RT-BE88u Latency Measurements

[wrink]

Hello, Is there an owner of BE-88u running merlin in the forum ?

I'm hoping to get some hard data/readout of 5 Ghz latency characteristics from an endpoint such as a laptop to the BE-88u in your home or such ? Say from a distance of 6-20 feet at most ? Of course, nothing methodically rigorous/scientific - just rough measurements.

I'm a bit worried after finding this review claiming 17-18 ms latency irrespective of distance up to 25 feet, while the other compared units fared much better.

Finally, should I expect future firmware releases, especially merlin versions, be expected to improve the latency - what should be expectations over time ?

 

[Analog-1]

should I expect future firmware releases, especially merlin versions, be expected to improve the latency

No not really as everything wifi is closed source Merlin has no control over it. It would be on Asus to make it better.

 

[portets]

I was concerned about this too before I bought mine but bought it anyway. With a basic speedtest I routinely get 4ms ping with W-Fi 6 devices, 3ms with Wi-Fi 7 devices, and 0.8ms wired, regardless of original stock firmware, recent official firmware, or merlin.

 

[kuchkovsky]

That entire review from Tom’s Hardware seems way too biased. Giving the router only 3 out of 5 stars just because it lacks a 6 GHz band, even though it’s the best dual-band model on the market? Come on, Wi-Fi 7 != 6 GHz band. Sure, it’s not a device for everyone, but that’s the whole point - many countries haven’t certified 6 GHz yet. Plus, it’s an excellent choice for rural areas where you won’t experience interference from neighbors anyway, so why overpay another $300 for an unnecessary band?

This review is much better:

Asus RT-BE88U Review: A Solid Sans-6GHz Wi-Fi 7 Router | Dong Knows Tech

The Asus RT-BE88U continues the traditional design now with plenty of multi-Gigabit ports. It's also the first Wi-Fi 7 router sans 6GHz. Get one today!

dongknows.com

 

[wrink]

I was concerned about this too before I bought mine but bought it anyway. With a basic speedtest I routinely get 4ms ping with W-Fi 6 devices, 3ms with Wi-Fi 7 devices, and 0.8ms wired, regardless of original stock firmware, recent official firmware, or merlin.

Thanks for the feedback. Is the 3-4ms you noted the minimum or average ping, averaged over say 100 pings from the terminal ? Example command from terminal is

ping your-router-ip-address

(Not to be done with speedtest on the internet/browser, so that the measurement is purely between your wireless laptop and the Be-88U - without involving the modem or internet)

And then Ctrl+C after 100 pings have happened, when the minimum, average, maximum and Standard-Deviation values of the 100 pings are displayed in the terminal ? Could you please let me know if 3-4 ms is the Average value you find, or the Minimum value ?

The reason for my asking is that I also get 2-3 ms values for such gathered statistics over 100 pings for my Ax58u that I’m looking to upgrade - however the average is 18 ms because there is too much jitter.

Would really appreciate if you can confirm the Average on 100 or so pings !

 

[portets]

Would really appreciate if you can confirm the Average on 100 or so pings !

I ran 100 pings twice:

Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 2ms
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 8ms, Average = 2ms

This is with Wi-Fi 6 on an AX211 on 5GHz/160MHz from 20ft away. I am lucky to have low congestion in my area, but even still I'm impressed with these numbers.

Asus claims this router will eventually receive an update to enable Wi-Fi 7 MRU/puncturing. I expect this to drop average ping by maybe 1ms and max ping by a few ms as well, with more than a few in congested areas. MLO will also drop these numbers.

Wired i get:

Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

 

[wrink]

I ran 100 pings twice:

Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 2ms
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 8ms, Average = 2ms

This is with Wi-Fi 6 on an AX211 on 5GHz/160MHz from 20ft away. I am lucky to have low congestion in my area, but even still I'm impressed with these numbers.

Asus claims this router will eventually receive an update to enable Wi-Fi 7 MRU/puncturing. I expect this to drop average ping by maybe 1ms and max ping by a few ms as well, with more than a few in congested areas. MLO will also drop these numbers.

Wired i get:

Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

Excellent, you made my day and sold me on the BE-88U in that case. I had been doing my research about it here, and this was one key worry I had about getting the BE-88U.

Is there any argument in favor of getting the BE86u instead of BE88u - aside from higher USB3-attached SSD throughput for the B86U (that I don't care about, as I use a Synology NAS) ? $20 lower price doesn't really count for anything - given the double RAM and many more ports on the 88u, in my view. Frankly, I can't figure out why Asus even released the BE86u (with added SKU management costs at their end) - when its almost identical without much in the way of being differentiated and even costs almost the same.