How fast is your broadband router?
Monday 01 February 2010 07:15:52 by John Hunt

Have you ever considered the impact your broadband router may have on the quality and speed of your broadband service? Not only do you have to pick the right router that supports the service you're subscribing to (e.g. an ADSL2+ router for an ADSL2+ service), you may find that there are significant variations between different manufacturers, models or the firmware (the software that runs on your router).

Fluidata is a wholesale provider that many will know for their L2TP broadband service which uniquely runs on the BE Unlimited LLU platform. They have carried out testing on BE LLU broadband connections to identify which routers perform the best.

This testing has identified that some of the most expensive Cisco ADSL routers perform quite poorly in comparison to more common brands, but even Linksys (now owned by Cisco) can very depending on the actual model.

The testing was carried out on a 1,550m BE LLU phone line capable of an 'up to 24 meg' service downstream with 1.3 meg upstream capacity. The speeds shown are in Kbps and represent the average sync speed rather than actual IP throughput over five tests per router.

This data provides an interesting insight into the variations in speed that routers can provide. In particular, we would highlight the SpeedTouch 608WL which is one of the top performers at 17,921 Kbps using the 8.2.1.1 firmware, but which only achieves 15,444 Kbps using the older 6.2.10.3 firmware. Users should note that with a few exceptions (e.g. Cisco), firmware upgrades are free and simply take a few minutes to install.

Cisco routers are known to be among the most expensive for terminating DSL connections, but fare badly in comparison to its cheaper counterparts, so spending money on a router is not necessarily the answer. This certainly matches some of our own experience comparing Cisco 1801 and Netgear DG834 routers on BT Wholesale 21CN lines.

It is however important to note that whilst the above figures provide an insight into BE lines, this data may not be accurate for customers on other broadband services where wholesale operators use different equipment in the telephone exchange. Indeed, large providers such as BT have a policy of purchasing equipment from different vendors so speeds may vary based on your exchange/DSLAM.

The tests were repeated again with the line set to ADSL2+ with Annex M enabled (which allows lines to sync at an upstream speed of up to 2.5meg). Only routers which were Annex-M compatible were tested:

A general trend shown here is that the higher the upstream speed, the lower the downstream. This is to be expected by the nature of the Annex M technology which makes use of some frequencies on the line for upstream that would have otherwise been used for downstream. We also note with interest that the ZyXEL routers negotiated the highest upstream speeds but also maintained a respectable downstream, impressive for such an inexpensive router.

So, if you're buying a BE based ADSL2+ Annex-M service from BE Unlimited or another company which uses this network via Fluidata, you should consider using a ZyXEL Router.