Wifi 6e fast access point

See you back in 7 to 10 years...

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With current prices and availability it will be some time

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still need get supported by the Linux kernel, which could be another couple of years.

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You can check Phoronix articles from time to time to follow Linux Wifi 7 Driver Development https://www.phoronix.com/search/WiFi+7

Upcoming Linux Kernel 6.4 does already have some bits and pieces
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.4-Networking

I don't know however how far Wifi 7 development in network (application) components is.

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So i just bought and use it, until someone make hopefully openwrt support with hw offloading etc.

It's not as bad as portrayed. I have had 6GHz working pretty well on a pair of AW7916-NPDs plugged into a pair of Banana Pi BPI-R64s. There are lots of those cards floating around, and lots of devs picking away at it. It's something you could get to work, though it is correct that the firmware is in a state of flux. Or was last I tested it.

If you want to experiment with that sort of thing, Banana Pi is an excellent platform. The recent work on WED/hardware acceleration on those devices reduce CPU usage significantly.

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Does anyone know of any filogic 830 based access point? I want one! :slight_smile:

Based on my experience wrt the ZyXEL EX5700, I believe adding support for filogic devices is a no-brainer. Including multigig ethernet and 6 Ghz. And I'm really impressed by the power of this platform combined with the excellent OpenWrt support for all bits and pieces of it. I measured the EX5700 easily routing and NATing over 2 Gbps between LAN and WAN (this is possible because it has one 2.5 phy connected to the SoC and one connected to the switch). I also measured 3.4 Gbps iperf performance between the USB3 port and the CPU on the EX using a QNA-UC5G1T adapter. I assume it's even faster with USB storage, but I found the extra ethernet speed amusing.

My filogic access point wishlist is:

  • 802.3af/at PoE powered,
  • ceiling/wall mount,
  • 2.5 Gbps ethernet (preferably two, but I can live with one),
  • enough radios for simultaneous 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz,
  • mediatek radios of course - probably goes without saying?
  • USB3 port (optional)

The idea is to replace my aging Unifi AP AC Pros with something more modern and powerful, but preferably with a similar sleek design and connections. As you might know, the Unifis are af/at powered with 2 ethernet ports and one USB port. And I've found both the extra ethernet and the USB port handy at times. One of the APs is currently serving as a Bluetooth console server for a nearby NR7101, using a btusb dongle.

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The Banana Pi BPI-R3 is based on the filogic 830 and is by far the best of them all. I have one myself, and it's an excellent device. The Redmi AX6000 is also based on the 830.

slh hinted, though he did not say, that the filogic 830 supported Wifi 6e. This is not the case with any Filogic 830 device on the market. The BPI-R3 can be made to accept the same AsiaRF Wifi 6e card I mentioned above, but it requires an adapter and the design of the board makes it difficult to do - the m.2 card slot you need to use the adapter on is, unfortunately, on the bottom of the board and thermal issues become very significant if you try to use any wi-fi module on an R3. If you really want WiFi 6e today, I suggest the BPI-R64 as the main board.

See:

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Just to clarify, filogic 830 "supporting" wifi6e is meant in the way mt7621 or mt7622 supports 802.11ac or 802.11ax, it has the performance and the PCIe bus to add a(n onboard) 6 GHz card in addition to the 'normal' 2.4+5 GHz combination. The same goes for ipq8074a, it merely offers the PCIe bus for a third (6 GHz) radio - and has the performance to keep it busy. The only difference between ipq8074a and filogic 830 right now is, that there are (known-) specimens of the former (just for a pretty penny).

In time we will probably see closer integration of 6 GHz radios in the relevant SOCs, but at least Mediatek seems to prefer going with more generic SOCs and PCIe busses to add the desired wireless anyways - that's why you still see 802.11ax radios on mt7621a SOCs.

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Does not fit into what I'd define as a ceiling mounted access point. In theory you could make one of course, but designing and building a case with enough integrated antennas is not trivial. No, I don't want something looking like a giant spider in the ceiling :slight_smile:

Huh? The ZyXEL EX5700 I mentioned is definitely wifi 6e. I have one here. You can't buy that exact isp branded version, but it is available for lease along with a Telenor subscription: https://www.telenor.no/privat/internett/wifi-utstyr/

The case is a Telenor design and they call it "WiFi Ruter II", but the board is a ZyXEL EX5700. There's a matching mesh repeater too - also filogic with 6e.

I assume the same hardware is available elsewhere too.

But none of these qualify as ceiling access points to me. Although you could stick it in the ceiling and power it with a PoE splitter.

There is certainly no limitation in the 830 SoC that prevents 6e. It depends on the RF AFE's you connect to it. I should have qualified my assertion with not commercially available. I don't know of any that ZyXEL has done outside of units for providers. Certainly none with OpenWrt images available today. And I'm pretty comfortable that none would be as capable as the R3 in any case.

The board and a 6e module can be put into any case you like. I once mounted a custom job inside a ceiling fan similar to this:
ceilingfan
which had a spiral shaped LED light strip inside that I simply lowered below the level of the router board, and the antennae were 8 internal flat panel ones mounted inside radially along the perimeter. Ethernet cable up the center, and Bob was my uncle.

A board like the R3 gives you rather more, not fewer, mounting options. Put it in any kind of decorative case you like, with internal, external, or remote antennae as the aesthetics and technical merit strikes you.

Things like a microsd extender can even give you complete re-imaging access without having to take it down/apart.

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I'm looking for an access point, not a DIY project.

I know about the bpi r3. I don't want one. I have enough projects, but not all that much spare time

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Silly question, I have an Unfi AC-Pro its getting a few dead spots and maybe showing its age now.

Maybe when prices get better can I just get something like the Ubiquiti UniFi U6 Enterprise Access Point (6e) and replace it so I get 6ghz band around the home?

Might need 2 for full coverage and supported 6e devices naturally.

I'm dissapointed with dynalink wr36x an barely 500megs wan lo wlan but atleast coverage is decent. tomorrow i'll play with futeo s920 with qcnf765 , maybe with 6gig band i can make something usefull. Maybe after all qualcom isn't that crapy as it is.

MT7921K is WiFi6E card that works in OpenWRT.

That being said, there is no way it will support "one or two 2gbps streams to client". WIFI6 or not. Such thing does not exist. That is wired 2.5GbE territory.

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Does MT7916 support mesh (802.11s) with 160Mhz width, Did u test mesh between yours PI BPI-R64s and got HE160. I have done everything what u can imagine, still got only HE80.

Hi Abunezar, welcome to the forum!

I'm sorry, no, I did no mesh test. I don't actually like mesh all that much, and don't use it at all.

What country are you in? Are there 160MHz channels free where you live? There aren't in Canada, so 160MHz is hard to test here at all.

Thanks for your reply, finally I found the solution. In 6GHz/160Mhz, wpa_supplicant use different channel plan when create mesh links, it uses the following: this is captured from its source code ( wpa_supplicant.c)

	static const int bw160[] = {
		5955, 6115, 6275, 6435, 6595, 6755, 6915
	};
	struct hostapd_freq_params vht_freq;

so when you do configure mesh in HE160 bandwidth, you have to chose one of the following channel numbers: 1, 33, 65, 97, 129, 161 and 193. not like hostap which uses PSC channel number plan.

That is a failing of OpenWrt right now - it doesn't intelligently parse what channels are open based on the country/band/width you have selected. And if you have selected one that doesn't work, you have to guess why it doesn't work.

Oh, that explains why my WiFi can't be enabled on my WAX206 (WiFi 6), I picked another channel for 160MHz and then it works.