New Home Network

[Coffeeman]

I'm new to this group and looking for some advice on network architecture for a new home under construction. I think this is the appropriate section for this post, but if not please direct me to the right one. I've read many of the articles on this site which has provided much needed insight on the decisions I'm faced with. The good news is, we're in the early stages of construction and I have a few months to plan things out before we start running cable.
The home will be one-story with a walkout basement + garage, 4 bedrooms, everything else fairly typical. I plan to wire with CAT6 everywhere is seems reasonable to do so, and will likely provide at least 2 wireless access points, one per floor. I've identified 12 separate areas for a CAT6 wall jack. For the wired portion, my initial concept would be to simply "home-run" each of these to a 16-channel switch, and from there to the router and WAN modem. I read the article "How to Improve Network Performance" by Doug Reid, in which he explained the advantages of using separate components for modem, router and switch, rather than the combo boxes which the ISPs offer. My first question is where and how to fit the wireless access points into this design. The wireless routers seem to get most of the market attention nowadays, and some preliminary browsing of the router charts on this site indicate that they are generally cheaper than the wired-only routers. Would it make a difference performance-wise for one of these options:

1) use a wired-only router for the main WAN/LAN access and use wireless access points further downstream as nodes on the switch? Or
2) Use the "wired" portion of the wireless router for WAN/LAN but still use it for wireless access as well. I would still likely need at least one additional wireless access point on the other floor.

I appreciate any advice/feedback you can offer.

 

[gatorback]

I would try to wire everything to one central hub. The hub should have lots of power for POE devices (Access Points / Cameras). CAT5/6 is really inexpensive so there is really no such thing as 'overwiring'.

I would pay particular attention to running wiring to locations where a TV / monitor could be located as well as IP cameras. I would also want to have doors / windows wired so that they can be electronically controlled / surveilled. This also could apply to any light fixtures and potentially sockets. Thermostat is also a good candidate. If given the choice, I tried to avoid wifi for home automation controls and go with wired solutions.

Best of luck and happiness in your new home!

 

[Coffeeman]

I would try to wire everything to one central hub. The hub should have lots of power for POE devices (Access Points / Cameras). CAT5/6 is really inexpensive so there is really no such thing as 'overwiring'.

I would pay particular attention to running wiring to locations where a TV / monitor could be located as well as IP cameras. I would also want to have doors / windows wired so that they can be electronically controlled / surveilled. This also could apply to any light fixtures and potentially sockets. Thermostat is also a good candidate. If given the choice, I tried to avoid wifi for home automation controls and go with wired solutions.

Best of luck and happiness in your new home!

Thanks for the advice, gatorback. I've been focusing my attention on wiring for media streaming, internet access, etc., but home automation is another area in which I need to do a lot more research. I might need a bigger spool of cable ...
Thanks again.

 

[tim]

Be aware that some types of CAT6 cable are solid core.
These require special handling to avoid core breaks i.e. must not be pulled, no tight bends.

see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable

 

[System Error Message]

solid core is important for performance.
I suggest running 2 or 4 cables to each room. Cat6 will work for faster ethernet standards when they become commonplace. Some manufacturers are coming out with wifi that will practically be faster than gigabit ethernet such as the AC5300 which will require multiple ethernet ports.

I suggest you place your APs apart from central area on top of each other since each AP (with omni antennas) have a spherical radius around them for their range but is also affected by how many obstacles are in the way too. Place your 2 APs in the central areas but not the center to cover the most ground and where the most of your wifi traffic will be.

For your choice of router it really depends on what you want and how fast internet you have. Dual core dual core ARM A9 does up to 500Mb/s of software NAT (at 1.4Ghz) and 1.5Gb/s of hardware NAT. If you need routing related features dont rely on hardware NAT. Does VPN faster than MIPS but dont expect good throughput without hardware acceleration.
MIPS 24k will do 100Mb/s+ of software NAT per core at 600Mhz and very slow at VPN without hardware acceleration. Most common CPU of routers.
Cavium MIPS usually have hardware acceleration for some VPNs and NAT so can perform better than the ARM A9 (both are usually dual core) except for software VPN. Ubiquiti uses them in their edgerouter lite and above at very different clocks (i would not suggest the ERL for reliability). Fastest recorded is 1.3Gb/s NAT at 500mhz dual core.
PPC has a lot better throughput than the rest per core even for VPN especially if it has hardware acceleration. The mikrotik RB1100AHx2 and RB850Gx2 have dual core PPC at very different clocks with IPSEC acceleration. Does more than 2Gb/s NAT per core
TILE is slightly slower than PPC per core but comes in configurations of 9,16 and 36 cores and scales similary to PPC with VPN throughput per core. Mikrotik CCR and Tilera servers use them. They cost more but offer the best price/performance and faster than anything ubiquiti has. Does 2Gb/s NAT per core.
X86, faster than any of the above per core and in all sorts of VPN but requires you to choose an OS(such as a UTM, pfsense, windows server, linux server). Lots of choice of hardware and is not recommended to use realtek NICs.

