[Asus RT-AX88U] Experiences & Discussion

[Balance]

Asus RT-AX88U
Experiences & Discussion

Preface
The Asus RT-AX88U is the first router to support the 802.11ax draft specification, also known as Wi-Fi 6. The router is very similar to the RT-AC88U but has new radios and a new quad-core processor. The antenna's and 8 gigabit ethernet ports have remained the same, as have the two USB 3.0 ports.

The RT-AX88U is controlled by a Broadcom BCM49408, a quad-core Arm chip running at 1.8 GHz and assisted by 1 GB of RAM and 256 MB of flash. Both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz radio use the BCM43684 chip and therefore have 802.11ax support, 4x4 MIMO and 160MHz channels.

The router also supports AiMesh, a technology from Asus that allows you to build multiple routers as a Mesh network.

Where to buy: See [Asus RT-AX88U] Delivery times & prices

Client devices
At the moment there are no client devices that support 802.11ax. Intel has two WiFi adapters for laptops and PCs in development, the AX200 and AX201 and Asus is working on a PCE-AX88 adapter as the successor of the PCE-AC88.

Usefull links

• Product information: https://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AX88U/
• Firmware: https://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AX88U/HelpDesk_BIOS/
• Quick Start Guide (PDF): https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AX88U/WEU13245_RT-AX88U_QSG_PRINT.pdf

Reviews

• TBA

 

[mistabobdobalina]

Does anyone know know how to reach the 5G radio? Asus allows you to telnet into the RT-AX88U, but it seems I can only look at the 2.4G radio. I would like to check out phy stats and other radio info on the new 5G 11ax side. ( Advanced Settings: Administration - System: -> Enable Telnet
admin@RT-AX88U:/tmp/home/root# wl status
SSID: "ASUS-AX6000-2.4G"

Mode: Managed RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -81 dBm Channel: 10

BSSID: 0C:9D:92:01:81:58 Capability: ESS ShortSlot

Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]

HE Capable:

Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 10 20MHz (0x100a)

Primary channel: 10

HT Capabilities:

Supported HT MCS : 0-31

Supported VHT MCS:

NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

Supported HE MCS:

80 Mhz:

NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11


admin@RT-AX88U:/tmp/home/root# wl rssi

65

 

[RMerlin]

All that info can be seen on the webui under Logs -> Wireless Logs.

 

[Balance]

New firmware: https://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AX88U/HelpDesk_BIOS/

ASUS RT-AX88U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.384.4736
- Fixed IPTV related bugs
- Add localized modification

 

[AndyD]

Installed the AX88U yesterday, updated to latest firmware and created AIMESH with my old AC88U
Keep getting some random br0: received packet on eth6 with own address as source address
This happens randomly on 3 ethernet ports and doesn't affect stability.
If I connect my ISP router, through which the AX88U makes a PPPOE call to provide internet to the network, via a second eth cable to one of the AX88U's lan ports for management reasons, the above message is repeated every few seconds.
This didn't happen with my AC88U but I wasn't using AIMESH just had it connected to an RP-68U set up as an AP.
Maybe an issue with early firmware?
Cheers

 

[The Tinkerer]

Has anyone tried the Merlin beta firmware for this router?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/asuswrt-merlin/files/RT-AX88U/Beta/

 

[RamGuy]

I'm running 384.8 BETA1 and its working great. Getting Full-Cone-NAT is really great for getting UPNP to work perfectly with various gaming services that expect all the NAT translations to allow for incoming traffic from all public IPv4-addresses.

 

[RamGuy]

I did make two posts over in the 384.8 BETA thread;

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444062
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444065


It seems like, even though the RT-AX88U has a higher clocked quad-core CPU it doesn't really help all that much when it comes to WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN performance. You still need to have "Runner" acceleration enabled to get over 300 mbps as the traffic seems to be limited to using a single core / thread. As soon as I enabled Adaptive QoS which disables the acceleration I'm never seeing more than ~300 mbps WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN throughput.

 

[livefeed]

I did make two posts over in the 384.8 BETA thread;

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444062
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444065


It seems like, even though the RT-AX88U has a higher clocked quad-core CPU it doesn't really help all that much when it comes to WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN performance. You still need to have "Runner" acceleration enabled to get over 300 mbps as the traffic seems to be limited to using a single core / thread. As soon as I enabled Adaptive QoS which disables the acceleration I'm never seeing more than ~300 mbps WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN throughput.

Runner acceleration? Is that a setting?

 

[RamGuy]

Runner is the new branding for Flow Accelerator / Level 2 acceleration which has been described like this by Asus;

Level 2: Level 1 (CTF) + FA (Flow Accelerator): Hardware NAT acceleration mechanism design for accelerating wired DHCP and Static IP connections.
You will need Flow Accelerator option to fully take advantage of internet provider’s Gigabit service is offered.

Flow Accelerator is achieved through special hardware related designs.

EDIT:

Both CTF and FA / Runner acceleration is on by default. But Level 2 (FA/Runner) will be disabled when you activate certain functions like Ai Protection or QoS as those require additional inspection of the NAT traffic in order to function so the acceleration can't be used.

 

[rjih]

In the USA does the RT-AX88U include the 5GHz wireless Channels between 48 and 149?

 

[RMerlin]

In the USA does the RT-AX88U include the 5GHz wireless Channels between 48 and 149?

Yes, it supports DFS in the US.

 

[y2jdmbfan]

Yes, it supports DFS in the US.

Is this the only Asus Router that does? Do you know if they will enable DFS on any other bands.

 

[RMerlin]

Is this the only Asus Router that does?

So far yes, AFAIK.

Do you know if they will enable DFS on any other bands.

DFS is specific to the 5 GHz band.

 

[y2jdmbfan]

So far yes, AFAIK.



DFS is specific to the 5 GHz band.

I meant DFS on any other routers, not bands, sorry.

 

[RMerlin]

I meant DFS on any other routers, not bands, sorry.

I don't know. It's probably unlikely, because that will require Asus to put each individual model through revalidation by the FCC for the addition of the DFS channels, which can be an expensive process.

 

[kryptto]

I did make two posts over in the 384.8 BETA thread;

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444062
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/b...eta-is-now-available.49908/page-2#post-444065


It seems like, even though the RT-AX88U has a higher clocked quad-core CPU it doesn't really help all that much when it comes to WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN performance. You still need to have "Runner" acceleration enabled to get over 300 mbps as the traffic seems to be limited to using a single core / thread. As soon as I enabled Adaptive QoS which disables the acceleration I'm never seeing more than ~300 mbps WAN-to-LAN and LAN-to-WAN throughput.

I see your post here, I am having similar issues posted here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ax88u-not-wireless-download-upload-speeds-very-slow.49958/

Does this sound similar to your testing?

 

[MidKnight]

Anyone know if it supports hardware encryption/decryption?

 

[AndyD]

New firmware is out through the GUI

Latest Version : 3.0.0.4.384_5247-g499251e
- Release Note -
Bug fixed and Improvements:
- Improve WiFi stability.
- Improve AiMesh node performance.
- Minor GUI bug fixes.

Also live at https://www.asus.com/Networking/RT-AX88U/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[RMerlin]

Anyone know if it supports hardware encryption/decryption?

It supports both hardware-accelerated AES at the CPU level (for OpenVPN) and the hardware crypto engine (for IPSEC).