Hello,
I want to create a dumb AP using a raspberry pi 5. and i would love to see if there is a solid pcie wifi 6e or better that is AP compatible.
some cards like the intel X200 or something are not supporting AP mode.
are there card that could work in AP with an rpi5 or i will better be off with a minipc?
my purpose is to install openwrt on this dumbap.. so the minipc and the card should be supported.
Why use a Pi5 as a dumb AP?
Any OpenWrt approved cheap wi-fi router can do that.
Neither.
Get a purpose built AP (or all-in-one wifi router). That will have much better performance than any USB wifi stick.
Also, as a dumb AP, you don't need very much processing power (relatively speaking), so using a Pi5 or a mini PC would be way overkill.
not looking for USB adapter but a pcie...
cheap wifi router don't come with wifi 6e. afaik.
can you show me which 'cheap wifi-router' comes with wifi 6e? and which is approved by openwrt?
#1 I do not think the Pi5 is supported yet.
#2 As I understand it even routers that, with original firmware, support wi-fi 6 (much less e) is hit or miss.
Even a PCIe adapter will generally have lower performance than a purpose built AP... that comes down to the antenna system more than anything else.
Define 'cheap'? Once you add in the cost of the Pi5 (or a mini PC) plus the 6E card, you're already looking at more than the cost of a proper AP. For example, the Ubiquiti U6 Enterprise is $279 USD -- that has a 2.5G ethernet link and can support up to 600 simultaneous client devices (at least on paper).
There aren't many 6E routers supported by OpenWrt -- this thread covers it (although it's possible it's a bit dated).
The fact is that the every-day typical performance difference between wifi6 and 6e is often barely noticeable for most typical use cases. In fact, many people don't see a huge difference between wifi5 and wifi6 -- probably the most significant difference is the handling of higher client density. Therefore, you may be better off with a standard wifi6 device instead of bothering with 6E.
Also, pretty much any wifi router can be made into a dumb AP provided that you can set the IP address and turn off the DHCP server. Obviously a purpose built AP (that is not designed/advertised as a wifi router) has that already in mind.
If you want to run OpenWrt specifically, you'll find many more choices in the wifi6 range.
It may be dated on paper, but the complete list of 6 GHz capable APs supported by OpenWrt is still "two, end of list".
But beyond that, the RPi5 has one PCIe lane on its connector, but barely anyone can omit 2.4 GHz- or 5 GHz operations, even when they do get 6 GHz connectivity from their AP. How would you connect three radios (2.4+5+6 GHz) to one PCIe lane? Yes, DBDC exists, that covers either 2.4+5 GHz XOR 2.4+6 GHz, there are no 'TBTC' wireless cards yet, meaning you'd still need two M.2 cards (and that still ignores power requirements (>=10 watts on 3.3V, per card, exceeding M.2 specs!) and cooling (which isn't trivial for the RPi5 with a PCIe hat attached alone either).
The RPi ecosystem can be a lot of things, but not a high-end AP (that said, DBDC does not really meet my personal definition of high-end performance, as it reduces your 4x4 radio to 2x2+2x2 (similar concerns are likely to apply for the hypothetical "TBTC")).
I would reconsider the 6 GHz requirement for now (unless you're in a very congested environment, where 6 GHz could really give you an edge over your competitors`^w' neighbours), mainly for two reasons:
With wifi7, 6 GHz is likely coming to more devices (fingers crossed), maybe the situation changes by then, maybe we even get support for more wifi6e devices in OpenWrt over the coming months, there's nothing prohibiting that (only high prices may be a deterrent for potential contributors) and there are a couple of devices that should be supportable, if they'd affordable and/or into the hands of motivated developers.
I've never seen a PCIe HAT for a PI5.
The most I have seen is the ribbon connector that a PCIe slot interface for a PCIe card.
But I don't check everyday.
Well, regardless of the physical adapter, it's going to be a cooling issue. A quite major one if you opt to mount it above or below the RPi5 (trapped heat from two major heat sources), a considerable one if you mount it to the side of the RPi5 board (cable length being an issue), as it still adds (very real) 10 watts per radio to the (max) ~20 watts of the RPi5 base board in terms of heat.
The only times I have seen PCIe used is by Jeff Gearling and the card, literally, is face up laying on the table.
It is not pretty and not enclosed.
Prolapsed, if you will.
Regardless, we agree: it is not practical.
Yet another reason not to use the Pi + PCIe setup for wifi. The last thing you want is for your AP components to be flapping in the breeze. You'd need to build some sort of enclosure for the thing as it wouldn't make sense to have it flayed out on the table. Score yet another point for a purpose built AP where the device already has an enclosure -- some of them are quite nice while they handle all the cooling among numerous other design elements that make for a real commercial offering.
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