Wireless Data Speeds - The Cipher Effect

While working on our WAP (Wireless Access Point) last week I came across some information that a very nice Cisco support technician was able to clarify and I would like to pass this information along to hopefully help someone out.

At the beginning of 2012 I purchased a new WAP from a reseller of Cisco technology. I ended up deciding on a Cisco 1140 Series Wireless AP with Wireless N technology as well as the ability to span the 40Mhz spectrum on the 5Ghz antenna. However months of testing after my initial setup (in which I mirrored our old access point settings) resulted in G like bandwidth (54mbps). I tried many options and read up in many places through the setup manual but could not get it any higher.

After have other issues last week I contacting Cisco support (we have a current support contract through them) and spoke with a technician as he checked over my configuration.

The end result was surprising, not only did he fix my main issue but also fixed the lack of speed as well bringing the data transmission to 72mbps. He explained to me that the chiper used will make a large difference in the amount of data that can be transferred at once, and because TKIP is an older security protocol it was not capable of producing data rates over 54mbps. AES on the other hand was built with Wireless N technology in mind and is not only a stronger chiper but also allows for larger data rates. Now in theory my WAP should be capable of higher than 72mbps data transfer but I have not enabled the 40mhz band on the 5Ghz antenna as of the writing of this blog post. I will be sure to add more once that occurs and let you know of any differences in speed it causes.