How can I describe my problem better? (Meta)

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
21

I've incorporated all of that into a new draft.
I'll leave out the benchmark links since they're already in the thread, for reference.
Added "switch" to the latency chain.
Added Nice to Have.
Added Acceptable but not required.
Started on the Actual Hardware section.

Starting points

  1. 1Gbps internet link
  2. Radio Quiet Area

Requirements

  1. Hardware with wide userbase: Minimum of 30 "builds per target" https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/stats/d/LM1HE4E7k/attended-sysupgrade-server?orgId=1&refresh=1m
  2. Proven Reliable: No major bugs reported in https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/labels?q=target
  3. Budget: Around $1000. This is a soft requirement.
  4. Latency: rtt(AP<=>switch<=>router<=>modem) < 1ms
  5. Wireless coverage: Up to 5 access points
  6. Wired Devices: up to 4 (1Gbps) + potential backhaul for access points + piHole
  7. Wireless Devices: up to 10
  8. Wireless Standards: needs to be able to support 802.11n/ac/ax
  9. Bandwidth: the home network should never be the bottleneck on bandwidth
  10. Roaming: The user should not be required to know the details of which AP they connect to, only the SSID and password. If they move out of range of one AP and into the range of an other AP they should reconnect automatically.

Nice to have:

  1. PoE access points

Acceptable but not required:

  1. GUI

Assumptions

  1. Need at least RAM 128MB/flash 16MB
  2. Software componenets (eg firewall, parental controls, adblocking will not have a negative impact on performance

Derived assumptions/requirements

  1. To meet the latency requirement
    • chipset supports Airtime Fairness
    • traffic shaping / SQM support
  2. To meet wired devices requirement
    • switch with >= 11 ports (5 end devices, 5 APS, router)

Actual Hardware:
In order to meet all the requirements and allow for easy upgrades we will split this into multiple hardware components.

Home Network
Home Network1190×1102 66.3 KB