Quantenna - QSR1000 - MU-MIMO ever ship from them?

[sfx2000]

A Number of designs have shipped now - Asus RT-AC87U, Linksys E8350, and the Netgear R7500 come to mind - MU was promised, and I think folks bought into that promise, but has any vendor actually shipped MU-MIMO solutions from Quantenna?

Best quote I can find...

"No word from Quantenna yet on when that will be."​

The chipset - http://www.quantenna.com/qsr-1000.html

"Fastest and First Wave 2 802.11 Solution

The QSR1000 is the industry first 802.11ac “wave 2” solution, and the only 4x4 MIMO with four streams. The QSR1000 builds on Quantenna's 4x4 MIMO foundations to enable almost 2 Gbps of throughput. It's the industry only IEEE 802.11ac solution that includes 4x4 MIMO, 4 streams and MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO) to enable best-in-class wireless broadband capabilities to bandwidth-intensive retail and consumer electronics applications including wireless routers, access points, and high-end consumer electronics devices.

For more information, please contact sales@quantenna.com"​

Qualcomm/Atheros, they've obviously shipping now, and I expect Broadcom and Marvell to also have compelling solutions - and one can't forget Mediatek/Ralink...

# 87U, E8350, R7500

 

[sfx2000]

Only reason why I bring this up is that the AC87U community seem to have enough frustration with performance, heat issues, 5GHz dropouts - it's enough collective frustration there to implode the sun...

QCA seems to be pulling this off with their OEM's with a working MU-MIMO solution, and a decent 4*4:4 SU-MIMO solution - basically a good Wave2 implementation delivered to the market.

 

[netwrks]

The R7500 seems to suffer from the same symptoms.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

You mention heat issues. How will software fix that ?

 

[sfx2000]

Really comes down to usability - folks just want to Game or watch their Hulu/Netflix, whatever, and the expectation is that it should basically work... but when I scan thru the forums, this chipset seems to be especially problematic.

Apologists point to Apple - but guess what - they're 50 percent of the mobile market, and a vast majority of those devices are Broadcom based - and Airplay doesn't work consistently because Quantenna devices seem to have an interop issue - or perhaps a performance issue - Broadcom, Atheros, Marvell, Realtek, Rallink/Mediatek - they don't seem to have the same issues... logic suggests that it's not an Apple/Broadcom issue here with the QTN chipsets...

The heat issues - I'd put that on to the OEM's - but perhaps also back to QTN for not being very specific that their chipset is a space-heater, and needs appropriate cooling... I'm fairly amazed that people have to do, erm, interesting cooling solutions in room temp just to allow their devices to function - dysfunctionally as they can barely do...

And it doesn't seem to be a Broadcom/Atheros to Quantenna integration issue - but perhaps it is.. because solutions that do not include Quantennna seem to work just fine - to whit - the 2.4GHz radios seem to be just fine..

Sorry for ranting - but I think the collective has some red-hot frustration - and this has impacted the OEM's (Linksys/Asus/Netgear/others...)

 

[RMerlin]

Quantenna has a major SDK update coming this month (it was scheduled for release in the middle of August, I believe it happened during the last week or so). When I asked some contacts if that new SDK would finally enable MU-MIMO, I got radio silence. Seems like its primary focus was resolving the root cause of recent 5 GHz compatibility issues. Shouldn't be took long now until we can see what's going on with this new SDK.

Personally, I'd just give up on getting MU-MIMO from that chip. If after 12 months on the market they STILL haven't gotten it to work, then I'm starting to consider the possibility that there's a major hardware issue preventing it from ever working. Especially since everyone else have started shipping (or are just about to) working solutions.

 

[azazel1024]

Yeah, at this point I'd assume they will not get it to work. The QCA based MU:MIMO routers, I cannot speak for actual MU:MIMO functionality, seem to run very stably with good range and performance. Very low power draw too. Seems like a nice design win from QCA.

 

[thiggins]

I don't know what Quantenna's problem is with releasing MU-MIMO. But they still have not done it.

