Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X SFP

[pege63]

We have an opportunity to upgrade our fiber network to 500/500, and later in the future to 1000/1000 speed.

My question now is whether this "Ubiquiti Router Edge Router X SFP" would be able to handle these speeds, and if my Routers in AP mode could handle it too?

Or if it's even worthwhile to upgrade to these speeds, i have wired CAT6 Gigabit Ethernet homenetwork right now.

 

[netwrks]

Some Edgerouter X user's claim they are running at 1000 Mbps. UBNT forum website

 

[kvic]

ER-X is capable of 1000/1000 with HWNAT turned on but you're pushing its limit. Btw the MediaTek SoC has true HWNAT with a packet processing engine in ASIC unlike Broadcom's cheating with CTF.

Once you turn on QoS, you take a hit to half but could be as low as 1/50 in the extreme case. You can expect closer to 1/2 most of the time. Nevertheless, 1000mbit/s symmetric WAN for SOHO use, I doubt people will ever need QoS.

I assume you go with 1000mbit/s WAN for a sound reason and real applications. Hence, I would get something better with more headroom in routing capacity. If you can only saturate, say, 10% of the bandwidth at any given time. That's your primary goal of getting 1000mbit/s is for lower latency/faster response. Using ER-X in such scenario is perfectly fine.

 

[pege63]

So Ubiquiti Router Edge Router X SFP has this "MediaTek SoC" and true HWNAT?

 

[Ghettorat]

I started with an Edgerouter X but it struggled with 500mbit SSL etc (normal transfers were fine up to 500/500 which is my connection speed). I replaced it with an Edgerouter Lite and I have no issues at all. Works great and i can highly recommend it. I upgraded from an Asus RT-AC68 (i just use that as access point now). The network seems much better with no sign of any lag or latency.

 

[kvic]

So Ubiquiti Router Edge Router X SFP has this "MediaTek SoC" and true HWNAT?

That's correct. In addition to true HWNAT, it also has HW crypto accelerator and HW QoS (not yet enabled in FW as of v1.9.0). You can find more info about ER-X in my thread.. a few rows down.

If you can wait a bit, I'll have benchmark numbers available in a blog post maybe sometime next week.

 

[pege63]

That's correct. In addition to true HWNAT, it also has HW crypto accelerator and HW QoS (not yet enabled in FW as of v1.9.0). You can find more info about ER-X in my thread.. a few rows down.

If you can wait a bit, I'll have benchmark numbers available in a blog post maybe sometime next week.

Oki greate let me know then

 

[pege63]

You wrote:
"ER-X is not for 1000/1000 Mbit/s WAN. For casual use, performance shall be satisfactory.
At 500/500 Mbit/s WAN or below, ER-X surely has no problem and excels."

So my question is:
Wath benefits do i get with a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X SFP
over Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X is it worth the more money?

 

[pege63]

I started with an Edgerouter X but it struggled with 500mbit SSL etc (normal transfers were fine up to 500/500 which is my connection speed). I replaced it with an Edgerouter Lite and I have no issues at all. Works great and i can highly recommend it. I upgraded from an Asus RT-AC68 (i just use that as access point now). The network seems much better with no sign of any lag or latency.

So you think a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite is a better buy over the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X SFP, why?

 

[kvic]

The difference between X and X-SFP is the extra SFP port and POE over five GbE port in the SFP model. The rest is same. For 1000/1000, to take full advantage, I won't consider ER-X nor ERL. I want something more capable. That's what I meant to say..

 

[Nullity]

I started with an Edgerouter X but it struggled with 500mbit SSL etc (normal transfers were fine up to 500/500 which is my connection speed). I replaced it with an Edgerouter Lite and I have no issues at all. Works great and i can highly recommend it. I upgraded from an Asus RT-AC68 (i just use that as access point now). The network seems much better with no sign of any lag or latency.

