ASUS EA-AC87 AC2400 AP Bridge

[pete y testing]

Right now they are both a case of "wait and see". The AC2350 product really only has an advantage with another AC2350 product right now in bridge mode. It might have a slight advantage in beamforming over an AC1750/1900 product due to the extra spatial stream...maybe possibly, depends a lot on Quantenna's design.

just fyi , i hear on the grape vine that asus will be releasing a wireless adapter for the ac2400 class in late September

 

[thiggins]

just fyi , i hear on the grape vine that asus will be releasing a wireless adapter for the ac2400 class in late September

From last paragraph of the RT-AC87 review

Smart buyers, however, will cool their jets and either buy something else or wait another few months until MU-MIMO support is turned on and ASUS ships its matching EA-87 client. They better have 5 GHz performance sorted out by then. Because the RT-AC87 won't be the only four-stream AC router in town at that point.

Timing was originally end of August.

 

[sfx2000]

just fyi , i hear on the grape vine that asus will be releasing a wireless adapter for the ac2400 class in late September

It'll be interesting to see if this is PCIe or USB3.0...

USB3.0 seems to be limited so far to 2-stream only - not sure if this is overhead limited - perhaps...

It's telling that the Packet Capture folks - e.g. WildPacket's and other see USB as a limiting factor.

In any event, the AP's are in an "Arms Race" similar to Shick/Gillette on how many blades they can put on a razor... e.g. I can see the CEO's of ASUS, Netgear, Linksys saying outright - we need five blades...

sfx

 

[thiggins]

It'll be interesting to see if this is PCIe or USB3.0...

Neither. Pretty sure it's Gigabit Ethernet

 

[azazel1024]

Neither. Pretty sure it's Gigabit Ethernet

So a media bridge?

As for the USB clients being just 2:2, its because of physical size. USB adapters tend to need to be fairly small, which is not condusive to trying to sandwich in a third antenna on the PCB, or off the shell, the extra PCB required, etc. It would make for a rather bulky adapter.

Its not a bandwidth issue as USB3 is 5Gbps and even with overhead can still hit roughly 4Gbps when all is said and done. >>>faster than the 1Gbps limit that almost all current 802.11ac routers have to deal with (I'll make an exception that I HAVE seen a couple of business/enterprise 802.11ac WAPs that are starting to come with a pair of gigabit ports and looking at the features LAG IS supported in them, so they should be able to push 2Gbps to more than one client in aggregate in theory).

 

[thiggins]

I posted photos of the EA-AC87 from the ASUS video referenced in this thread http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18742&page=2

 

[RMerlin]

The EA-AC87 is both a media bridge and an access point.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r254/maylyn22/ASUS Networking Event 2014/DSC01370.jpg~original

 

[azazel1024]

Oooohhhhh. AP mode, huh?

Now I am very, very interested. It also looks pretty tiny. I wonder what the damage on it will be once it becomes available, and also if the 4 antennas are dual band, or just 5GHz (fingers crossed dual band).

I do have an 11n WAP I'd like to replace at some point and that looks perfect to replace it with.

 

[sfx2000]

Neither. Pretty sure it's Gigabit Ethernet

Doesn't seem to be much of an improvement then... and limited utility for most folks.

Marketeering at it's best...

sfx

 

[sfx2000]

As for the USB clients being just 2:2, its because of physical size. USB adapters tend to need to be fairly small, which is not condusive to trying to sandwich in a third antenna on the PCB, or off the shell, the extra PCB required, etc. It would make for a rather bulky adapter.

802.11ac is a challenge at present for packet sniffers on USB... between the control plane (signalling on WiFi and USB) and the data plane, this is a lot to handle on any USB intereface...

For USB STA's - USB runs into priority issues, so 11ac 2*2:2 is about as best as can be done at present.

There's power issues as well - as putting three radio's on a 5V/500ma (USB 2.0 max spec) is a challenge... USB3 gives a bit more headroom, but since the connectors are backwards compatible - 2.5 watts is what can be expected - and even there, many older laptops can't deliver even that - newer laptops can push a lot more current... I've seen some laptops that can push up to 2A on the USB port, but this is the exception rather than the norm...

For 802.11n, only a couple of vendors actually released a 3*3:3 client - Asus was one of them, and it wasn't that portable...

sfx

 

[sfx2000]

Oooohhhhh. AP mode, huh?

Now I am very, very interested. It also looks pretty tiny. I wonder what the damage on it will be once it becomes available, and also if the 4 antennas are dual band, or just 5GHz (fingers crossed dual band).

I do have an 11n WAP I'd like to replace at some point and that looks perfect to replace it with.

I think we've missed a point here...

X-Stream vs. 4Stream 802.11ac - the E87 likely will connect to the R8000 at AC1300 speed at best...

sfx

 

[dsring]

When is the estimated release date for the EA-AC87?

 

[banky_edwards]

When is the estimated release date for the EA-AC87?

Middle of next year?

 

[maylyn]

Looks like ASUS is still on track on releasing the ASUS EA-AC87, a more detail rendered picture as shown below indicating media bridge and access point.

ASUS RT-AC3200 is a tri-band 802.11ac router with the exclusive tri-band Smart Connect feature. Smart Connect ensures that all connected devices do not hinder each other; and allows them to operate at their maximum speeds by automatically assigning them to either of the two 5GHz or one 2.4GHz bands based on their speed, distance from the router, and band loads.

ASUS EA-AC87 is the world’s fastest 4x4 Wi-Fi client with a data rate of 1734Mbit/s for smooth 4K/UHD video streaming and lag-free gaming on a PC, Xbox One, or PlayStation® 4. It has Access Point mode to add 5Ghz wireless access to an existing wired network, and Media Bridge mode adds wireless connectivity to wired network devices such as games consoles or TVs.

 

[RTN]

ASUS EA-AC87

Reviews Asus EA-AC87: http://koolshare.cn/thread-595-1-1.html

CPU1: Quantenna QT3840BC (500 MHz, 2 cores)
FLA1: 32 MiB
RAM1: 64 MiB

WLAN: 802.11an+ac
WI1 chip1: Quantenna QT3840BC
WI1 chip2: Quantenna QT2518B
WI1 802dot11 protocols: an+ac
WI1 MIMO config: 4x4:4
WI1 antenna connector: U.FL, RP-SMA

ETH chip1: Realtek RTL8367RB
Switch: Realtek RTL8367RB
LAN speed: 10/100/1000
LAN ports: 5

Power: 12 VDC, 1.5 A

FCC ID: MSQ-EAAC87
Industry Canada ID: 3568A-EAAC87

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_EA-AC87

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AC3200

 

[coastal_carolina]

When someone hears a release date please update this post.

 

[coastal_carolina]

Does anyone have any news on this?

Are we hoping for a release by the Spring? Summer?

 

[Fester1952]

I see it is on the Asus website, maybe been there for awhile, haven't taken much notice as the release seems to never happen!

http://www.asus.com/au/Networking/EAAC87/

 

[Fester1952]

Says here it is now available:
http://rog.asus.com/415512015/news/asus-announces-ea-ac87-ac1800-4x4-mimo-gige-to-wireless-bridge/

And this:
http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/asus-ea-ac87-674292

 

[thiggins]

Show me someplace you can buy it.