-based hardware that Netgear recently sent me.

Netgear actually makes two different INT6400-based products, the XAV2001, which is functionally similar to my INT6300-based XAV101s:

and the XAV2501, which supports pass-through power capabilities that, for example, let you connect a UPS or surge protector strip to the same outlet plug that the powerline networking adapter is using:

Perhaps obviously, the XAV2501 leverages a three-prong (earth ground-inclusive) power outlet connection, which limits its location and orientation, whereas the XAV2001’s two-prong tether is more location- and orientation-flexible. For ease-of-implementation reasons, given my existing XAV101 hookups, I decided to migrate to the XAV2001.

First off, from last October’s writeup, here are the Windows Vista Media Center benchmark utility results I obtained when I ran a UDP-based streaming test to the XAV101-connected Xbox 360 in the living room, with the Dell laptop router-tethered over IEEE 802.11n:

and with the Dell laptop instead leveraging an incremental XAV101:

Next, here’s what happened last October when I replaced all of the XAV101s with XAV1004s, again with the Dell laptop connected over IEEE 802.11n:

and with the Dell laptop instead harnessing a fifth XAV1004:

Now for yesterday’s data. For the moment, since I didn’t receive Geiser’s note until AFTER my testing was completed, I only by default used an XAV2001 at the ISY-26. The need for XAV1004s at the bedroom and living room entertainment hubs is obvious, as a means of integrating the former standalone multi-port switch function. My use of a XAV1004 at the router is perhaps less obvious, until you realize that both the switch ports integrated within the router and those at a standalone eight-port 10/1000/1000 switch are all currently occupied. One can’t have too many spare CAT5 ports available for future expansion, yes?

Here’s the screenshot I captured with the Dell laptop connected to the router over 802.11n:

and with the laptop instead network-connected over a second XAV2001:

As you can see, the results are essentially identical to the earlier ones with an all-XAV1004 (i.e. INT6400) powerline networking topology, therefore once again superior to the all-XAV101 (i.e. INT6300) base case.

Some wrap-up thoughts:

• Note that all of the adapters tested here employ 10/100 Mbps wired Ethernet connections, even though HomePlug AV claims to be a ‘200 Mbps’ powerline technology. Netgear’s Geiser admitted that the decision to disregard GbE support was made for cost- (therefore price-) minimization reasons; although some simple, short-span powerline topologies might be able to exceed 100 Mbps, especially over UDP, such speeds aren’t achievable (nor, in his opinion, are they necessary) with most customers’ setups. The incremental heat, therefore enclosure size, of a GbE Ethernet-inclusive adapter is also a factor that Netgear considered. Plus, keep in mind that since the adapters are full duplex-capable, the effective bandwidth delivered is higher when simultaneous to-and-from transfers are in progress. With that all said, the company’s upcoming ‘500 Mbps’ adapters (which, yes, I’m in line to test) will include GbE-capable Ethernet connections.
• Note that when I ran my tests streaming data from the laptop to the living room-based Xbox 360, none of the other powerline networking nodes were active, nor were any of the other LAN clients connected to the XAV1004 in the living room.
• As mentioned above, at the moment I’m not using the three spare CAT5 ports provided by the XAV1004 located at the router. Right now, my INT6400-based powerline network seems to deliver sufficient speed and reliability. Should that situation negatively evolve in the future, I’ll try swapping out the XAV1004 at the router for a simpler (and potentially speedier, per Geiser) XAV2001 alternative.
• One of the only ‘digs’ on the XAV1004 that I could come up with last October was that it was sold only in a two-adapter kit, bewilderingly bundled with a prior-generation INT6300-based XAV101. That combination, it seemed based on what Netgear was telling me about INT6300-to-INT6400 improvements, would hinder the XAV1004’s potential. Well, worry no more: I just happened to notice that the XABV1004 kit now promoted on Netgear’s website is a ‘v2′ edition which replaces the XAV101 with an INT6400-based XAV2001 (though the company still needs to update some of the associated web pages’ artwork).