ASUS Unveils RT-BE88U WiFi 7 Dual-Band Router

[sfx2000]

just referring to whatever the BCM4916 is.. "2.6ghz".

Broadcom's B53 cores are not standard Cortex-A53 - they're more akin to Cortex-A57, in that they're the 64bit port of Brahma B15...

Most folks likely don't know, or appreciate the difference there - and info is hard to find on exactly what is Brahma B53, except that's been fairly performant compared to off the shelf cores from ARM...

Recall that Broadcom, like Apple, Qualcomm, and Marvell - they're architecture licensees...

 

[jasz]

Broadcom's B53 cores are not standard Cortex-A53 - they're more akin to Cortex-A57, in that they're the 64bit port of Brahma B15...

Most folks likely don't know, or appreciate the difference there - and info is hard to find on exactly what is Brahma B53, except that's been fairly performant compared to off the shelf cores from ARM...

Recall that Broadcom, like Apple, Qualcomm, and Marvell - they're architecture licensees...

To be fair, I never looked into it. Just assumed it was Broadcom revision.

Seems weaker than what older and current QCA hardware is capable of regardless...

 

[sfx2000]

LUMEN's 1.3ghz MIPS SmartNID can process 8 gbps to a faster x86 CPU, though its likely offloaded via x86. (Friend has this service).

The SmartNID is a Gemtek C5500 series device...

It's based on an EcoNet 7528 chipset - they're a Mediatek subsidiary, also known as Airoha...

They do a lot of GPON/10-GPON chips...

For your friends Lumen GW - here's the actual chip...

The dual-core MIPS is basically control plane for device management - similar to a BMC for a Server...

No data I would suspect goes thru the MIPS, but rather the dataplane core, which isn't exposed to userland...

 

[jasz]

The SmartNID is a Gemtek C5500 series device...

It's based on an EcoNet 7583 chipset - they're a Mediatek subsidiary, also known as Airoha...

They do a lot of GPON/10-GPON chips...

For your friends Lumen GW - here's the actual chip...

View attachment 59149

The dual-core MIPS is basically control plane for device management - similar to a BMC for a Server...

No data I would suspect goes thru the MIPS, but rather the dataplane core, which isn't exposed to userland...

7528/29 is the GPON variant. They're marked Airoha now.

10G variant is 7580 for 6500XK. Both made by Axon.. Manufactured by Gemtek

Theres a newer 7581 with RISC-V NPU and A53 @ 1.3ghz, but they've only put it in the Mediatek based WIFI7 hardware they're launching.

Would prefer the 7581 to replace both previous versions..

 

[jasz]

And since were on topic.. what would be causing the 5500XK to have slower throughput to external servers?

I thought I had a WIFI bug, but it was general packets not passing through. I noticed later on when speed testing to servers further way... low UL throughput to anything outside of my general area. Solely RJ45 to a laptop/desktop with modern HW.

The weird thing is, I can reset the unit (SC/APC, or speedtest to OLT) and get full throughput, even on WIFI... which makes no sense other than routing tables being reset?

I'm just so confused and finding anyone at LUMEN to relay info is nearly impossible. The 10G XGS PON setup seems to work fine.. few miles down the road.

I assume Axon has their head stuck in their butt? or is it a back end CO issue? Nothing makes sense.. Would DM you, but I don't think I can.

 

[Makaveli]

期待梅林出这款设备固件！

Post need to be in English boss.

 

[Tech9]

And you @Makaveli need to upgrade again, sorry...

 

[Sweden]

I just got the Asus RT-BE88U

A very good update from the AX88u

Is there any ETA for asuswrt-merlin firmware on this router?

Until its stated that this router support MLO STR i will not buy it. Waste of money if you have a working AX88U.

 

[Tech9]

Waste of money if you have a working AX88U.

Wi-Fi about the same, but better CPU, double the RAM, integrated 4-port 2.5GbE switch and expected longer support. RT-AX88U (Pro) + additional 2.5GbE switch will come to about the same price. If you don't have RT-AX88U Pro already - may be a good deal. RT-AX88U stuck on Asuswrt 4.0 firmware.

 

[Makaveli]

And you @Makaveli need to upgrade again, sorry...

@Tech9 lol nah not planning on moving past 1.5 Gbps wan speed anytime soon i'm good

Plus my limit on consumer routers is in the $300-$400 range once it goes past that i'm will be looking at different gear.

