Websockets vs. WiFi - driver issue

Question

I am using Node and Socket.io to stream a processed stream of data from various external sensors (accelerometers, gyros etc) connected to an IGEP board (similar to Beagleboard) to a number of clients - smartphones, computers etc. In the end, the unit is supposed to be battery-powered and wireless. The data rate is pretty low, roughly 100 characters transmitted 30 times per second.

All is working fine when clients are connected to the IGEP using wired ethernet and a switch, but when using WiFi something breaks. As soon as more than one client is connected, timeouts and lost connections start to occur, making it practically unusable. Ping times seem to be ever rising for the packets that do make it through. I have tried ad hoc WiFi as well as using an access point. I seem unable to make WiFi support persistent connections to more than one client.

Should I be able to do this or is there some limitation in the WiFi spec? If not - where do I focus the troubleshooting? Driver issues? WiFi chipset (try USB dongle instead)? Node/socket.io? OS issue? Elsewhere?

Thanks, Erik

UPDATE -- Additional troubleshooting revealed that the WiFi drivers where the cause of the issues.

Answer 1

It turned out to be a WiFi driver issue. I downgraded to an earlier version and now it is all working smooth also over wireless.