Linksys Releases MU-MIMO Trio

[thiggins]

Linksys today announced the start of shipment for three MU-MIMO products announced at January's CES 2016.

The EA9500 AC5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router with MU-MIMO is Linksys' new big-boy router. It's based on Broadcom's 4x4 MU-MIMO enabled radio and three-radio XStream architecture. The two 5 GHz radios support maximum link rates of 2166 Mbps each and the 2.4 GHz radio links up to 1000 Mbps. The only way to reach the advertised maximum link rates, however, will be to use another EA9500 or router using Broadcom's 4x4 chipset, because the rates require the use of non-standard 1024-QAM modulation, which currently only Broadcom supports.

A more practical aspect of the EA9500 is that MU-MIMO is supported on both 5 GHz radios, which should be able to provide higher total bandwidth than 4x4 MU-MIMO routers with only one radio, if you have that many MU-MIMO devices to load it up with. Note, however, Linksys says only two MU-MIMO devices are supported per radio right now. This will be bumped up to four per radio via a free firmware update "later this summer".

Features include 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, all Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 WAN, 8 switched LAN), USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports for storage and printer sharing and Linksys' Smart WiFi router OS. All eight antennas are permanently attached. The EA9500 lists for $399.99.

Also starting to ship is the RE7000 AC1900+ MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Range Extender. It pairs 4x4 MU-MIMO enabled 5 GHz and 2x2 N300 2.4 GHz radios to come up with its unique "AC1900+" classification. This is sure to be confused with AC1900, which connotes a 3x3 router with maximum link rates of 1300 Mbps in 5 GHz and 600 Mbps in 2.4 GHz and no MU-MIMO support.

The feature set remains as described in the CES 2016 announcement, i.e. Crossband technology for adaptive backhaul, Gigabit Ethernet port, AP mode support and MU-MIMO. The RE7000's MSRP also remains the same as January's price at $149.99.

Finally, those of us yearning to see if our MU-MIMO routers really do help, can now buy the only MU-MIMO USB adapter available. For $59.99 MSRP, you can now add the 1x1 WUSB6100M AC600 USB MU-MIMO Adapter to any Windows (only) notebook. Linksys has thoughtfully priced the WUSB6100M so you can afford to buy the two adapters you'll need in order to check out any potential MU-MIMO total throughput gain.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

This beast looks to be incredible. I am seriously thinking of replacing my following setup with the new EA9500.

Linksys WRT1900AC v1 with Linksys WRT004ANT high-gain antennas
Linksys SE4008 WRT 8 port switch

I have never really been happy with this router. Have had it now for a little over 2 years. 3 main reasons. Lack of firmware updates, fixing bugs, adding new features and most of all. Terrible 3rd party firmware support they over promised and still to this day. Cannot deliver on that promise. I also like the 3 year warranty on this new router. It tells me Linksys is very confident in it.

I want a set and for get it router that works properly. I have never been able to get 30+ days of up time on current router. I have to reboot it every 20-22 days. I was also warned about the Marvell chipset when the WRT1900AC first came out. It was a big concern for a crappy chipset in general and lack of support. Man did it live up to that! This new one seems to be Broadcom based I believe? Either way. Never again will I buy another router with a Marvell chipset.

 

[RMerlin]

Terrible 3rd party firmware support they over promised and still to this day.

Keep in mind that the E line of routers will not support third party firmware. That means no DD-WRT, for instance - you will be tied to whatever firmware support Linksys will offer (unless someone finds a back entrance to flash custom firmware on it, but this is highly unknown at this time).

Linksys announced that only their WRT line of products will allow third party firmware.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

OMG I completely for got about that announcement! At the same time. Considering price, warranty and tech support for a full 3 years. I will give Linksys a benefit of the doubt. The factory firmware should be very solid and reliable now. Now if they followed up with a new WRT with Broadcom chipset. That would be awesome! I really miss Tomato firmware.

