Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely

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Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely
Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely
2020-10-19 01:09:02
Model: TL-PA9020P KIT  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version:

So I have three TL-PA9020P units - one in my home office that is connecting to my router, one in a bedroom on the same floor, and one in my attic one floor up to a home office setup.

 

I am not too surprised that the unit in the bedroom on the same floor (albeit across the house) has a better connection, except that tpPLC isn't showing me that it is by much.

 

The rates fluctuate, but consistently, tpPLC is showing a connection speed between the "main" one (connected to the router) to the far bedroom at 525-570 Mbps and to the attic at 480-525 Mbps.

 

The computer in the far bedroom gets a commensurate speed test result of just over 500 Mbps (my internet sevice is Gigabit, and I also repeated this test over my LAN by doing a large binary file transfer to a NAS drive attached to my router).

 

The computer in the attic, however, generally gets between 125-140 Mbps.

 

This is not bad, and is still faster than 100 Mbps so I know the Gigabit ethernet connection / cabling is working - plus, I've repeated this test with a laptop connecting to both Powerline units just to rule something like that out. But why is the tpPLC connection reading saying it should be almost as good as what the bedroom one gets? Something doesn't add up, and I'm hoping I can get 450-500 Mbps in the attic as well (some of my work in that home office involves doing large file edits/transfers to the NAS and the wider bandwidth would be very nice).

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Re:Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely
2020-10-20 23:00:35

@robardin 

 

The actual data transfer rate will vary from network environment variables including distance between adapters, network traffic, noise on electrical wires, building material and construction, quality of electrical installation, and other adverse conditions. For the attic powerline you could try to plugging the adapter into another outlet to see if that may help.

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Re:Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely
2020-10-22 12:53:34

@Tony Thanks for the reply

 

Yes I understand and expect that transmission will be much better to the unit on the same floor and much closer to the one by the router than the one in the attic; what I'm curious about is the wide gap between the throughput rate reported by tpPLC and what I am seeing actually coming across.

 

As I understood it, what tpPLC is showing is the transfer rate between the two adapters - through the house electrical system - meaning any loss from that in terms of data transfer is due to network packet headers (maybe 10%?), the cabling to the computer/router, and the port speed supported by the ethernet ports (i.e., it turned out one of my laptops, despite being from 2016 or 2017, came with a 10/100 instead of Gigabit port on the motherboard).

 

So when tpPLC shows me the communication between my attic adapter an the one downstairs with the router is over 500 Mbps but I only get 140 Mbs max (and more usually around 110-125 Mbps), that seems odd to me. Unless the tpPLC stats are not reporting what I think they are?

 

I have used the exact same laptop, now with a USB gigabit ethernet adapter, and cable to run my ethernet port tests, so I know it's capable of connecting at 550 Mbps from the Powerline one in the far bedroom and over 850 Mbps if plugged directly into the router, so it's not the ethernet adapter or the cable or the computer.

 

And really I'm fine with a 125-150 Mbps top speed in the attic, just wondering what tpPLC is telling me that's so inflated (and if there is something I'm supposed to do to get my throughput to match it closer).

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Re:Two TL-PA9020P units with about the same tpPLC rate, but actual transfer rates differ widely
2020-10-23 21:42:07

@robardin 

 

The link rate does not mean what your speeds should be, similar to the link rate on a wireless device.

 

A general rule of thumb is you will look getting 40% of the real-world speed.

 

There is not anything you can do configuration wise, other than trying different outlets and finding the one that performs best.

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