Any worthwhile ax mesh platforms yet?

[adambean]

Hey all,

I am ... at wits end with my AiMesh environment (GT-AC5300, RT-AC5300 and AC66BU1). I've had a lot of help and support here in previous threads, but I still fight dropped connections and lack of connectivity. I simply can't figure it out and I'm ... done.

I have my whole house wired, including drops in my attic. I have the perfect setup for wired access points. I've always wanted to move to UniFi, but have been patiently waiting a release for Wi-Fi 6. Doesn't seem like they have any dates yet and I'm not sure how much longer I can wait.

Anyway, are there any worthwhile platforms at this time or do I need to just keep waiting it out?

(yes, I realize I don't "need" 802.11ax; however, If I'm going to buy new at this point, it seems stupid to do it on a previous generation)

Thanks all!

 

[L&LD]

Keep waiting (you don't need to use AiMesh right now).

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/e...x2-802-11ax-smb-access-point-to-market.55778/

How much do you really, really want AX?

 

[thiggins]

If you have Ethernet backhaul, you don't need mesh. Why do you think you do?
11ax is a good year away from being stable and reasonably priced. Its chief benefit, OFDMA, is still under heavy development and not enabled in any consumer routers yet.

 

[adambean]

Thanks f for the replies.

If I setup my Asus routers as AP's instead of Mesh, I can't transfer between nodes right? I work from home in my basement and regurally move between floors. Basement to second floor is a weak signal.

In theory the AiMesh with SmartConnect seemed ideal to auto balance everything. Generally speaking it does a great job, it's just the occasional outage that drives me insane. I've tried disabling SmartConnect, use Merlin, none of which helped. I haven't however, torn out AiMesh...

 

[thiggins]

If I setup my Asus routers as AP's instead of Mesh, I can't transfer between nodes right?

No. Mesh technology is used to form the wireless backhaul link between mesh nodes (which are APs).
"Transfer between nodes" is called roaming and uses different technologies and techniques, including 802.11k,v and r, none of which ASUS uses.

Client devices decide when and where to roam. APs can try to influence the process, but in the end, the device decides.

When you can connect APs via Ethernet, you don't need mesh technology to form the connection. Roaming has nothing to do with mesh. Or put another way, you don't need mesh to have roaming.

 

[sfx2000]

If you have Ethernet backhaul, you don't need mesh. Why do you think you do?
11ax is a good year away from being stable and reasonably priced. Its chief benefit, OFDMA, is still under heavy development and not enabled in any consumer routers yet.

Based on early 11ax vs. 11ac review and some testing across vendors - I think most folks are going to be disappointed - performance is good, but it is very similar to 11ac Wave 1 - because Physics are what they are, and 11ac Wave1 got pretty close to the edge of the Shannon Limits...

11ac Wave2 was picking up nickels in the parking lot - e.g. edge cases, some benefit - but at a cost due to interoperability, and some saw lower performance with DL-MIMO, and 160MHz is not really a real world consideration considering that most clients are going to be Wave 1 and two-stream at best...

11ax - that's looking for pennies in the parking lot for most applications...

OFDMA - it's much like DL-MIMO, better scheduling perhaps, and this is from someone that worked on 802.16e/16m, but this is more for efficiency, not performance in a WLAN situation - but standards guys need to invent stuff to keep their jobby-jobs...

In 3GG/3GPP2 - LTE was also known as Long Term Employment, I think my former IEEE 802.11/16 colleagues would agree...

Nickels in the parking lot...

@thiggins - this might be a chance for content on the main site...

 

[RMerlin]

Its chief benefit, OFDMA, is still under heavy development and not enabled in any consumer routers yet.

Are you sure? It's currently listed on the Asus GT-AX11000 product page and there's no mention of it being coming only in a future firmware update (like was the case with MU-MIMO), so I assume all you need is a 802.11ax client to make use of it.

 

[thiggins]

Are you sure? It's currently listed on the Asus GT-AX11000 product page and there's no mention of it being coming only in a future firmware update (like was the case with MU-MIMO), so I assume all you need is a 802.11ax client to make use of it.

As of a month or so ago, OFDMA was not enabled on either the NETGEAR or ASUS AX products. I've pinged my ASUS contact to see if that has changed and to ask more detailed questions.

Don't believe everything you read in vendor spec sheets..... Assume NOTHING.

 

[RMerlin]

As of a month or so ago, OFDMA was not enabled on either the NETGEAR or ASUS AX products. I've pinged my ASUS contact to see if that has changed and to ask more detailed questions.

Don't believe everything you read in vendor spec sheets..... Assume NOTHING.

I know, it's just I haven't seen any other information claiming whether OFDMA was enabled or disabled in the current wave of products, which is why I'm not taking it for granted, but questioning

The newest Asus firmware release claims much improved performance with the Samsung Galaxy S10 (was confirmed by a reviewer), I wonder if it's because it just got enabled, or some other finetuning they've done.

 

[thiggins]

I know, it's just I haven't seen any other information claiming whether OFDMA was enabled or disabled in the current wave of products

This information isn't being volunteered. I'm specifically asking about it to determine whether it's time to develop test methods for it.

The newest Asus firmware release claims much improved performance with the Samsung Galaxy S10 (was confirmed by a reviewer),

OFDMA doesn't improve single device performance. It improves bandwidth efficiency when handling multiple devices.