 

[RogerSC]

OMG I completely for got about that announcement! At the same time. Considering price, warranty and tech support for a full 3 years. I will give Linksys a benefit of the doubt. The factory firmware should be very solid and reliable now. Now if they followed up with a new WRT with Broadcom chipset. That would be awesome! I really miss Tomato firmware.

I wouldn't give Linksys the benefit of any doubt after the WRT1900AC fiasco. Any firmware that they put out these days will be bottom line dumb.

But if you wait and see if this is coming out in a WRT form factor, you might be able to find third-party firmware for whatever that turns out to be.

Just a thought.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So MU-MIMO is actually rather pointless then if you can only connect 2-4 MU-MIMO devices to the same router. Is this the same across the board, or do other manufacturers not have this limitation?

I do like the 8-port switch though, but I don't like the price tag...

 

[sfx2000]

Bundle the MU-MIMO USB adapter with the Router for the WIN...

That way, MU-MIMO possibly out of the box with newer customer equipment...

 

[pete y testing]

i guess the question is would you pick this over the asus rt-ac88u or rt-ac5300

esp if they still use the same gui

http://ui.linksys.com/EA9200/1.1.5.163672/

which the last time i tested an ea router was at best basic and buggy

 

[thiggins]

Bundle the MU-MIMO USB adapter with the Router for the WIN...

That way, MU-MIMO possibly out of the box with newer customer equipment...

Make that TWO adapters....

 

[thiggins]

So MU-MIMO is actually rather pointless then if you can only connect 2-4 MU-MIMO devices to the same router. Is this the same across the board, or do other manufacturers not have this limitation?.

There are no hard limits for MU-MIMO operation. This is shown in our MU-MIMO tests where we test up to 16 simultaneous STAs. Once you exceed the N-1 number of MU-MIMO STAs (N = # of streams), total bandwidth shouuld ideally remain the same or at least decline slowly.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32975-mu-mimo-retest-six-routers-compared

 

[sfx2000]

Make that TWO adapters....

For $400 USD, I concur that they should... wonder who's chip is in the adapter - Realtek maybe?

 

[Garth P]

I wonder if it supports link aggregation?

 

[TheLostSwede]

There are no hard limits for MU-MIMO operation. This is shown in our MU-MIMO tests where we test up to 16 simultaneous STAs. Once you exceed the N-1 number of MU-MIMO STAs (N = # of streams), total bandwidth shouuld ideally remain the same or at least decline slowly.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32975-mu-mimo-retest-six-routers-compared

Oh, I've seen your tests and although not all device behave as they should, it clearly works quite well. However, it seems like Linksys haven't figured out how to do MU-MIMO properly if they limit it to so few devices per radio, which is even more surprising on such an expensive device. I'm also getting quite tired of the whole "we'll add feature x, y, z in a future firmware" which quite often never happens...

 

[dfran1]

I wonder if it supports link aggregation?

According to this NO

Just to make a note (I have an ea8500, replaced by the RT-AC5300) there is very very little user options in linksys firmware.
-All "E" series are Linksys firmware only locked form this point on.
-My EA8500 with my iPhone 6 plus would never switch from 5 GHz to 2.4GHz seamlessly, no matter what version of linksys firmware I had on it (very irritating to find out I am on cell data instead).
-Linksys removed the ability to view your NVR (or ? similar) from within your wifi network using your -WAN IP (this pissed me off, I spent a few weeks trying stuff then Linksys admitted to it and offered to replace the router with older firmware that worked, I said thanks anyway, and replaced the router with the RT-AC5300, what good is a router you update and add limitations you never had)
-Otherwise my EA8500 worked great

The RT-AC5300, that has none of those limitations (though you will not be able to go back to old firmware also {future}, you still can flash approved firmware by others)

 

[thiggins]

Oh, I've seen your tests and although not all device behave as they should, it clearly works quite well. However, it seems like Linksys haven't figured out how to do MU-MIMO properly if they limit it to so few devices per radio, which is even more surprising on such an expensive device. I'm also getting quite tired of the whole "we'll add feature x, y, z in a future firmware" which quite often never happens...

