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Forum Discussion
Wired backhaul worth it for an AX6000 system?
*Sigh* ... I really have an RBK853 (AX6000) system, even though that's not an option in the forums even now. I'm thinking of wiring my house for ethernet and I've secured all the cable and equipm...
This is a great question and I've fallen into the trap of getting obsessed with how much of our core internet speed (currently a 300Mbps Fibre connection) is distributed around the home. Through general testing I've found that wired devices to the RBR850 get the full 300Mbps and wireless devices connected to the RBR850 get around 250Mbps (at these speeds Wifi6 isn't much of a benefit). The RBS850 gives wired devices about 250Mbps and wireless devices about 200Mbps (these vary by device type; PC, iPad, iPhone, etc.).
I have tested with ethernet backhaul and that makes the RBS850 show similar speeds to devices as if they were connected to the RBR850 directly (wired and wireless). Depending on needs using wireless backhaul is sufficient so long as the signal/distance between the router and the satellite is strong/not too far.
What I finally made myself think about is what benefit is there of getting the optimum speeds at the RBS850? A 4K video stream needs about a 50Mbps so is that my baseline? Downloading games/updates that run into many GBs then speed optimisation is important but does a few extra minutes waiting for a download to finish mean running ethernet backhaul is worth it?
I think it really comes down to what you want. I can relate to the frustration that comes when paying for a gigabit service and seeing an Orbi satellite only giving 400-500Mbps over wireless backhaul but ask yourself why you need the full gigabit speeds distributed everywhere. Remember that Orbi AX system has 2400Mbps wireless backhaul with a good signal between router and satellite,
Now if you're satellite is only giving 50-100Mbps, or even less, then running ethernet backhaul would be worthwhile but before going to that trouble see if you can move them closer.
DatabaseJase wrote:This is a great question and I've fallen into the trap of getting obsessed with how much of our core internet speed (currently a 300Mbps Fibre connection) is distributed around the home. Through general testing I've found that wired devices to the RBR850 get the full 300Mbps and wireless devices connected to the RBR850 get around 250Mbps (at these speeds Wifi6 isn't much of a benefit). The RBS850 gives wired devices about 250Mbps and wireless devices about 200Mbps (these vary by device type; PC, iPad, iPhone, etc.).
I have tested with ethernet backhaul and that makes the RBS850 show similar speeds to devices as if they were connected to the RBR850 directly (wired and wireless). Depending on needs using wireless backhaul is sufficient so long as the signal/distance between the router and the satellite is strong/not too far.
What I finally made myself think about is what benefit is there of getting the optimum speeds at the RBS850? A 4K video stream needs about a 50Mbps so is that my baseline? Downloading games/updates that run into many GBs then speed optimisation is important but does a few extra minutes waiting for a download to finish mean running ethernet backhaul is worth it?
Yeah, I got all the ethernet cable and stuff but looking at some of the wiring I found RJ-11 cable tacked in runs along the walls, and am wondering if it's worth it to run ethernet everywhere.
Certainly would be more worthwhile if the mesh nodes supported something more than 1gbps - but doing all this would only incrementally increase throughput for most nodes. I could get 10gbps between my office iMac and the Synology downstairs - which would greatly increase the 60-66 MB/sec I currently get - but really that's only an advantage during backups and restores as the Synology is really primary backup for a Thunderbolt connected Drobo 8D in my office.
In general I don't need high throughput for this connection - though one time I did when I had to reformat the Drobo to increase its single volume storage capacity, and that incident did require restore of some 32 TB of data. That would be more painful today, but again I could do what I did then and haul the Synology upstairs and direct connect the iMac and Synology and now I could get the full 10gpbs which would make the restore run at nearly a gigabyte/sec (my old iMac didn't have a 10gpbs ethernet port).
The thing that would make the entire project more worthwhile would be if 10mbps was ubiquitous - but most ports even now only support 1gbps and 10 gig equipment (like large multiport switches) are still really expensive.