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Forum Discussion
Is there any benefit to have a wired backhaul for an Orbi Mesh system?
Hello everyone, Apologize for the lengthy post in advance, but wanted to give some background first. Product: 1 wireless RBR750 router, 2 satellites RBS750 Home Size: 2 story, 4100 sq ft Cu...
unioncorps wrote:
1. If these decreased speeds are to be expected because of distance, would having an wired backhaul using MoCA help at all? I realize the Orbis use a triband and the wireless backhaul is on a dedicated band, where if you freed that up via wired, you still wouldn't be able to use that band to help with the wifi speeds - but am not sure if there is any benefit to using MoCA in this case.
There is some evidence to suggest that a modern MoCA installation could provide a true "gigabit" connection between router and satellites:
This would likely improve the throughput, but how much remains to be seen. Only devices supporting WiFi6 (802.11ax) are likely to benefit.
An easy test would be to purchase a couple of 100ft. Ethernet patch cables (Amazon has them for under $20US). If the satellites perform better when linked directly with cable, then MoCA might be a solution.
CrimpOn thanks!
The debate I've been reading is that since Orbi already has a dedicated triband that is reserved strictly for a wireless backhaul to communicate with other satellites in the network, establishing a wired backhaul (whether MoCA or true ethernet) wouldn't help any since you won't get any added bandwidth from freeing up that wireless backhaul band and can't use it anyway.
My impression around mesh technology is that regardless of where you go in the home (assuming the mesh is setup correctly), you'd still achieve consistent speeds throughout even at the ends of the home furthest from the router via the satellites. For example, knowing that there are a ton of more factors to consider but for simplicity sake let's ignore for now, if I'm paying for 800Mbps down I would expect to see speeds consistently close to 800 Mbps everywhere I had a connected satellite and throughout the home.
You could see that if you had 4x4 MIMO supporting devices.
Wired ethernet devices should see to speed speeds though.
unioncorps wrote:
since you won't get any added bandwidth from freeing up that wireless backhaul band and can't use it anyway.
While true, this is irrelevant. Transmission over WiFi is horribly slow compared to wired Ethernet. (Each packet is physically larger. There are 'gaps' in the stream as devices send 'management frames'. And, WiFi is inherently "one person transmits at a time", whereas Ethernet allows data to flow in both directions simultaneously. With one router and two satellites, that WiFi backhaul channel is shared between all three radios (and any nearby WiFi system using the same channels). MoCA shares this characteristic as the COAX bandwidth is shared between all MoCA devices that are connected. A separate physical Ethernet cable from router to each satellite provides the highest practical bandwidth.
unioncorps wrote:
My impression around mesh technology is that regardless of where you go in the home (assuming the mesh is setup correctly), you'd still achieve consistent speeds throughout even at the ends of the home furthest from the router via the satellites. For example, knowing that there are a ton of more factors to consider but for simplicity sake let's ignore for now, if I'm paying for 800Mbps down I would expect to see speeds consistently close to 800 Mbps everywhere I had a connected satellite and throughout the home.
This is simply incorrect. A device farther from a WiFi access point will always deliver less performance than a device near to one. It's physics.
Mesh means that no matter where you go in the house, devices will remain connected to a single WiFi network. One SSID/password. Transitions will be seamless. Creating a larger WiFi footprint by installing a bunch of "WiFi Extenders" will product a spaghetti mess of separate WiFi networks. They may all have the same SSID/password, but devices will not roam seamlessly between them.
Appreciate the clarification to my initial thought. While I want to run physical ethernet cables to each room, I think I'm going to try the MoCA route and at least get the 2 satellites wired to the router via my coax cables that are already existing and not being used to see if that improves anything.
My hope is that with a wired backhaul, the wifi from each satellite can provide better speeds to devices connected to them. And thanks to FURRYe38, it's good to know that the wifi clients themselves are the limiting factor and may not even be able to realize the full speeds.