The ARM and MIPS are simple CPUs and perform poorly when you have to configure them and add stuff. PPC and TILE have medium complexity and perform less poorly when you add configs to them. X86 takes a lot less performance hit for more configs. Using PPPOE reduces throughput even more. The choice depends on your budget, skill, throughput and features and brand firmware quality.

 

[thiggins]

CAT6 might be overkill. It's more expensive and harder to work with. If you intent is to eventually run 10G Ethernet, you'll need CAT6a or CATF/CAT7 cable and connectors to support 100m runs. You will also need to test the wiring to ensure that all terminations have been done correctly. The tester is not just a continuity tester and is also fairly expensive.

I'd say run two CAT5e cables to each room. Single runs to where you want to place each AP should be fine. Run more cables to areas where you might need to place the ISP's modem. That point might not be the same central wiring closet where you home-run all cables to. You might need to run a cable from modem to central switch, then a return LAN cable.

Cheaper 802.11ac access points are appearing. But converting a router to an access point provides the most options.

Don't forget power for all those access points. Consider PoE for that.

This series is a bit dated, but describes what I did for my home. The only thing I forgot was to run coax from the attic to the wiring closet for an OTA HD antenna. Fortunately, I was able to run one through a closet.

 

[Coffeeman]

This is all very helpful information. Thanks. I hadn't considered doubling up the cables to each room, but it sounds like a good future-proofing strategy. I will definitely make the system PoE capable. As far as routers go, I have to admit I don't have much experience with custom configurations, firewalls, etc. but I'm planning to learn through these forums and articles. At the moment I don't really need anything in the way of high-speed performance. We're in a sparsely populated part of the county where there's no cable, and 6 Mb DSL is about the only option. 4G providers are offering ISP-type services with higher data rates but it's kind of pricey. I expect the DSL situation will improve when the population out here reaches critical mass (although I'm not sure I really want to root for that either!).
Tim Higgins, I had read your Diary of a New Home Network previously and used that as a guide for my layout. I'm not sure I'm going to go with a full 19-inch rack setup, but I have to admit it looks great. I won't be running telephone everywhere, as we just need one or two drops with a cordless base station, and maybe an extra one for emergency use in the storm shelter. For OTA antenna, rather than run coax all over, I've been looking at the tuner/media-server boxes from Silicon Dust. This looks like a great addition to a home network.
Thanks again, everyone for the great advice.

 

[thiggins]

Tim Higgins, I had read your Diary of a New Home Network previously and used that as a guide for my layout. I'm not sure I'm going to go with a full 19-inch rack setup, but I have to admit it looks great.

You might be thinking of this article. I have no 19" rack. My few components just sit on a shelf under the patch panels.

I used a Silicon Dust tuner for awhile when experimenting with cable-cutting. It worked pretty well. But I used it only one place via Windows Media Center.
Looks like HD HomeRun Connect supports any DLNA renderer - much more flexible.

 

[Coffeeman]

You might be thinking of this article. I have no 19" rack. My few components just sit on a shelf under the patch panels.

I used a Silicon Dust tuner for awhile when experimenting with cable-cutting. It worked pretty well. But I used it only one place via Windows Media Center.
Looks like HD HomeRun Connect supports any DLNA renderer - much more flexible.

Whoops, you're right. I had the two articles mixed up. Both were helpful though.

 

[hizzo3]

I say go with cat 7/6a if its in your budget. 10G is around the corner and other >1Gbs speeds are creeping up like 2.5 and 5. 10 is too much at this time and tech is still too expensive. But 2.5 & 5 will be sweet spots in the home as media continues to move into 4k among other things.
Make sure you have a good spot for your rack. All too often I see people wire the house for data, then have a box in the wall and no place for a rack for additional
basic services and power units. Also make a drop for your security (usually over looked). For WiFi, just use APs and controller(if needed). You can do some pretty user friendly things with a RBpi running a radius server.

 

[coxhaus]

If you cable your house with CAT5e you want to use solid core in the walls and stranded for patch cables. In wall is put in place and terminated so it is not moved. Solid core will break if you use it to plug into devices. It should be terminated into a patch panel.
I would think CAT6 and CAT7 would be treated the same but I have not worked with either. I retired before I had any installed but I had miles of CAT5 and CAT5e installed.

 

[System Error Message]

I say go with cat 7/6a if its in your budget. 10G is around the corner and other >1Gbs speeds are creeping up like 2.5 and 5. 10 is too much at this time and tech is still too expensive. But 2.5 & 5 will be sweet spots in the home as media continues to move into 4k among other things.
Make sure you have a good spot for your rack. All too often I see people wire the house for data, then have a box in the wall and no place for a rack for additional
basic services and power units. Also make a drop for your security (usually over looked). For WiFi, just use APs and controller(if needed). You can do some pretty user friendly things with a RBpi running a radius server.

10G has been around for quite a while but has always been expensive and the price hasnt come down. So the only time when 10G becomes affordable is when inflation catches up. You can put the wires but it will be some years before you get 10G in homes.

 

[awstey]

Yeah, maybe when the 40/100G are widely applied, the 10G home network will be common.