Tri-Band AC or Dual-Band AX for mesh?

[fields987]

I know best case would be to run ap's over ethernet, but just curious if that's not really feasible, if a tri-band ac system with dedicated backhaul would be better or if a dual band over ax would be better? I prefer to have an asuswrt-merlin supported device at the edge for dns filtering, dnssec and DoT, and skynet.

I just upgraded to an RT-AX88U, so not sure if it would be better to add an orbi or some triband ac system in bridge mode behind it for wifi connectivity, or get another ax device to put in aimesh?

I know this post is kind of vauge so I apologize, just trying to get a sense of which solution would be best and why.

 

[L&LD]

With an RT-AX88U myself, I would be trying/testing the RT-AX58U if I needed an AiMesh node.

Tri-Band routers seem to have a lot of issues and limitations which isn't commensurate with their cost or performance advantages (if any).

A customers RT-AC86U router and RT-AC86U node in AiMesh has proven stable, fast and reliable.

I expect the 'AX88U + 'AX58U AiMesh setup running on RMerlin 384.16 Beta 3 or later to be a very satisfying experience (I am hoping to test this soon).

 

[thiggins]

It depends on mix of client types (a/b/g/n/ac/ax), band use and traffic loads.

When a radio is shared between client connect (fronthaul) and mesh node-to-node connect (backhaul), anything that happens with clients affects the bandwidth available to the backhaul. All it takes is one slow device to chew up bandwidth to kill your backhaul bandwidth.

Unless you're using 160 MHz bandwidth, AX doesn't provide significantly higher bandwidth than AC in 5 GHz, given the same # of streams. So you won't get that much more speed from AX in the AX-to-AX backhaul. See the last two comparison plots here.

You can get a significant throughput gain in 2.4 GHz. See the 2.4 GHz plots in this review.

 

[fields987]

Looks like the ax58u is 2x2 vs 4x4 for the 88u. Is 4x4 on an aimesh node worth an extra $100? If money is no object, would an aimesh system perform any better if using the same model for all nodes?

 

[L&LD]

Money no object, I would get two RT-AX88U routers in AiMesh (buy the second only if it is actually needed, after testing the network performance/coverage with a single 'AX88U).

This link may help.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r...-for-up-to-5000-sq-ft-wifi.63116/#post-566998

 

[Trip]

Per Tim's overview on AX, I'd hold off on it as it largely makes zero beneficial difference in most cases, especially multi-radio, cascading-effect consumer mesh.

That said, for an all-wireless deployment, tri-band Eero Pro (AC Wave 2) is the only consumer product worth monkeying with, IMHO. It still shares all the inherent consumer product limitations (no differing fronthaul channels, no PoE, no VLANs, no advanced management) but its code base is the most optimized to maximize the end-user experience, primarily due to automatic re-purposing of radios for fronthaul/backhaul/split-duty based on real-time traffic flow analysis, plus auto-adjusting SQM running between nodes and out to the internet. No other consumer product, including router bolt-ons like AiMesh, come close to that level of traffic flow optimization, and yes, it does make difference, mostly for latency sensitive traffic like video chat (we're seeing more that these days, aren't we...), VoIP and gaming. If it weren't for some of the shared consumer product limitations, it might even rival some business-class AP systems for small network PtMP use cases.

Beyond that, if you can hardwire at least most nodes, then other consumer products such as Orbi or Amplifi Alien, with their higher static backhaul/fronthaul spatial streams, could offer faster end-user link rates, but at that point I'd probably push for a wire-first, controller-based AP product like TP-Link Omada, Ubiquiti UniFi or Grandstream GWN.

Hope that helps.

 

[Gar]

Per Tim's overview on AX, I'd hold off on it as it largely makes zero beneficial difference in most cases, especially multi-radio, cascading-effect consumer mesh.

That said, for an all-wireless deployment, tri-band Eero Pro (AC Wave 2) is the only consumer product worth monkeying with, IMHO. It still shares all the inherent consumer product limitations (no differing fronthaul channels, no PoE, no VLANs, no advanced management) but its code base is the most optimized to maximize the end-user experience, primarily due to automatic re-purposing of radios for fronthaul/backhaul/split-duty based on real-time traffic flow analysis, plus auto-adjusting SQM running between nodes and out to the internet. No other consumer product, including router bolt-ons like AiMesh, come close to that level of traffic flow optimization, and yes, it does make difference, mostly for latency sensitive traffic like video chat (we're seeing more that these days, aren't we...), VoIP and gaming. If it weren't for some of the shared consumer product limitations, it might even rival some business-class AP systems for small network PtMP use cases.

Beyond that, if you can hardwire at least most nodes, then other consumer products such as Orbi or Amplifi Alien, with their higher static backhaul/fronthaul spatial streams, could offer faster end-user link rates, but at that point I'd probably push for a wire-first, controller-based AP product like TP-Link Omada, Ubiquiti UniFi or Grandstream GWN.

Hope that helps.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YVVYDMJ/?tag=snbforums-20

That it? Free Echo Dot

EDIT: Oops, wrong model

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HHK2PN/?tag=snbforums-20