Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate

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Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate

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Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-09 13:57:34
Model: TL-PA7017 KIT  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

I have the TL-PA7017 Kit Powerline Adapters. I put them in the same room for testing and getting via tpPLC utility app around 850Mbps of powerline rate. But the actual data rate is less than 200Mbps (tested with iperf3).

For my real scenario, the adapters should be in different rooms. In that case, I'm getting around 170Mbps of powerline rate, and 30Mbps of data rate...

 

Why there is such a gap between the powerline rate and data rate? The data rate is way too low than the powerline rate. And honestly, even the very weak wifi signal that I have is much better than these adapters.

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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-13 06:31:46

@nrofis  Hello, 

May I know where do you put the extender unit,is in an outbuilding or different floor? Speed will get reduced while signal being transmitted through powerline . The real speed is closely related to the powerline rate and also the speed coming from router. 

In the actual household environment, real speed test could be 20% to 35% of the Powerline rate and also capped by ISP bandwidth or router speed. Here is a related FAQ explaining the Powerline Rate and Actual speed of the Powerline Adapters: 
https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/2928/

The powerline rate in the same room looks pretty good but the rate in different room , the 170Mbps is not very ideal for a powerline extender, for AV1000, we suggested putting PLC in the location where could get 300Mbps+ powerline rate to ensure its performance.  You could try a different wall outlet for the extender unit and also remove the things that may have a  bad effect on the powerline environment:

https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/409/

 

 

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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-13 10:41:28 - last edited 2021-10-13 10:41:56

@nrofis Cut&Paste "support" aside: "Powerline rate" is gross bandwidth, while your "data rate" is net payload throughput. As with all shared-media networks, like WLAN or powerline, you should expect net throughput to be no more than a third of gross bandwidth.

 

That said, your results are indeed on the low side. This may be due to an overly aggressive firmware that tries to sustain high bandwidth figures even in the presence of raised error rates, in an attempt at looking good, at the expense of having to retry many transmissions. More conservative devices would lower the bandwidth and thus lower the error rate. While the resulting net throughput would be about the same, the figures wouldn't be quite as misleading.

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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-13 18:36:31 - last edited 2021-10-13 18:42:25

My tests were in the same room (sockets next to each other) and in two different rooms next to each other (inside, same floor).

But for the same room, 850Mpbs of powerline rate is excellent, but the actual data rate is 200Mbps max, which is 23%... Why it is so low?

 

About the different rooms, this is the best scenario I found. The results of other sockets are even worse. Further rooms (same floor, inside) get less than 1Mbps of data rate...

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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-13 18:41:28
I understand it, but why the actual data rate is around 20% of the powerline. Is there any way to improve the overall performance?
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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-21 07:52:39 - last edited 2021-10-21 07:52:58

Hello, @nrofis The very low powerline rate between two different rooms is often related to the house powerline environment.  Do you have any UPS, surge protector across the rooms, or in few circumstances circuit breakers with a filter function may also affect the powerline rate. Personally I think the powerline units are not very suitable in your house, you may consider extending network through wired or Wi-Fi connection in your house. 

 

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Re:Powerline Adapters high powerline rate but low data rate
2021-10-21 18:41:22

@Solla-topee No, I don't have UPS or surge protector.
 
Yea, I also think that they are not suitable, but I don't understand what is the reason. Unfortunately, I can't use regular LAN between the rooms, and nor wifi. The power adapter is the only solution I have.

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