 

[VladDBA]

I use the SFP+ port to connect the internet fiber directly. For my needs its the best design.

Can you please recommend a PON SFP(+) stick?

 

[Semtex]

Hello

Would like to know if the Asus RT-BE88U will be supported with Merlin in the future?

 

[Richard1864]

For those who already have the BE88u (also called BE7200 at Best Buy), what are your thoughts about it? Lots of us would love to read your review(s).

 

[VladDBA]

For those who already have the BE88u (also called BE7200 at Best Buy), what are your thoughts about it? Lots of us would love to read your review(s).

I've been using BE88u (EU version) for the past two days.
Pros:
- So far it's pretty neat, I really love the 2.5 LAN ports since they've more than halved backup times from my PC to my NAS.
- Wireless is stable (with at least 18 clients connected at any given time of the day) and the range is excellent (e.g.: my phone has 3 bars out of 4 on WiFi6 with 15m and a concrete wall between it and the router), even with the 2.4GHz network having Tx power set to "power saving" and the 5GHz one to "Balanced". I've disabled WiFi7 since I don't (yet) have anything capable of using that, and everything that's WiFi6 capable works great.
- File transfer speeds from my phone to the NAS peak at around 80MB/s, a little over double the speeds reached with my old router (an RT-AC86U), and around 20MB/s more than what I've seen with an RT-AX86U Pro that I've had for a short period.
"Guest Network Pro" is a nice addition compared to my old router. It gives you profiles for various scenarios, like setting up dedicated IoT WiFi networks, which have some extra options as opposed to having to use a standard guest network.
- Temperature wise, the CPU runs as hot as the RT-AC86U did before I modded it - 70-75C (according to HomeAssistant).
- The UI feels very snappy overall.
- I didn't have any random restarts, disconnects or network instability in these 2 days.

Mehs:
You can wall-mount it, if that's your thing, but the position of the screw slots means that the LAN ports would be on top. Would have actually opted to mount it on the wall myself if Asus would have added another set of screw slots that would have allowed to place the router with the LAN ports facing downwards.


Cons:
- During the initial config, you're prompted about creating an IoT network, if you do it then it becomes your default IoT network and you can't change the WiFi band to just 2.4GHz (leaving it stuck on 2.4 and 5, which is pointless in my case since all my IoT stuff is on 2.4). You can rename it later on and disable it (you can't delete it as far as I can tell), and then create another one that fits your needs.
- Obviously everything that comes with no Merlin support. Which in my case would be:

- the lack of custom scripts/JFFS partition​

- lack of a custom domain option for DDNS​

- no temperature monitoring for the WiFi chips, and neither for the CPU within the UI as far as I can tell (at least HomeAssistant can read the CPU temp).​

- Can't restore config backups from neither the RT-AC86U nor the RT-AX86U Pro. I mean you can restore them, the router just doesn't boot up properly afterwards and requires a hard factory reset to work again. Wheareas I was able to restore the config from RT-AC86U to the RT-AX86U Pro without any issues.

Asus UI Con:
- They should have an option in the UI to export and import your DHCP client list if you have dedicated IPs configured for your clients. Having to decode the config backup, get the client list from there, and then copy-paste each entry in the new router isn't fun if you have upwards of 30 entries.

 

[Richard1864]

I've been using BE88u (EU version) for the past two days.
Pros:
- So far it's pretty neat, I really love the 2.5 LAN ports since they've more than halved backup times from my PC to my NAS.
- Wireless is stable (with at least 18 clients connected at any given time of the day) and the range is excellent (e.g.: my phone has 3 bars out of 4 on WiFi6 with 15m and a concrete wall between it and the router), even with the 2.4GHz network having Tx power set to "power saving" and the 5GHz one to "Balanced". I've disabled WiFi7 since I don't (yet) have anything capable of using that, and everything that's WiFi6 capable works great.
- File transfer speeds from my phone to the NAS peak at around 80MB/s, a little over double the speeds reached with my old router (an RT-AC86U), and around 20MB/s more than what I've seen with an RT-AX86U Pro that I've had for a short period.
"Guest Network Pro" is a nice addition compared to my old router. It gives you profiles for various scenarios, like setting up dedicated IoT WiFi networks, which have some extra options as opposed to having to use a standard guest network.
- Temperature wise, the CPU runs as hot as the RT-AC86U did before I modded it - 70-75C (according to HomeAssistant).
- The UI feels very snappy overall.
- I didn't have any random restarts, disconnects or network instability in these 2 days.

