Lions are now experts in using the ESP8266 as a modem with access point. To get the highest throughput, you have to program it with the Arduino IDE, copy bits of the library source code from github to enable UART interrupts, allocate a 16384 byte buffer, set the clockspeed to 160Mhz.

This application only sends 148608 bits/sec, but occasionally overflows. Although rumors abound of it sending 7 megbits in bursts, it's very slow at continuously sending data from the UART to wifi. A raspberry pi with USB dongle can go much faster, but costs more & takes more space.