X-bit labs

Edimax nMax Wireless 802.11n Broadband Router Review (page 4)

Category: Other

by Platon Scheblykin

[ 01/15/2008 | 08:47 AM ]

The router has got three chips of memory. Its firmware is stored in a 4MB Macronix MX29LV320 chip. The system memory is represented by two A2V64S40 chips from Powerchip Semiconductor, each with a capacity of 8MB.

The router’s LAN ports are based on a RTL8305SC chip from Realtek. It is a five-port Fast Ethernet switch with support for V-LAN, QoS and crossover detection.

The WLAN module chips are worthy of a special interest. We mean not only the router’s WLAN chipset but also the chipsets of the wireless adapters we found in the box. They are all based on Ralink’s RT2800 chipset.

We haven’t yet tested devices with this chipset. It complies with the second draft version of the 802.11n standard and supports 2T2R (2 Transceiver 2 Receiver) and 2T3R operation modes. The chipset exists in six modifications: RT2800P, RT2800PD, RT2800U, RT2800UD, RT2800E, and RT2800ED. The following table from the official datasheet shows the difference between them:

Here are brief specs of the chipset taken from the same datasheet:

Standard
802.11n current draft
802.11a/b/g
802.11i
802.11e
802.11d
802.11h
802.11j

Certi_cation WHQL
Cisco CCX
Wi-Fi Certification: 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n, WPA, WPA2, WMM, WMM-PS

WLAN Features
11b: 1,2,5.5,11Mbps
11g: 6,9,12,24,36,48,54Mbps
11n (20MHz): MCS0-15, 32 with Short Guard Interval Support (up to 144Mbps )
11n (40MHz): MCS0-15, 32 with Short Guard Interval Support (up to 300Mbps )
RTS/CTS
MSDU/PSDU aggregation
Block Ack
Reverse Direction Data Flow
Link Adaptation
Hardware WEP, TKIP, AES Engines
EAP – TLS, TTLS, LEAP, PEAP
WPA1/2 – PSK (WPA Home)
WPA1/2 – 802.1x (WPA Enterprise)
Roaming

Software Window 98, ME, SE, XP, XP-64, 2000, Vista
Windows CE
Linux Kernels 2.4, 2.6
Simple Configuration
WPS

 
Router

PCMCIA-adapter
 

USB adapter

PCI-adapter

We’ve got devices with two modifications of the chipset. The router, PCMCIA-adapter and PCI-adapter employ the RT2800P, which consists of an RT2860 MAC-controller and an RT2820 RF-module. The RT2800U modification employed in the USB adapter consists of an RT2870 MAC-controller and an RT2820.