Pros & Cons
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- Excellent coverage throughout the house.
- 200-mW radios and BeamFlex technology provide a strong signal and excellent throughput.
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- Router provides only basic capabilities and lacks common router features such as an SPI firewall, a DMZ, and MAC access control.
- Pricey compared with conventional routers.
- Needs a better quick-start guide and could use a setup wizard.
Ruckus Wireless MediaFlex Router Specs
| Type: | Personal |
Streaming video around your home places a lot of demands on your wireless network. Maintaining the throughput a video stream requires is just the beginning. Video applications also depend on proper timing and sequencing of data. A temporary interruption of the stream for even a few milliseconds can cause the picture to appear jerky or pixilated. It's a tricky problem, but one that the Ruckus MediaFlex Router solves with aplomb.
Ruckus Wireless has addressed the problem of streaming video reliably with hardware specifically designed for video. The Ruckus Wireless solution consists of a MediaFlex router and a corresponding MediaFlex adapter. The MediaFlex system was originally designed for IPTV service providers—companies that wanted a reliable way to connect a customer's broadband/IPTV connection, which typically terminates in a home office, with one or more set-top boxes scattered throughout the house. Now, with more consumers desiring the ability to stream video around their homes, they are beginning to turn their attention to the MediaFlex system.
How'd They Do That?
Ruckus Wireless developed several key technologies that give it a leg up on conventional routers. The first is the BeamFlex antenna technology. Most routers use only two antennas (three for pre-n and draft-n); BeamFlex's antenna technology uses an array of six, and it can generate up to 63 antenna patterns. Its software automatically learns and selects the best antenna combination in real time, providing the optimum signal between the router and the client. Both the Ruckus router and client use BeamFlex technology. The MediaFlex solution also uses Ruckus-developed SmartCast, a technology designed to handle multicast traffic. Unlike traditional routers that use only one QOS queue, the MediaFlex router has four hardware queues. Each MediaFlex adapter on the network is assigned to its own queue, and traffic is prioritized for each queue.
At first sight, it's clear that the MediaFlex router and adapter solution is going to be unique. Rather than the boxy design of traditional routers, Ruckus Wireless's industrial designers created a case that looks like the letter "U" turned on its side. This design let them improve performance by locating the antenna array on the top of the unit, away from the electronics on the circuit board in the bottom. Six green LEDs under a translucent dome on the top of the router show the currently selected antennas. The rest of the design is fairly standard. The router has a single WAN (Internet) port and four LAN ports. The client has a single Ethernet port, but this new version supports multiple MAC addresses, so you can connect a switch if you need additional ports near your TV set.
The MediaFlex router is unique in other ways, too. It uses two SSIDs. One SSID is broadcast, and conventional wireless clients can connect to it as they would to any other router. These clients receive an IP address from the router's built-in DHCP server on the same subnet as the wired LAN ports. The second SSID is not broadcast. When the router and client are purchased as a pair, the client is preconfigured to associate with the router's second SSID, and it is bridged to the WAN port on the router—a requirement of most IPTV ISPs. The connection is secured by WPA, and no additional configuration is required. You just plug in the router and the client, and they automatically connect to each other. Though this second connection bridges to the WAN port, it can be reconfigured as though it were a "normal" router, bridging to the LAN.
The MediaFlex router is a fairly bare-bones device. It provides basic routing functions and network address translation (NAT), and has a DHCP server to provide IP addresses for the LAN. It also supports port forwarding so that you can send WAN traffic to specific IP addresses on your LAN. But it does not have an SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) or DMZ firewall. For wireless security, both the router and the client support WEP, WPA-PSK, and WPA2. Though each wireless network can have its own security profile, and you can choose to enable or disable SSID broadcast on each network, the router lacks MAC access control. Though these deficits might make the router less than impressive, the system's attraction is its claimed ability to stream video anywhere throughout the house.—
Testing the Claim
I performed two sets of tests on the Ruckus in multiple locations in my home. I live in a condo community, where a typical scan of the 2.4-GHz band reveals between seven and ten access points broadcasting at any given time. Needless to say, this is a challenging test environment.
For the first test in each location, I ran a performance test named ZING. Developed by Ruckus Wireless, ZING measures throughput and ranks performance by percentile. I measured throughput from a computer connected on the wired network to a notebook connected to the Ruckus client adapter. The kitchen in my home is the most difficult room to reach with a wireless connection originating in my office. In the kitchen, the ZING test showed that I was getting 19.6 Mbps 99 percent of the time. Even at the 0.5th percentile, the throughput was still 18.7 Mbps.
For the second set of tests, I streamed video to a notebook connected to the Ruckus Client adapter. The video stream averaged around 5 Mbps with peaks of a little over 7 Mbps. In virtually every room in my home, the video was rock-solid, with no pauses or pixilation. I reran the video while transferring a large file to the notebook receiving the video stream. Again, the video was rock-solid. When I disconnected the Ruckus client, enabled my 802.11g adapter, and ran the same tests, I noted pauses and pixilation in the same video stream that had played flawlessly using the Ruckus router/client.
Though the Ruckus Wireless MediaFlex router/client started out as a hardware solution aimed at IPTV ISPs, consumers are discovering that it can deliver the streaming video they want. It lacks some of the features found on most consumer routers, and setup with multiple SSIDs in a typical home could be confusing. These issues could easily be addressed with a wizard-based installation and a good quick-start guide—both of which are lacking with this unit. All this aside, if you want to stream video throughout your house, the Ruckus MediaFlex Router is a solid, if pricey, choice.
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Final Thoughts
Ruckus Wireless MediaFlex Router
Despite limited router features, Ruckus delivers what it promises: glitch-free streaming video throughout your house. If you need to connect your set-top box to your Internet service wirelessly, Ruckus is a solid choice.