TP-Link AV1000 Powerline Network iPerf Benchmarks
I recently bought the TP-Link AV1000 Powerline Network kit for $45 on Amazon for my mother’s house. It comes with two adapters that allow you to network bridge two locations in a home with a relatively fast and reliable Ethernet link. This is a relatively new device in 2018 and the price has become even more attractive. Tech Adviser reviewed the AV1000 but I have some interesting results myself.
I ran into the typical problem of not having any open power sockets on the wall so I attached one end of the TP-Link AV1000 to a power strip which was a big mistake. Here are the iPerf TCP throughput results showing around 50 Mbps one way and 20 Mbps the other way. The results are very disappointing. This is at a distance of 100 feet though the actual wiring distance is much greater.
I cleared some room on the wall after moving some devices and attached the TP-Link AV1000 directly to the wall socket. The results improved drastically to over 100 Mbps. Still not great but much better.
Tech Advisor tested the two devices next to each other and recorded 373 Mbps but when they moved the devices apart the speed dropped to 130 Mbps which is in line with what I got. While this is not as good as I hoped the performance is respectable for a $45 pair of adapters. Best of all I am not using up any valuable radio spectrum by using a WiFi bridge, and I am not subject to any radio interference. I am however at the mercy of high power draw appliances which can impact performance.
Tech Advisor also tested the TP-Link AV2000 but the speed performance was only a few percent better in real world ranges so it is not worth the price difference.
Ideally you would install CAT 6a wiring which is a dedicated medium that can guarantee you 10 Gbps at 100 meter range. CAT 6 will do 5 Gbps, CAT 5e will do 2.5 Gbps, and CAT 5 will guarantee you 1 Gbps at 100 meters. But running cables isn’t always easy to do and 100 Mbps of throughput can ensure good performance for a 25 Mbps 4K video stream.
