Questions on direct-cabling 3x3 MIMO systems (ath9k)

[Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>]

I finally got my 3-attenuator system up and running,
and I'm starting to do some tests.

AP and Station are running 3.5.5+, ath9k ar9380 NICs.
Channel 157, HT40, no encryption.

One question right away:  Should I expect decent performance
if I directly cable 2 wifi NICs, where one is acting as AP and
the other as station?  I'm cabling ch0 to ch0, ch1 to ch1, ch2 to ch2.

If I add about 15dBm of attenuation in this setup, max download
speed is about 70Mbps, though the station may train up to 450Mbps
rate.  Signal is reported as -23, and noise at -93.

Throughput stays about the same all the way to signal of -68 or so, though
the trained rate drops to around 270Mbps.

I can't make the signal quality go lower (even by attaching terminators
directly to the antenna mounts on the AP).  Guess I'll need some sort of
box to double-box these systems and hopefully drown out more of the RF.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com