Linksys E7350 or D-Link DIR-X1860 interest

Looking over https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/ I see a lot of mt79 work being done, yet I haven't heard a peep about these devices on here. I know the SoC is old and weak for those interested in SQM or VPN, but that should also mean a lower barrier to gaining support. Where is everybody with interest in a 802.11ax Wifi6 device that has multiple people actively contributing to drivers?

The Linksys E7350 is pretty cheap for a Wifi6 device and currently doesn't even have ToH entry.

Is there any ath11k hardware with ToH entries then? (I haven't checked). Afaik, 802.11ax support is still very rough on OpenWrt. Qualcomm/Atheros is still feeding off the ath9k name (like Linksys with its AC WRT series on the iconic 802.11g WRTs). It's a household name. For lots of people, Mediatek is still an obscure company, in comparison.

MT7621 is still a capable MIPS SoC, but it cannot compete with powerful ARM offerings of course.

Right now ipq807x isn't usable yet, as there are still missing pieces (most importantly, ethernet/ switch support, but also a lot more than 'just' that) and without support for any actual device so far. Personally I'd still expected this to be the most promising platform in sight.

Technically mt7621a+mt7915e has beaten ipq807x in terms of OpenWrt support, but I have no idea about the extent of what this actually means in terms of 802.11ax performance/ reliability - and I have quite serious concerns about mt7621a's viability for router uses and the demands 802.11ax requires for that.

1 Like

Maybe congratulations are in order for the TOTLINK X5000R becoming the first wifi6 router to have support (albeit of an unknown quality) added to OpenWrt? I look forward to seeing it in the ToH.

Maybe with cheap routers like the x5000r and Mercury X18G ($55us today for a Wifi6 router!?) there will be interest using these and other mt7915 devices for APs and support will pan out.

Linksys E8450 equipped with mt7622 and mt7915 chipset. it's more powerful than mt7621.
In addition, both mt7622 built-in 4x4n wifi, mt7915 have upstream driver and openwrt trunk has support mt7622 platform already.

2 Likes

Thank you!
Currently (NOV 2020) the Linksys E8450 seems to be the best "supportable" AX router for Openwrt. It should also have HW Flow Offload (https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/b59d5c8f0eebb6d15d7cefe487c17fad0ee4a524)

I would buy it, but sadly it's not available in Europe :frowning:

1 Like

Today both the E7350 and E8450 are listed on the linksys webpage as $149.99usd. If the later is the same price, but with twice the antennae and a faster ARM CPU I'm going to have to ask Santa for one :smiley:

@rhliu I can't find any documentation that says E8450 is based mt7622+mt7915. Do you have a URL with that information you could share?

mt7622 is dual core 1.35G WiFi SoC with built-in 4x4n BW40/256QAM (N800) and MT7915A is 4x4ax BW80/1024QAM (AX2400), so all dual band AX3200 (2400+800) router will be mt7622+mt7915 chipsets.

notes:
1.Similar product is TP-Link XDR3230. https://www.acwifi.net/11414.html
2.we can download mt7622/mt7531 related documents from http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R64.

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.