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Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

WiFi-Geek
Tutor

R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

I bought the AP in the US, and it seems like 160MHz doesn't work / isn't available. What gives?

It looks like there are not enough channels allowed - which is the probably reason for it not working. (only 4 channels available on low band, 4 channels on high band).

 

Also - I can't find anywhere in the AP documentation or online what kind of 10G SFP would work to plug into the R9000 for 10G connectivity.

 

Thanks a lot for any help!

Model: R9000|Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart WiFi Router
Message 1 of 13

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WiFi-Geek
Tutor

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Here's the conclusion to my original posting (to summarize everything). 

 

For 160MHz support - indeed there is no DFS channel support (North America) in current FW (1.0.1.36). Therefore, contiguous 160MHz bandwidth is not currently possible. 80+80 MHz support is possbile and seems to work fine. (lower channels 36,40,44,48 bonded with upper channels 149,153,157,161). However, I'm not sure what Wi-Fi clients out there have any support for 80+80. 

 

Regarding 10G port/connectivity - I have been able to connect the R9000's 10G port (via fiber cable with Cisco SFP-10G-SR SFP+ transceivers) to a Netgear ProSafe M4200 switch. That connection is 10Gbps so that's awesome :). From there, you can connect other multi-gig devices (desktops, servers, etc) via either:

- the remaining 10G fiber/SFP port on the switch
- the 5Gbps / 2.5 Gbps LAN ports on the switch

And voila, that gives you a multi-gig (up to 5Gbps in this setup) Wi-Fi network that's ready for future technologies - 160MHz, MU-MIMO, 11ax (with a different AP).

 

For now, this is a very expensive setup, without much gain in Wi-Fi speeds. When 160MHz support matures, we can expect a maximum throughput (goodput) of about 1300 Mbps in real life. 

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Message 13 of 13

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William10a
Master

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Are you talking about the 60ghz band as the r9000 has one 2.4ghz,one 5ghz and one 60ghz?

Are referring the 160mhz band width as you get the  normal chanels plus four extra if your devices can use them?

The router only will transmit on the 2.4 ghz, 5ghz and 60ghz bands.

the 10g port connection cable is available on the interner but yow need a 10g nic card in your computer to use 10g port on the router.

 

Message 2 of 13
schumaku
Guru

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?


@WiFi-Geek wrote:

 

 Also - I can't find anywhere in the AP documentation or online what kind of 10G SFP would work to plug into the R9000 for 10G connectivity.

 


Start here -> https://kb.netgear.com/31408/What-SFP-modules-are-compatible-with-my-Nighthawk-X10-R9000-router?cid=...

I've challengd the Netgear product manager if the X10/R9000 SFP+ interface is limited to some makes/brands and models SFP(+) modules, which would allow only thse accepted for operation. Awaiting the answer any time.


@WiFi-Geek wrote:

I bought the AP in the US, and it seems like 160MHz doesn't work / isn't available. What gives?

It looks like there are not enough channels allowed - which is the probably reason for it not working. (only 4 channels available on low band, 4 channels on high band).

 


Typical issue operating a WiFi AP in a foreign legislation. Cause: Some more "sophistcated" WiFi clients (ie. Android) with location services recognize and allow only channels permitted at the current location. In fact, the channels are in the air, but the clients won't see them.

 

Give me and idea of your locaiton ... I have a US-R9000 here in Switzerland for a test.

Update: 

 
The 5 GHz band channels offer here on this US model only Ch. 36..48 and Ch. 149..165 - while there is no Auto/DFS selection.
 
These two frequency ranges would - at least in theory - permit a Wave 2 MU-MIMO on 2*80 MHz.

But then, reading some reference documents does list CH. 50 and 114 for a continuous 160 MHz MU-MIMO block - these are partially or complete in the channel block requiring DFS.

Challenged the Netgear PM, too.
Message 3 of 13
WiFi-Geek
Tutor

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Thanks William,

 

I'm referring to 160MHz bandwidth (on the 5GHz band/interface). There is a setting "160 HT" that you can enable in order for the router to enable 160MHz bandwidth, but it doesn't work - the AP still only uses 80MHz bandwidth.

 

Regarding 10G connectio - I do have a 10G NIC on my desktop - but it is a 10G LAN/ethernet port - not fiber. I'm not sure what I need on the router side to pull an Ethernet cable from my computer, into the router. Can you point me to the 10G connection cable that you speak of?

 

Thanks!

Message 4 of 13
WiFi-Geek
Tutor

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Thanks for some good info!

 

Regarding SFP+ : based on your search is there an SFP+ for ethernet cables? I looked up most of these and they are fiber/optic. (I have a 10G LAN/ethernet network card on my desktop).

 

For 160MHz, I'm using it in the US. It almost seems like this AP has not been certified to use more than channels 36,40,44,48 in the US. (Those are the only available ones in the list). For 160MHz, we would need 36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64.

Message 5 of 13
LeeH
Prodigy

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Message 6 of 13
William10a
Master

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?


@WiFi-Geek wrote:

Thanks for some good info!