Mehs:
You can wall-mount it, if that's your thing, but the position of the screw slots means that the LAN ports would be on top. Would have actually opted to mount it on the wall myself if Asus would have added another set of screw slots that would have allowed to place the router with the LAN ports facing downwards.


Cons:
- During the initial config, you're prompted about creating an IoT network, if you do it then it becomes your default IoT network and you can't change the WiFi band to just 2.4GHz (leaving it stuck on 2.4 and 5, which is pointless in my case since all my IoT stuff is on 2.4). You can rename it later on and disable it (you can't delete it as far as I can tell), and then create another one that fits your needs.
- Obviously everything that comes with no Merlin support. Which in my case would be:

- the lack of custom scripts/JFFS partition​

- lack of a custom domain option for DDNS​

- no temperature monitoring for the WiFi chips, and neither for the CPU within the UI as far as I can tell (at least HomeAssistant can read the CPU temp).​

- Can't restore config backups from neither the RT-AC86U nor the RT-AX86U Pro. I mean you can restore them, the router just doesn't boot up properly afterwards and requires a hard factory reset to work again. Wheareas I was able to restore the config from RT-AC86U to the RT-AX86U Pro without any issues.

Asus UI Con:
- They should have an option in the UI to export and import your DHCP client list if you have dedicated IPs configured for your clients. Having to decode the config backup, get the client list from there, and then copy-paste each entry in the new router isn't fun if you have upwards of 30 entries.

Thank you for the great review. My neighbor has been looking at it to replace his ac88. His only question is what is HomeAssistant?

 

[VladDBA]

Thank you for the great review. My neighbor has been looking at it to replace his ac88. His only question is what is HomeAssistant?

It's a home automation platform. It has integrations for a bunch of stuff, including for Asus routers. See here for more info.
For example this is how I see the CPU temp from my router, number of devices currently connected to it, and a few more metrics from AdGuard DNS.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Can't restore config backups from neither the RT-AC86U nor the RT-AX86U Pro. I mean you can restore them, the router just doesn't boot up properly afterwards and requires a hard factory reset to work again. Wheareas I was able to restore the config from RT-AC86U to the RT-AX86U Pro without any issues.

You're aware that those two are not just running entirely different operating systems, but don't have the exact same settings, so you're pretty much messing up your router every time you restore the config file from a different router, right?
You should just be glad you didn't brick your new router.

 

[VladDBA]

You're aware that those two are not just running entirely different operating systems, but don't have the exact same settings, so you're pretty much messing up your router every time you restore the config file from a different router, right?
You should just be glad you didn't brick your new router.

Yes, I'm aware. RT-AX86U Pro has a different OS than RT-AC86U and had no issues with importing both config files and JFFS partition backups from it.
If you look side by side at the decoded config files from RT-AX86U Pro and RT-BE88U, they're still fairly similar. Most of the configuration options share the same names and structure between them. So I figured that Asus might have at least considered scenarios where users would like to migrate configs, and would have added a step in the import process to strip or ignore incompatible config options.

I doubt you can brick a router just by overwriting configurations since they're not overwriting the OS itself.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yes, I'm aware. RT-AX86U Pro has a different OS than RT-AC86U and had no issues with importing both config files and JFFS partition backups from it.
If you look side by side at the decoded config files from RT-AX86U Pro and RT-BE88U, they're still fairly similar. Most of the configuration options share the same names and structure between them. So I figured that Asus might have at least considered scenarios where users would like to migrate configs, and would have added a step in the import process to strip or ignore incompatible config options.

I doubt you can brick a router just by overwriting configurations since they're not overwriting the OS itself.

I'm talking about the new router, it's running AsusWRT 5.0, i.e. not at all compatible with the old stuff you have, which is running 4.0.

And yes, you can brick hardware with the wrong config file, as it can write data where it doesn't belong and prevent the device from booting up correctly, but you do you.

 

[Retr0]

I can't say which SoC is in play, but it's over USB3.1 on a 10Gbps channel from the disk to the SoC, and 10Gbe to my test host running MacOS with an external TB3 10Gbe adapter...

The SoC itself is a quad-core A73 running at 2.2Ghz... it'll NAT around 8Gbps with iMix in play...

So those speeds 592/643 MB/s don't come from a router's usb port.