Lucian
ULTIMATE Member
Just read @Mark.J article https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...broadband-to-a-laptop-via-android-phones.html and thought there's a better way to measure this.
I went ahead and tested between my Pixel 3a phone and my laptop with iperf3. Results below, but tldr:
===
USB2 tethering speed and latency: 230 Mbps, 1.17ms
WIFI tethering: 30 Mbps, 25.5ms
===
So there you go, absolutely massive difference. I reckon speeds would have been even better had my phone had USB3 capability, alas it's not the case.
At this point, if you have a 5G capable phone and the USB port is not version 3... you're missing out as it's unlikely you'll be able to saturate your uplink given good radio connection and backhaul.
More info..
USB2 Tethering:
~]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.42.129
Connecting to host 192.168.42.129, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.42.77 port 37176 connected to 192.168.42.129 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 211 KBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 27.8 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 0 250 KBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 27.8 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 0 378 KBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 420 KBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 447 KBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 27.3 MBytes 229 Mbits/sec 0 495 KBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 275 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 273 MBytes 229 Mbits/sec receiver
iperf Done.
(ping -c100 -i0.1)
--- 192.168.42.129 ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 9958ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.869/1.179/2.432/0.169 ms
WIFI:
~]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.43.47
Connecting to host 192.168.43.47, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.43.238 port 36144 connected to 192.168.43.47 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 4.83 MBytes 40.5 Mbits/sec 0 253 KBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 3.11 MBytes 26.1 Mbits/sec 0 376 KBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 3.91 MBytes 32.8 Mbits/sec 0 404 KBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 3.60 MBytes 30.2 Mbits/sec 0 510 KBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 5.72 MBytes 48.0 Mbits/sec 0 652 KBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 3.75 MBytes 31.5 Mbits/sec 0 700 KBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 0 744 KBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 0 776 KBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 5.00 MBytes 42.0 Mbits/sec 0 912 KBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 8 638 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 37.4 MBytes 31.4 Mbits/sec 8 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 34.5 MBytes 29.0 Mbits/sec receiver
iperf Done.
--- 192.168.43.47 ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 10018ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.808/25.578/115.440/42.240 ms, pipe 2
PS: Because my laptop's wifi chipset is quite old I went ahead and used my wife's Huawei P30 as another iperf3 client, wifi speed test results were considerably better: 67 Mbps. Still no match for the USB cable though.
I went ahead and tested between my Pixel 3a phone and my laptop with iperf3. Results below, but tldr:
===
USB2 tethering speed and latency: 230 Mbps, 1.17ms
WIFI tethering: 30 Mbps, 25.5ms
===
So there you go, absolutely massive difference. I reckon speeds would have been even better had my phone had USB3 capability, alas it's not the case.
At this point, if you have a 5G capable phone and the USB port is not version 3... you're missing out as it's unlikely you'll be able to saturate your uplink given good radio connection and backhaul.
More info..
USB2 Tethering:
~]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.42.129
Connecting to host 192.168.42.129, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.42.77 port 37176 connected to 192.168.42.129 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 211 KBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 27.8 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 0 250 KBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 27.8 MBytes 233 Mbits/sec 0 378 KBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 420 KBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 447 KBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 27.3 MBytes 229 Mbits/sec 0 495 KBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 230 Mbits/sec 0 522 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 275 MBytes 231 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 273 MBytes 229 Mbits/sec receiver
iperf Done.
(ping -c100 -i0.1)
--- 192.168.42.129 ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 9958ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.869/1.179/2.432/0.169 ms
WIFI:
~]$ iperf3 -c 192.168.43.47
Connecting to host 192.168.43.47, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.43.238 port 36144 connected to 192.168.43.47 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr Cwnd
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 4.83 MBytes 40.5 Mbits/sec 0 253 KBytes
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 3.11 MBytes 26.1 Mbits/sec 0 376 KBytes
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 3.91 MBytes 32.8 Mbits/sec 0 404 KBytes
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 3.60 MBytes 30.2 Mbits/sec 0 510 KBytes
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 5.72 MBytes 48.0 Mbits/sec 0 652 KBytes
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 3.75 MBytes 31.5 Mbits/sec 0 700 KBytes
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 0 744 KBytes
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 0 776 KBytes
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 5.00 MBytes 42.0 Mbits/sec 0 912 KBytes
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 2.50 MBytes 21.0 Mbits/sec 8 638 KBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 37.4 MBytes 31.4 Mbits/sec 8 sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 34.5 MBytes 29.0 Mbits/sec receiver
iperf Done.
--- 192.168.43.47 ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 10018ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.808/25.578/115.440/42.240 ms, pipe 2
PS: Because my laptop's wifi chipset is quite old I went ahead and used my wife's Huawei P30 as another iperf3 client, wifi speed test results were considerably better: 67 Mbps. Still no match for the USB cable though.