Reading some of the smoke signals, I think the problem is interoperabilty / stability with SU clients.

But it's moot anyway. There are STILL very few MU devices in the wild. And those that do appear will have QCA, then BRCM MU chipsets, which could present even more interop hassles for Quantenna.

 

[sfx2000]

But it's moot anyway. There are STILL very few MU devices in the wild. And those that do appear will have QCA, then BRCM MU chipsets, which could present even more interop hassles for Quantenna.

Likely yes... as I have not seen a single client oriented chipset from QTN - they've mostly focused on AP's

They remind me a lot of Airgo back in the G54 days, and we all know where that ended up - at least Airgo had client card designs available.

 

[thiggins]

They remind me a lot of Airgo back in the G54 days, and we all know where that ended up -

I doubt Qualcomm is going to buy Quantenna...

 

[sfx2000]

I doubt Qualcomm is going to buy Quantenna...

Tend to agree here...

 

[spinkick]

Just tossed my rt-87u to the curb and bought a linksys e85--, I'm tired of the stability problems, even with Merlin's amazing firmware. The Quantenna drivers are just terrible.

 

[Haggster]

Just tossed my rt-87u to the curb and bought a linksys e85--, I'm tired of the stability problems, even with Merlin's amazing firmware. The Quantenna drivers are just terrible.

do you mean the ea8500?

How is the firmware?

I love Asus' adaptive QoS and Merlin's VPN implementation, plus the trend micro virtual patching and protection features, so even though I'm frustrated by the fact that after a year we still have a partly dysfunctional 5GHz wifi which still doesn't support MU-MIMO either, I'm still hanging on to that router.

I don't want to put that spaceship which Asus recently announced into my living room either when it comes out, neither do I need or want two separate 5GHz APs coming from my router. A new version of the AC87, with a more recent SoC from one single manufacturer, minus that Frankenstein-like setup would be what I want. Four antennas, one 2GHz wifi, one 5GHz and working MU-MIMO out of the box. I'd forget about the current AC87 fiasco and let Asus take my money once more...

 

[RMerlin]

do you mean the ea8500?

How is the firmware?

I love Asus' adaptive QoS and Merlin's VPN implementation, plus the trend micro virtual patching and protection features, so even though I'm frustrated by the fact that after a year we still have a partly dysfunctional 5GHz wifi which still doesn't support MU-MIMO either, I'm still hanging on to that router.

I don't want to put that spaceship which Asus recently announced into my living room either when it comes out, neither do I need or want two separate 5GHz APs coming from my router. A new version of the AC87, with a more recent SoC from one single manufacturer, minus that Frankenstein-like setup would be what I want. Four antennas, one 2GHz wifi, one 5GHz and working MU-MIMO out of the box. I'd forget about the current AC87 fiasco and let Asus take my money once more...

There's some yet unannounced models coming from Asus. One of these should suit your needs better.

 

[spinkick]

do you mean the ea8500?

How is the firmware?

I love Asus' adaptive QoS and Merlin's VPN implementation, plus the trend micro virtual patching and protection features, so even though I'm frustrated by the fact that after a year we still have a partly dysfunctional 5GHz wifi which still doesn't support MU-MIMO either, I'm still hanging on to that router.

I don't want to put that spaceship which Asus recently announced into my living room either when it comes out, neither do I need or want two separate 5GHz APs coming from my router. A new version of the AC87, with a more recent SoC from one single manufacturer, minus that Frankenstein-like setup would be what I want. Four antennas, one 2GHz wifi, one 5GHz and working MU-MIMO out of the box. I'd forget about the current AC87 fiasco and let Asus take my money once more...

It's solid, yes the ea8500. However, I only use it as an access point. I have a dedicated firewall for QOS, firewall etc. I used the ac87 the same way and it was unstable. The linksys just runs, although it looks like it has less options for you to tweak if you are into that or need it to handle firewall/qos functions (which it does have, but I have not tested)