Uplink consistently more than Downlink

[AJ_1612]

Hi Intel Support,

I’ve been conducting performance testing with the Intel® Wi-Fi 7 BE201 card and have consistently noticed that uplink throughput is significantly higher than downlink, particularly during bidirectional tests using iPerf3. The setup consists of a laptop equipped with the BE201 card connected wirelessly to a Wi-Fi 7 access point, which is wired via Ethernet to a desktop server with a 10G NIC. The access point and client are placed in the same room to rule out environmental factors like interference or signal attenuation.

This issue has been observed across Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), and Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be). I’ve tested single-band configurations (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz), dual-band setups, and Multi-Link Operation (MLO). Both TCP and UDP traffic types were used, and all traffic directions—uplink, downlink, and bidirectional—were tested independently. While uplink and downlink performance is fairly balanced when tested separately, downlink throughput consistently drops in bidirectional mode, especially with TCP, even when varying parameters such as parallel streams, window sizes, and test durations.

All drivers and firmware are up to date, and power-saving features are disabled. I’ve also tested with another client device, which does not show the same issue, suggesting that this may be specific to the BE201 or its driver implementation.

I would really appreciate urgent support on this issue. If a direct solution is not currently available, I’d at least like to understand the reason behind this behavior so I can proceed accordingly. Any technical insight or suggestions for further debugging would be extremely helpful.

Thank you & BR,

AJ

[Mike_Intel]

Hello AJ_1612,

Thank you for posting in Intel community Forum.

For me to further check this, please help provide the following details:

1. Can you tell us why are you testing the performance of Intel® Wi-Fi 7 BE201?
2. What is your OS?
3. What is the brand and model of your system?
4. Or, are you designing a system, board or application using this wireless card?

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AJ_1612]

Hello Michael,

This testing and experiment are part of my master's thesis. The OS I am using is Windows 11, and the system is a Dell XPS 13. I am designing a testbed for this purpose.

Best Regards,

AJ

[Mike_Intel]

Hello AJ_1612,

Thank you for the update.

For me to understand the test and further help you, kindly help provide the following details:

1. What is the tool that you are using to test the wireless card?
2. Are you using an embedded wireless card or did you upgrade the wireless card of your system?
3. Can you share a video of the actual test?
4. Please help generate the SSU logs of your system. Please refer to the link below on how to generate the logs:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057926/memory-and-storage.html

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello AJ_1612,

I hope this message finds you well. 

Were you able to check the previous post?

Please let us know if you still need assistance.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AJ_1612]

Hello,

I have already sent the requested details and SSU logs to Vineetha(Support Team) via email. 

Thanks & Regards,

AJ

[Mike_Intel]

Hello AJ_1612,

Thank you for letting us know.

Since we other support agent is already supporting you for this inquiry, I need to close this thread to avoid duplicate support. If you need further assistance, please post a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician