The Tolly Group, a premier independent testing and analysis lab, released the results of a recent benchmark testing that showed Wi-Fi 6 wireless access points from Cambium Networks  outperformed competitors Aruba, Meraki (Cisco) and Ruckus in terms of performance and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

The testing showed that Cambium’s Wi-Fi 6 Access Points significantly exceeded the price-performance of the other brands. Cambium acquired Xirrus in 2019 and the Wi-Fi 6 products tested combine technology from both companies. In the testing, the high density XV3-8 (8×8/4×4 MU-MIMO) AP with five total radios delivered a price-performance (Mbps per Dollar) an average 2.4X higher than comparable competitive solutions. The XV2-2 (2×2 MU-MIMO) AP demonstrated a price-performance an average of 2X higher.

Tolly Report – Wi-Fi 6 Access Point Performance

“Today, high density networks are commonplace, and users need and expect a superior Wi-Fi experience at all times,” said Kevin Tolly, Founder of The Tolly Group, the premier independent testing and analysis lab. “Our testing of the latest Wi-Fi 6 solutions clearly shows that Cambium’s new XV3-8 and XV2-2 access points operate at a new level, by providing higher performance at a significantly lower TCO.”

Specific findings from the Tolly Group report include:

• XV3-8 delivered average of 2.4X price-performance of competitors
• XV3-8 have average of 38% lower TCO than Aruba, Meraki and Ruckus
• XV3-8 delivered average of 47% higher bidirectional throughput in tri-radio mode than competitors
• XV2-2 delivered average of 2X price-performance of competitors
• XV2-2 had TCO 35% lower than Aruba, 49% lower than Meraki and 44% lower than Ruckus
• XV2-2 outperformed competitors in bidirectional and downstream throughput

“Enterprise IT and network operators no longer have to compromise between price and performance,” said Atul Bhatnagar, President and CEO, Cambium Networks. “As with all of the technologies in our wireless fabric portfolio of solutions, the Wi-Fi 6 access points deliver affordable quality. Schools, enterprises and service providers can now have multi-gigabit speeds without a heavy cost burden.”

Cambium’s Wi-Fi 6 solutions are ideal for enterprises, education, retail, smart city and hospitality deployments by delivering robust Wi-Fi performance and reliability while at the same time reducing ownership costs, as they deliver more simultaneous data streams and support more concurrent users than ever before.

The tests were performed in late 2020 and early 2021 and included both low and high client density environments using various traffic types. High density voice/video tests were run comparing high-performance 8×8/4×4 MU-MIMO Access Points supporting 100 clients and 2×2 MU-MIMO Access Points supporting 50 clients. Tolly engineers also calculated price-performance and 5-year TCO projections based on the hardware list price and cloud management subscription costs.