 

Regarding SFP+ : based on your search is there an SFP+ for ethernet cables? I looked up most of these and they are fiber/optic. (I have a 10G LAN/ethernet network card on my desktop).

 

For 160MHz, I'm using it in the US. It almost seems like this AP has not been certified to use more than channels 36,40,44,48 in the US. (Those are the only available ones in the list). For 160MHz, we would need 36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64.


It will have to support the SFP+ standard to work.

Message 7 of 13
LeeH
Prodigy

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

I would think that the 10Gb connection would be best used for a NAS.

 

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS2015xs

Message 8 of 13
schumaku
Guru

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?


@WiFi-Geek wrote:

 

For 160MHz, I'm using it in the US. It almost seems like this AP has not been certified to use more than channels 36,40,44,48 in the US. (Those are the only available ones in the list). For 160MHz, we would need 36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64.


 Yes - I've just updared my post above, let's copy it to here, too:

The 5 GHz band channels offer here on this US model only Ch. 36..48 and CH. 149..165 - while there is no Auto/DFS selection.
 
These two frequency ranges would - at least in theory - permit a Wave 2 MU-MIMO on 2*80 MHz.

But then, reading some reference documents does list CH. 50 and 114 for a continuous 160 MHz MU-MIMO block - these are partially or complete in the channel block requiring DFS.

No obvious DFS support I'd say, indeed.
Regarding SFP+ : based on your search is there an SFP+ for ethernet cables? I looked up most of these and they are fiber/optic. (I have a 10G LAN/ethernet network card on my desktop).

SFP+ 10 GbE 10GBASE-T transceivers exist - but unpayable. What is available in the free market (HP, Dell, Cisco, ProLabs, ...) is about US$600 - or about 1.5 times the R9000 street price and the supported reach is limited, as there is not enough power available per the SFP+ specs to drive the ~100 meters.

Consider adding a Netgear XS708Ev2 (about the same price tag like the transceiver above!) or a XS716E as a starting point, connected by a Netgear AXC7xx DAC (Direct Attach Cable) if the distance X10<->XS7xxE is not to long.

Message 9 of 13
schumaku
Guru

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

FWIW - this is what happens when plugging 1.25 or 2.5 G SFP modules - appears the X10 (resp the AnnapurnaLabs platform) does check for 1 G and 10 G only:

 

root@R9000:/# dmesg
[1864067.698681] al_eth_sfp_detect: unknown SFP inserted. eeprom content: 10G compliance 0x0, 1G compliance 0x0, sfp+cable 0x0. default to AL_ETH_LM_MODE_10G_DA
...
[1864076.808678] al_eth_sfp_detect: unknown SFP inserted. eeprom content: 10G compliance 0x0, 1G compliance 0x0, sfp+cable 0x0. default to AL_ETH_LM_MODE_10G_DA

...
[1864095.918676] al_eth_sfp_detect: unknown SFP inserted. eeprom content: 10G compliance 0x0, 1G compliance 0x0, sfp+cable 0x0. default to AL_ETH_LM_MODE_10G_DA

Kind of good news: There is no indications of non-matching manufacturer/model information.

Message 10 of 13
schumaku
Guru

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Not reall looked for it before - with H160 enabled (and a pre-release 1.0.2.xxx) on the R9000:

 

R9000 v1.0.2.12 H160 pxlr.jpg
Here we see an example of 160 MHz bandwith usage in 2 * 80 MHz blocks.

Message 11 of 13
schumaku
Guru

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

On the US-X10 here, I get (and got before on the official 1.0.1.36) :

 

36-48 149-161.PNG
Something wrong if you don't get the upper block - time for a firmware reinstall and a factory reset?

Message 12 of 13
WiFi-Geek
Tutor

Re: R9000 X10 - 160MHz doesn't work. Also, what SFP part required for 10G port?

Here's the conclusion to my original posting (to summarize everything). 

 

For 160MHz support - indeed there is no DFS channel support (North America) in current FW (1.0.1.36). Therefore, contiguous 160MHz bandwidth is not currently possible. 80+80 MHz support is possbile and seems to work fine. (lower channels 36,40,44,48 bonded with upper channels 149,153,157,161). However, I'm not sure what Wi-Fi clients out there have any support for 80+80. 

 

Regarding 10G port/connectivity - I have been able to connect the R9000's 10G port (via fiber cable with Cisco SFP-10G-SR SFP+ transceivers) to a Netgear ProSafe M4200 switch. That connection is 10Gbps so that's awesome :). From there, you can connect other multi-gig devices (desktops, servers, etc) via either:

- the remaining 10G fiber/SFP port on the switch
- the 5Gbps / 2.5 Gbps LAN ports on the switch

And voila, that gives you a multi-gig (up to 5Gbps in this setup) Wi-Fi network that's ready for future technologies - 160MHz, MU-MIMO, 11ax (with a different AP).

 

For now, this is a very expensive setup, without much gain in Wi-Fi speeds. When 160MHz support matures, we can expect a maximum throughput (goodput) of about 1300 Mbps in real life. 

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