It's Broadcom that hasn't figured out MU-MIMO yet. I think MU-MIMO firmware in all Broadcom-based routers is still beta quality at best.

To me, the jury is out on whether MU-MIMO will yield any significant advantage in real-world use. It depends on an even more complex form of beamforming. Normal beamforming produces moderate performance gains at best, with best gains at medium signal levels.

Keep in mind our testing has all devices at the same strong signal level. In real life, devices will be scattered around a home or office. When the signal level drops too low to do accurate beamforming, devices switch to SU-MIMO (normal).

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's Broadcom that hasn't figured out MU-MIMO yet. I think MU-MIMO firmware in all Broadcom-based routers is still beta quality at best.

To me, the jury is out on whether MU-MIMO will yield any significant advantage in real-world use. It depends on an even more complex form of beamforming. Normal beamforming produces moderate performance gains at best, with best gains at medium signal levels.

Keep in mind our testing has all devices at the same strong signal level. In real life, devices will be scattered around a home or office. When the signal level drops too low to do accurate beamforming, devices switch to SU-MIMO (normal).

Right, but did Quantenna sort out their issues in the end? I remember seeing a fairly recent review of some Edimax router I think on here that was using Quantenna that barely worked as a router...

That pretty much leaves us with QCA for MU-MIMO, as I'm not aware of any MTK or Realtek products that can do MU-MIMO as yet. This in turn makes MU-MIMO even less useful, due to not only the poor support from the router side, but also from the lack of devices that supports it. I guess it's not even worth trying to do some cross chipset testing at this point due to the lack of support?

I wasn't aware that the devices would revert to normal MIMO if the signal wasn't strong enough, again something that's most definitely hasn't been highlighted by any of the manufacturers. It has simply sounded like MU-MIMO enabled devices would always use it if connected to a capable router/access point, but clearly that's not the case. Technological advances are seemingly never as great as they're made out to be these days....

 

[sfx2000]

To me, the jury is out on whether MU-MIMO will yield any significant advantage in real-world use. It depends on an even more complex form of beamforming. Normal beamforming produces moderate performance gains at best, with best gains at medium signal levels.

MU is hard work, and it's incremental for most folks (Wave 1 was the big step forward).

 

[njweb]

Best Buy already has a whopping 250 reviews for the EA9500 dating back to May 10???
So did they (Best Buy) have an exclusive since your announcement was only about 3 days ago and CNet also just posted their review at the same time as your news?

EDIT / UPDATE - Looks like most, if not all reviews to date, got it for free.
Comments (just in first few reviews I saw) such as:
This router was received free as part of the Tech Insiders program.
and
I was sent this router for free in exchange for my unbiased review.
and
The free Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream™ AC5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router was sent by Linksys for a review.

Pretty much every user who reviewed it so far has a "tech insiders network" icon next to their online user name.

 

[njweb]

Picked up an EA 9500 router at Best Buy today.
It came with the MU-MIMO adapter ("limited time offer "). The adapter is normally $60 + tax.

I plan to compare it to the Asus RT5300 which I bought last weekend (haven't opened it yet).

I will compare both to one of my 2 Linksys WRT1900AC routers which beat one of my 2 Asus AC66U routers.
Then I'll sell the 4 older routers.

I have a wedding to go to today, so I likely won't have time to test till tomorrow.

Even though people say the Asus RT5300 and Linksys EA9500 are overkill, I read a number of reviews stating the Asus 5300 is helping people get much higher Wifi speeds than prior routers. The asus is giving them Wifi speeds that far more closely match the cable Internet speed tier they are paying for and helping them get better range.
It also has built in protection (smaller factor).

My brother has the Asus (he's a big gamer and he had a gift card for the store in question). He ran a test showing me how he is getting excellent 5GHz speeds even slightly up the street outside.

 

[FattysGoneWild]

Its hard to take those reviews serious. After all. They are receiving a brand new $400 product free. They are more or less will definitely be positive about it. I read a few that do seem to be honest. But, the majority sound like its the second coming. Btw. Where is the review on this website for it?!?!? I thought release day it would have been up.