We've been exploring options and it seems that currently, only the Banana Pi BPI-R4 supports Wi-Fi 7 with OpenWrt. However, it appears to be more of a development board than a typical router. We're considering whether it's worth developing a Wi-Fi 7 enabled router based on MTK chipsets, that enthusiasts can run with open-source OpenWrt, allowing for various customizations.
Although we're more familiar with Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 technology, Qualcomm hasn't been particularly active in supporting the open-source community. As a result, the open-source OpenWrt operating system currently doesn't support Qualcomm's Wi-Fi 7 chips. Therefore, if we want to run open-source OpenWrt, MediaTek (MTK) is our only option.
Based on MediaTek chipsets, we have the following options:
Option A:
CPU, MT7988A, Quad-Core A73, 1.8GHz
Wi-Fi, Tri-band 4x4 Wi-Fi 7
2x 10GbE
4x GE
We would greatly appreciate your feedback. Please let us know which option interests you. We're seriously considering launching this product to the OpenWrt community. Of course, we'll definitely have a pricing advantage over Banana Pi.
The A53 had a great run since its introduction in 2012, and can be quite power frugal, but it is not a great CPU core for 2025 (it offers roughly similar performance as the A9 albeit at lower power consumption, and being in-order comes with a glass-jaw, in that it needs a relatively beefy memory subsystem). It is your decision, but I would think really hard about the trade-offs with A53s as router cores... for a novel design in 2025, given that you aim for WiFi7 you are IMHO not in the "needs to be as power efficient as possible" game anymore and so maybe pick something with more oomph.
Sidenote: I am involved lightly with sqm/cake and this can be quite CPU hungry, so I tend towards beefier CPU cores to allow SQM at more modern access capacities, one might even say I have a clear bias.
option 1 is awesome but option 2 is also very good, maybe some little 2.5gig switch ? ten gig i'd like sfp+ . no bs 5g , good shielding on rf , maybe two usb 3 ports? output for console on usb with integrated uart to usb converter. nice package.
Yeah? Just because I question the rationale behind using 13 year old core designs in a modern router, does not mean a53s might not be attraktive for router makers, likely by virtue of being cheap, small, cheap, power-frugal, and cheap, after all you still can buy routers using MIPS cores that are even longer in the tooth than the a53 so a53 would not even be the bottom of the barrel .
As I said I come from a position where having a reasonably beefy CPU core really helps so I might be biased
Thank you for your feedback. After synthesizing information from various aspects, our planned product is as follows:
CPU, MT7988A, Quad-Core A73, 1.8GHz
Wi-Fi, Tri-band 4x4 Wi-Fi 7
2x 10 GbE
4x 2.5 GbE
FCC certified
We plan to upgrade the LAN port from Gigabit to 2.5GbE and ensure the product can pass FCC certification, creating a powerful platform that supports OpenWrt. We'll sell it at a reasonable price, making it accessible for everyone to deeply explore OpenWrt.
