If you can do meshing, I’d like to see a mesh-node type unit that has 1 ethernet port and the radios, skip all the rest (to bring price down). The hap be3 as the primary and then ‘lap be3 lite’ or something for cheap mesh repeaters.
It would be a really great access point device with an Ethernet port and Wi-Fi, a new mAP, so to speak. Even the same device but without the USB part to have just an access point + switch. I would have a single hAP Be with container and other hAP Be without USB to have only Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
Well that is interesting, because it would not be useful on a phone anyway. At what time did you require multi-Gbit data on your phone?
It would be interesting to have this in a laptop. But I guess the whole MLO concept is basically geared towards marketing and not actual benefits or use. The whole WiFi world is very familiar with advertising theoretical speeds at a layer that isn’t accessible by the user, and the users are familiar with achieving only like half the speeds that are claimed, under ideal circumstances. So this MLO fits into that very nicely.
In the 80s everything was “-tronic” after which it became “micro-” or “µ-” then in the late 90s “e-” took over, possibly owing to Apple which also introduced “i-” a decade later. Today, “AI” will be involved. The common thread of irrelevant marketing is easy to see.
The CRS804 looks interesting but it also shares the characteristic of CRS812 and RDS2216 that it's long enough to require rear support but the combined length of the device and the included rear supports is not enough to reach the back of a full-depth rack. Which is what you'd need in the "AI cluster" use case they tout.
Also, typically these two-switches-in-1U setups (like from Dell and NVIDIA) are intended to provide full physical redundancy, and those vendors provide a mounting setup where there's a sort of a 1U cage with two slots the switches then toollessly slide into. The problem with the MikroTik approach is that you can't replace one of the switches without removing both from the rack (at least if the RMK-2x10/19 is used like in the promo video), so that really reduces the redundancy provided.
The price is a fraction of the others too, of course.
I suppose one more gift needs mentioning, and that is removing archive from RouterOS downloads page so we will all be forced to use the latest and greatest version ... HoHoHo...
Will there be a WiFi7 device that leans more towards pure AP needs? I currently use RB5009 for routing and hAP ax3 as an AP (I already had it before RB5009), so replacing hAP ax3 with be3 would be probably a 1:1 switch, but I would prefer to have a more AP oriented device
That probably depends on personal preferences and local climate. I would probably not use a wAP outside, it likely would not survive long in the rain and damp atmosphere. Just like dishes from the other manufacturer are developing rust within a year, likely made for sunny climate.
But I have used wAP inside in an office where it was practical to mount on walls but not on the ceiling.
And I meant to write “cAP or wAP” instead of “hAP or wAP” as I wrote.
Hanged on the wall bellow roof overhang wAP could survive a couple of years outside, but for harsher environments only NetMetal ax will do as far as I can tell...
According to @normis , the "w" in wAP stands for "wall" ... and it's characterized by horizontally directional antenna (anything between 90° and 120° horizontal beamwidth). The fact it's got IP rating doesn't make it less feasible for indoor use.
