WGR614v9 Manual: Assessing Your Speed Requirements

Because your Internet connection is likely to operate at a much lower speed than your local network, faster local networking technologies might not improve your Internet experience. However, many emerging home applications require high data rates. For example:

Streaming HD video requires 10 to 30 Mbps per stream. Because latency and packet loss can disrupt your video, plan to provide at least twice the capacity you need.

Streaming MP3 audio requires less than 1 Mbps per stream and does not strain most modern networks. Like video, however, streaming audio is also sensitive to latency and packet loss, so a congested network or a noisy link can cause problems.

Backing up computers over the network has become popular due to the availability of inexpensive mass storage. Table 5-2. shows the time to transfer 1 gigabyte (1 GB) of data using various networking technologies.

Table 5-2. Theoretical Transfer Time for 1 Gigabyte
Network Connection	Theoretical Raw Transfer Time
Gigabit wired Ethernet	8 seconds
RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N	26 seconds
Powerline HD	40 seconds
100 Mbps wired Ethernet	80 seconds
802.11n wireless	45 seconds
802.11g wireless	150 seconds
802.11b wireless	700 seconds
10 Mbps wired Ethernet	800 seconds
Cable modem (3 Mbps)	2700 seconds
Analog modem (56 kbps)	144,000 seconds (40 hours)