That's strange. A router should forward the SSL packets just like any other IP-based protocol. A (non-DPI) router has no knowledge of the upper layer protocols (5-7). HTTP, FTP, SMTP, TLS/SSL, etc are all just another IP packet from a router's perspective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model

I wonder why you saw a performance drop with SSL. Excluding external factors, you should have seen literally no difference in performance.

 

[pege63]

The difference between X and X-SFP is the extra SFP port and POE over five GbE port in the SFP model. The rest is same. For 1000/1000, to take full advantage, I won't consider ER-X nor ERL. I want something more capable. That's what I meant to say..

Or should i go for a MIKROTIK HEX RB750GR2 ROUTER, the more i read the more confused i become.
I just want a very good router that last for the future upgrade, thats works greate with my stuff that you can see.

 

[Nullity]

What features do you need/want in your router?

The router that ISPs provide is good enough for most people and many gigabit ISPs provide respectable hardware.

 

[kvic]

Or should i go for a MIKROTIK HEX RB750GR2 ROUTER, the more i read the more confused i become.

This is a worse choice. Single core/720MHz/64MB RAM/16MB Flash. The spec is worse than ER-X. The Ars test caught my attention on HEX. But it means one thing to me: with each iteration of EdgeOS release, ER-X performance can only get better.

If you read my ER-X benchmark, I got the impression ER-X as of v1.9.0 already passed HEX. Though direct comparison is impossible since test methodology is not the same.

If you consider Mikrotik, you shall at least look at RB3011 or above for 1000/1000 if not a baseline model of CCR. For a short period, I was hoping for RB3011 to come out in desktop form factor. But seems it's unlikely to happen. Also after I tried RouterOS in VM, I decided I won't get a Mikrotik anytime soon. I simply don't like its GUI and CLI.

The longer development history of its RouterOS is both good and bad. It carries more tweaks and might have better defaults on some of the network stack parameters. On the other hands, accumulated tweaks/changes for close to twenty years and more than many dozens of models. I could image its code base might be more spaghetti's than AsusWRT that you could see in asuswrt-merlin's github. Even though I have more faith in Mikrotik guys to maintain the code in better shape. However, repetitive regression bugs release after release (as reported on web forums) corroborates my thought.

 

[pege63]

What features do you need/want in your router?

The router that ISPs provide is good enough for most people and many gigabit ISPs provide respectable hardware.

Wath i want is MAXIMUM speed in my network both from WAN and in LAN. I want to use my Routers as APs and achieve maximum throughput in all lines.
Internet - 100/100 fiber
Gateway/Modem - Technicolor TG799VAC
Router - Nighthawk X4S R7800
APs - Nighthawk R7000, Asus RT-AC68U
WIFI adapters - Asus PCE-AC68 , D-Link DWA-192
Switch - Zyxel ES-108B V3, GS-108B V2, GS1100-16

 

[kvic]

We have an opportunity to upgrade our fiber network to 500/500, and later in the future to 1000/1000 speed.

I just want a very good router that last for the future upgrade, thats works greate with my stuff that you can see.

First of all, don't be fooled by WAN speed for home market. 1000/1000 could only mean the speed between your home and the ISP server (and the data centre of multiple ISP's inter-exchange). If you're lucky, you might get 1000 speed to major websites/servers in your city. Once beyond, speed drops and depends on the weakest link. Not to mention when you go overseas or cross national borders.

I'm currently using 100/100. If I pay 40% more, I could get 1000/1000. The absolute price (after 40% premium) is still cheap but I have no rush to sign up for a two-year contract for the reason I said. Also at the moment I can't even make full use of 100/100. Most of the time my WAN is idle.

In Edgerouters series, you can't easily find a router with sufficient extra headroom for 1000/1000. Moving up the line, you've to pick an Edgerouter 8-port. With the steep premium compared to ER-X, not worth it IMO. Though it will be very future proofing for your need.

