Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability

The Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability (6.4.2) test's goal is to see how well throughput on multiple STAs is maintained while STAs connect and disconnect. 16 2x2 vSTAs are first associated, with 8 of the 16 running 4 Mbps of UDP traffic in 2.4 GHz or 8 Mbps in 5 GHz. Traffic runs for 30 seconds, then the 8 vSTAs that are not running traffic are disassociated. After 30 seconds, the 8 vSTAs are reassociated and the test ends about 10 seconds later. Throughput and packet loss are measured for each vSTA throughout the test.

Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability test

For the test to pass, none of the traffic pairs can drop packets and each pair must maintain at least 99% of its programmed throughput for the duration of the test.

Table 4 shows all products pass the test. I'm not surprised, since the traffic loads of 32 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz and 64 Mbps @ 5 GHz are pretty light.

Table 4: Multiple Association / Disassociation Test summary

Here's what the results from one the tests looks like. But you can't really see whether each STA is meeting its test limit.

Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability test

So turning again to the Expert Analysis tool, I generated a histogram of each STAs average throughput for all three products. Since each STA's throughput must be at least 99% of 4 Mbps, all STAs pass.

Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability test - Average STA throughput histogram - 2.4 GHz

Similar results are shown for the 5 GHz test; all good.

Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability test - Average STA throughput histogram - 5 GHz

I've created an alternative version of this test that runs traffic on all pairs. So you get a more interesting plot that shows how throughput increases as STAs reconnect. This doesn't seem to affect throughput, however. All traffic pairs still pass.

Multiple Association / Disassociation Stability test - traffic on all pairs