Have: 5Gbps internet/gateway, need: Wi-Fi 6E mesh (3 APs)

[Tech9]

If you wan to do 80mhz channel width then it just means you need more clients to peg the speeds

No. The maximum throughput is about 800Mbps in ideal conditions to all clients.

If I took my setup and had the 5GE WAN + 2 more AP's I could find a way to saturate the WAN

What's the way?

I've yet to see RTL / QCA release cards even though Intel did close to 2 years ago now.

Highly unlikely to see anything better than 2-stream, especially for mobile device use.

 

[Tech Junky]

Single client / WIFI / 160 = 1.3gbps

 

[Tech9]

What do you expect to see with 4x clients @160MHz, 4x 1.3Gbps?

 

[Tech Junky]

What do you expect to see with 4x clients @160MHz, 4x 1.3Gbps?

Considering the physical port is 2.5GE I would expect it to max out below that w/ overhead. ADHOC though might be able to hit higher between clients that don't need to traverse the physical port. LR is 2400mbps for the laptop so, there's room for speed.

 

[Tech9]

Considering the physical port is 2.5GE I would expect it to max out below that w/ overhead.

No. All connected clients will max out at around 1.3Gbps. Single client is using all available bandwidth, multiple will share it.

LR is 2400mbps for the laptop so, there's room for speed.

Not much. The throughput is about 1/2 of the link speed in real world scenarios. This is what you get from your access point.

 

[Tech Junky]

No. All connected clients will max out at around 1.3Gbps. Single client is using all available bandwidth, multiple will share it.

Even if that were the case then 3 AP's running 160 would hit an aggregate of 3.9gbps and add a wired connection to the mix and OP would be able to saturate the ATT connection.

 

[Tech9]

Even if that were the case then 3 AP's running 160 would hit an aggregate of 3.9gbps

No, they won't. If they use the same channels, they will have to wait to transmit/receive. How many 160MHz wide channels we have on 5GHz band?

 

[Tech Junky]

No, they won't. If they use the same channels, they will have to wait to transmit/receive. How many 160MHz wide channels we have on 5GHz band?

On 6ghz you have several, on 5ghz you have 2.

If the AP's are setup on high / low / high and tuned properly they won't interfere with each other and going 6E / 6Ghz negates all of this BS.

 

[Tech9]

negates all of this BS

And @SamS is ready to invest in this BS for how many clients? And for what reason exactly?

 

[Tech Junky]

And @SamS is ready to invest in this BS for how many clients? And for what reason exactly?

For the sake of not having to again for several years to get the benefits as they add more devices capable of using 6ghz channels.

 

[Tech9]

Isn't it a better deal to wait for few years and get the equipment on 1/2 price, fully certified and with better firmware, when he has actual clients to use the new technology? I wouldn't push him towards cheapest Netgear 6E access points available. Is this the best he can get in 6E?

 

[coxhaus]

If you were a coffee shop or something similar with lots of active users then I could see using a Cisco small business switch and a few Cisco small business wireless APs with 2.5 gig wired connections. You could connect the Cisco switch to the 5gig port on the AT&T gateway. I would use layer 3 on the switch so you could use QoS on the switch if you needed it for POS devices. I don't know if you have any routing ability on the AT&T gateway.
5gig internet is going to be hard to saturate.

 

[Tech Junky]

@coxhaus

3 Cisco's in one reply. That's your limit for the day.

 

[tgl]

Yeah ... unfortunately, the "let's saturate the LAN with multiple APs" idea doesn't work so well unless you either (a) have lots of WiFi 6E gear or (b) can spread the APs far enough apart that they can share 5GHz-band channels without interference. (b) is a bit unlikely for home use, unless maybe you live in a very old house with ridiculously thick walls.

I tend to agree with the advice not to spend a lot of money now with the expectation that you'll grow into heavy 6E use. Now that WiFi 7 is starting to look like a thing, it could be that device manufacturers will largely skip 6E and go straight to 7. Buy what you can use today.

 

[SamS]

Hey guys,

Sorry, I didn't intentionally disappear from this thread! I didn't make any decisions 6-months ago, but almost pulled the trigger last night on a 3-pack of the Eero 6E Pro via Amazon deal.

Ultimately, I've decided to stick with what I've got: Orbi RBK50 Wi-Fi 5 set up (including outdoor-rated Orbi mesh access point), that all works very well today, as opposed to trying to squeeze a bit more Wi-Fi internet speed from a few of my newer laptops/tablets.

My LAN is working great, and of course it's hard to saturate the 5Gbps AT&T Fiber connection, but it's been solid. My Wi-Fi speeds range from 300-600Mbps, and I really can't think of scenarios where I need faster speeds on my mobile devices/laptops. Most of all, everything is very stable, including my HomeKit accessories.

So, I'm going to stick with what I have (1Gbps Wi-Fi LAN) either until something breaks, I move, or mesh wireless routers supporting 5/10Gbps LAN become more affordable, and I can offload LAN routing duties from my AT&T BGW-320 without suffering a throughput penalty.