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TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps

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TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps

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TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-05 04:17:22
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Hi,

Just purchased a couple of PA 9020's on Amazon. They advertise to meet the standard AV2000, and after reading some positive reviews I decided to get them.

After the first tests I am I bit disappointed I have to say. The problem is that when checking with the TP Link utility, I get a sync speed of 950 Mbps roughly. Real life tests show that they don't reach 300 Mbps (32 MB/s), much worse tha my Wifi AC that gets 45 MB/s syncing @867 Mbps.

I am missing something. How is it possible that sync speed claims to be nearly Gigabit, and actual speed is a third of that?

It's not that 32 Mb/s is bad for PLC but I only got them to be able to wake on LAN whilst not loosing throughtput comparing it with AC wifi, and provided my electrical isntallation is quite new, and computer socket is less than 5 meters away from the router (some walls in between..) I thought to give them a try. Now I am thinkin on getting them back to the store, but I'd settele if they gave (at least nearly) the speed they claim to sync at..

I'd appreciate some light on the issue, thanks a lot!

Regards,
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Re:TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-06 18:46:57
Like so many, you are confusing physical line speed with payload throughput. The former is gross bandwidth, the latter is net throughput. As with WiFi, net throughput is never more than 1/3 to 1/2 of physical bandwidth.

But yes indeed, 1/3 is on the low end of things. I'm finding that the 8000 series adapters work much better than the 9000 - so if you can, send the 9020 back and get a pair of 8030. Make sure you get the latest hardware version V2 if you have any means to detect that. V1 works OK too but doesn't have (and by advice of this very forum) won't get the latest firmware.
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Re:TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-07 03:52:16
Peter,

First of all, thanks for your answer.

All due respect I don't think I am confusing physical line speed and throughput.

If physical line speed is 1000 Mbps for Gigabit, theoretical throughput should be 125 MB/s (1000 Mbits /8), but real life performance, never gest better than 110 MB's. There goes a 20% aprox of loss due to different protocols involved in data transfer in each layer. Sames goes for wifi, with bigger throughput payload due to the physical layer being the air among other things.

Now for this couple of PLC's, physical line speed is ranging from 700 to 1400, according to tp link utility, depending on which socket I put the in, but real life tests copying a file from source tested to be able to serve over Gigabit, is always stuck at around 300 Mbps. This would be at best a payload of 60 % of the line.

Now, my question would be, is that normal for all PLC's, or at least for this model? How could I get closer to getting the whole speed advertised by tp link utility (I am not asking of course the 2 Gbps!)

Kind Regards.
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#3
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Re:TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-07 14:21:51
The rate shown on the utility is only a connection rate, the actual theoretical transfer rate of device is about 30-50% of the connection rate. However, this actual [FONT=Calibri]theoretical transfer rate is run by professional speed measuring tools. It means that this rate is a maximum value, your actual transfer rate will less than this value. [/FONT]
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#4
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Re:TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-07 19:41:48
Powerline (and WiFi too) are different from LAN in how the line works. LAN is full duplex with dedicated connections, while PLC and WLAN are shared-media and inherently unidirectional. Now if you remember that transfers in one direction always imply return communication, you'll see why overhead on unidirectional media is way higher than on full duplex media.

That said, let me also reiterate that the throughput you're getting from those 9000 series PLCs is indeed low. Try the 8000. Those use PLC silicon from a different vendor - Qualcomm, where the 9000 series uses Broadcom. My personal impression is that Qualcomm's firmware is way more mature.
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#5
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Re:TL-PA9020P Syncs at 950 Mbps - Actual Speed 300 Mbps
2017-02-08 02:09:58
Hi All,

That makes sense Peter, now I understand why I am getting only 300 Mbps. Still I think it's confusing to advertise something you'll never get near to. Even in ideal conditions transfer rate will be less than 25% of the 2000.

I appreciate your advice on the 8000's. I'll probably send the 9000's back to store, and see if the 8000's perform better... or I might just lay an ethernet cable through the house and start filling divorce papers :-D

Thanks a lot.


Regards,
Albert
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