Squeezebox Touch: jitter thru wi-fi?

Audioengr reminded me that a Wifi network is shared and used by all active devices connected to it. it is only dedicated to streaming audio from server to player if nobody else is using it for tasks that consume bandwidth (web browsing, file downloads, etc.). So concurrent usage for things other than streaming audio can cause delays/dropouts.

For example, I have two Roku players on two systems that conenct via wireless G to the same music server computer. Often if I play both at the same time with lossless CD .wav files, the dropouts/delays will occur regularly and become an annoyance. Less of a problem as I mentioned earlier for lossy or lower resolution files, like MP3.

The worse case for two channel spdif is 24bit at 192kHz.
24 bit data is transferred in 32bit packets (8 bit preamble).

32bit x 2channels x 192kHz = 12.3Mbps

802.11g runs at up to 54Mbps while 802.11n more than doubles it.

Kijanki,

54Mbps is what wireless g can do optimally based on the spec I think, right?

Weak/sub optimal signals reduces that bandwidth.

Also I've found not all g routers are the same. Actual bandwidth at a particular range seems to vary from router to router. There may be many reasons for this

Processors and programming can vary.

Differences in the performance of the radio transmitter /receiver technology may be another factor. Antenna's used are one factor. I suspect there are others also.

802.11g runs at up to 54Mbps

Not in the real world. 15 mbps would be a reasonable expectation for a fairly optimal setup, and I'm sure that less than 10 is not uncommon.

I don't have a feel yet for typical 802.11n performance, but given that the theoretical maximums that were advertised for a, b, and g were all essentially fictional, I'd be surprised if the same didn't apply there.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, I've never done the math or quantitatively measured bandwidths, but from what I have seen I suspect your real world estimates to be reasonable.

Wireless n probably also does not always perform to the max based on teh spec but I would expect perhaps still a significant improvement over g in practice.

I have a wireless n router but my server and players are all wireless G, so I have not really leveraged the current wirless n technology in practice to date.

Again, just to be clear for all, these are limitations that determine how fast digital data can move through the digital wireless "pipeline" as input to the Squeezebox. Jitter is not a phenomena that pertains to transmission of dogital data. Jitter comes into play during the DAC process. Data input to the DAC process is provided by the Squeezebox, regardless of whether the SB's internal built in or an external DAC is used.