Hi all,
I have a pair of R7800s I use as APs which I want to upgrade at some point. The APs are wired to a XGS1250-12 switch.
I want to solicit some advice what is wise to do: upgrade to some wifi 6E AP(s), get the BT8 (wifi 7), or just wait for some more wifi 7 devices to become available?
Any opinions?
Thank you.
Got any wifi 7 clients ?
Yes, two samsung phones(S24 ultra), and an intel Laptop (intel BE200 320MHz)
And you obviously got the internet speed required too ...
Currently have 1Gbit fiber subscription. I also have a 10Gbit all SSD NAS running (4x Samsung pro 990 SSD 2TB). Bufferbloat test gets like 400 Mbit over the internet, with high ping. Also accessing the NAS gets nowhere near 1 Gbit. So my thinking is that the access points are the bottleneck?
Bufferbloat is solved on the router not the APs.
And the wireless bufferbloat?
Don't use wireless 
I could throttle the down direction, but well better off actually fixing it than making everything slower⌠The AP is on another floor, so signal attenuation could be an issue.
This depends on so many factors you havenât described yet⌠Are you in a highly congested environment? If so, 6GHz WiFi could help you, but signal range is very limited (more so than 5GHz) so your AP should be as close as possible to your clients.
In practice, 6 GHz is not faster than 5 GHz, throughput is roughly the same for both. Range is more or less limited to the same room, but if you are in a very congested area, it may give you the edge.
Now wifi7 with 5+6 MLO is another topic, but we arenât at that point, yet.
Upgrading to wifi6 might make sense, it roughly doubles the throughput - and there are further more tangible improvements. ipq806x is rather performance limited for todayâs high-end expectation (without NSS), moving to filogic 8x0 will provide a real improvement. wifi6e is very high on the price scale (and will probably remain so for most wifi7 devices), and there arenât that many OpenWrt supported options to choose from either, so unless you really profit from it in a heavily congested environment, itâs probably more sensible to skip it for the time being.
If you compare e.g. the r7800 (~160-170 EUR at its time) with the gl-mt6000 (~150 EUR, but semi-regularly discounted in the ~110-120 EUR range), you basically get a considerably improved device equivalent for less money. Faster ethernet ports, faster routing throughput, double the wireless throughput - roughly the same CPU power, but you get more out of it (in regards to network tasks).
So unless your WAN speed exceeds 500 MBit/s, you may not need-need to upgrade yet. If it does, you will want to upgrade. But considering the price, the LAN-side and particular WLAN-side improvements might be worthwhile to you.
When it comes to wifi7 support, itâs still very early days for OpenWrt⌠MLO isnât a thing yet (yes, I know there is some ongoing work in main snapshots since this weekend, but thatâs not anywhere close to completion, yet). And generally, at this point, SOC- and wifi7 WLAN chipset support still very fresh and rough, expect problems (and not reaching real wifi7 speeds without MLO), so spending big on it right now is a betting game that wonât give you results for the next 6-12 months. This situation may very well change in the future, once MLO 5+6 fully works and when we see a natural r7800 â> dl-wrx36 â> gl-mt6000 successor for wifi7 (2.4+5+6) on the market, but right now is not the time and the markup compared to a wifi6 device that just works would be wasted (at least for the next 6-12 months). Being an early adopter is always expensive, but -unless youâre a developer- not very smart, because you will pay three times, once with your wallet, another time with the teething problems (as device support is not quite where itâs supposed to be) - and a third time when support has stabilized, when youâll see a better, more affordable device which actually fully works on the market - so you will feel tempted for an easy/ satisfying upgrade that really meets the promises of the early adoptersâ device you bought bought before.
tl;dr: get an affordable and well supported -mainstream- wifi6 device now, wait for wifi7 until it actually works and got âcheap enoughâ (tri-radio devices wonât get cheap anytime soon) - just be aware that the first wifi8 devices may hit the shelves by then, but if you want OpenWrt support, you have to account for 2+ years development time before new stuff actually works.
Wi-Fi 7 APs tend to be 2.5 GbE PoE ++ backhaul which would require a Switch upgrade and the APs also consume more power.
Edit: I assume the APs will be Ceiling/Wall mounted and not placed on a table or on the ground like most people I know with consumer grade AP-Routers?
No not really, maybe 10% channel load as reported by usteer
yes, that is part of the equation. I know it is not currently supported, but if wifi6/7 can get some relieve now, and once MLO is implemented then getting even more speed out would be great.
so for routing I am all set (got a Bpi R4). Double wireless throughput sounds good, faster ethernet port as well.
i got a gbit ISP link but also want faster access to my SSD NAS (i do some photo processing with darktable on it). So i can use the upgrade
Yeah indeed, that is kind of the question. How big is the bet. I think you kind of convinced me to not go for wifi7 right now 
Maybe then indeed go for a wifi6. The gl-mt6000 is a good choice?
I can do 2.5Gbit with the XGS1250, PoE would require an injector I guessâŚ
Acually they are above the ceiling, out of sight! (Not the best for signal strength but well it is not only up to me 
)
This is not the best for 2.4G, 5G and you want to use Wi-Fi 7 which has shorter range and more issues traversing walls.
You need to convince your Boss, because I am not seeing a need for Wi-Fi 7.
Thank YOU for this ASSESSMENT 
.
Its not my âbossâ i need to convince as its not my âbossâ that wants a faster network. Wifi7 will bring clear speed and latency advantages, my question was, is it worth getting it now given the state of development. @slh more or less convinced me not to wait and convinced me that there is an advantage in getting a wifi6 upgrade. I think im going to get a MT6000 to replace my livingroom AP now. Then once Wifi7 is in a better state upgrade, get a wiifi7 AP for the living room then move the wifi6 one to the bedroom/office area.
And, your 1Gbt fiber connection is handed off to you by your ISP withâŚâŚwhat???
I run into this so often with people. I can do a 1.7Gbt connection to my wifi FIVE ap. Fat lot of good that does me when the ISP handoff is a gigabit not 10GbtâŚ
Media converter. Fiber to ethernet.
As stated my subscription is 1gbit, wired I can get close to that but i only get 400 mbit over my current APs. And I have an all SSD NAS which can fill way more than 1 gbit. Two reasons why an AP upgrade will get me more performance.
So i am not sure what your point is?
Both the R7800 and MT6000 were never designed as pure APs and would be ugly as hell on the ceiling/wall.
I would look at the Ubiquiti U6-Pro and mount it on the Ceiling/Wall.
As far as NAS performance, it should be connected via Ethernet.
Edit:
If you want to use OpenWrt on the AP then find an equivalent to match the specifications of the U6-Pro.
The MT6000 is fine for single box Networking, but to go beyond a single box requires a decent switch which you have, PoE, ceiling/wall mounting APs and Management tools.
My point is - and I believe many others have made it before - is you should be seeing way above 400Mbt on a R7800. For Fâs sake Iâm currently using a TP Link Archer C9 under DD-WRT and Iâm getting 800Mbt. And my C9 is a less capable device than your 7800.