If I were you, I would get the X-SFP. Don't get me wrong. My ER-X recommendation only for 500/500 is very picky. When I think it'll excel, it really flies most of the time if not all the time. I like to reserve extra headroom in equipment. For your speedtest, BT, etc, you'll get near 1000 speed with ER-X. I think SFP is good for you because I see this Sweden ISP thread on UBNT forum. Worth a read and perhaps check with your mates there. Seems to me with X-SFP, your ISP can help you or you yourself get a SFP module to plug into the router. Then you get rid of the Technicolor gateway/modem - leaner setup.

In a year or two, I guess cavium based edgerouter will get an upgrade. Even UBNT staff admits openly on forums that the current cavium platform is too old! By the time, the "new ERL" will be better differentiated from ER-X and I'm sure the decision for an excellent 1000/1000 router with reasonable price is an easier pick.

When that moment comes, your X-SFP can be converted into a handy smart switch with POE power supply. I don't see you can go wrong down this road.

Save yourself time from looking at "high-end" Asus or Netgear. Its firmware isn't qualified for a good router IMHO.

 

[pege63]

Can i get the same maximum throughput on my Routers Nighthawk R7000/Asus RT-AC68U with better FW as
Tomato or DDWRT and save money?

 

[kvic]

Can i get the same maximum throughput on my Routers Nighthawk R7000/Asus RT-AC68U with better FW as
Tomato or DDWRT and save money?

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...etgear-r7000-a-asus-rt-ac68u?showall=&start=1

SNB tests show that you can get near 1000 speed...e.g. in speedtest.net even with stock firmware.

 

[Trip]

Along the lines of what kvic said, if you foresee sticking with the 100 line or maybe upgrading to the 500, the ER-X-SFP is probably a safe bet. You *should* be able to do 500/500, as long as you don't have too much processing going on in the box -- ie. much more than a modest mix of QoS schemas, FW rules, VPN, etc.

Regarding the R7000 or AC68U, or any other consumer box that might use HW accelerated NAT and/or CTF-like stuff to feign higher throughput (some of which are not usable when you go to alt firmwares like Tomato btw), you most likely won't be that much better off speed-wise in most real-world setups, and in cases where you start to use just one thing that requires packets be routed in software (thus negating HW-acceleration or cut-through-forwarding) you'll actually stand a good chance at being *worse* off than you might be with the MIPS-based 800Mhz CPU in the ER-X. That one depends much on what you're looking to do on the box. In your scenario, I'd most likely just leave the erector sets to be APs -- wifi and lower-throughput switching is all they're really good at IMHO anyways. **ducks the oncoming flames... **

To route symmetric GigE you'll need 2Gb/s total routing throughput, which, as of today at least, is simply not going to happen reliably (ie. routed in-software or via expensive ASICs) on any consumer-class SoC. If you simply must have the ability *right now*, then I'd look to a Mikrotik CCR1009, Juniper SRX340, etc. Possibly a pFsense or Linux firewall on x86 with Intel NICs and SFP card(s) that are well-supported. Otherwise, I'd just jump on an ER-X or sit tight with your all-in-one, and wait until the next SoC platforms up their capabilities in a year or two's time.

Hope some of that helps shed some light.

 

[pege63]

A stupid question would that X-SFP worke with my Switches - Zyxel ES-108B V3, GS-108B V2, GS1100-16, and give maximum throughput through them as well, as they are Gb switches the answer must be YES?

The WIFI APs would just be for laptops/phones/tablets, the rest is cabled by the Switches by CAT6.

I just want a lagfree environment through the WAN port to the LAN and WIFI out to the clients for gaming, LAN gaming, film streaming, Internetradio and so on.
As it is now i get down/up 127/127 out off 100/100 internet speed in both wired and wifi environment, so thats good.

BUT some times it laggs from Netflix, HBO and so on. i dont know if the foult is in the OS Win 10 or som settings in Gateway, APs, laptops, desktops.

links for my questions about the LAN / LAN

Wath would be the best solution for me?