Newsletter #121 | October 2024

Announcements
1

Read our latest newsletter and learn more about:

  • the hEX refresh;
  • wAP ax;
  • Chateau PRO ax with an exceptionally powerful 4x4 MIMO and a matching CPU;
  • MikroTik and Ampere collaboration plans;
  • your chance to become a MikroTik trainer;
  • Linus Tech Tips using a CRS518 to boot all their computers off of a single server;
  • #MikroTips, tricks, Spotted In The Wild submissions, and more!

https://mt.lv/news121

2

Yes! wAP AX, finally!!

3

I wonder why the Chateau PRO ax doesn’t feature a 2.5G Port. The hap ax3 has one.
SOC Limits?

4

What is the maximum channel width for Chateau PRO at 5GHz? 4x4 160 MHz? 2x2 160 MHz, 4x4 80 MHz?

5

Thanks for sharing. I am looking to see more interesting products such as:

  • More options on Switches CRS3xx/CRS5xx that has PoE+ and PoE++ and 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps
  • More options on RBs with 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps. In the low end the option is the RB5009 and in the high end we have CCR2004 but there is nothing in the middle. And non of the CCR has mGig ports.
  • Any insights on Wi-Fi7? Other competitors are already launching Wi-Fi 7 and I see Mikrotik still catching up with Wi-Fi6.
  • High Availability like VSS?
6

And now I’m looking forward to the true successor of the “cAP ac”. If a “wAP ax” can be fitted into the “wAP ac” casing, I would be thrilled if there could be a wifi6 AP in the “cAP ac” casing. In my opinion, the “cAP ax” is more like the successor of the “cAP ac XL”. Thank you, MikroTik!

7

According to the product page it’s 80mhz (AX3600) but I’m not sure if that’s correct.

OpenWRTs spec page says that the same Wi-Fi chip in the Xiaomi AX3600 only supports either 4x4 80mhz or 2x2 160mhz.
So might be 80mhz only

8

The “hEX refresh” does not have IPsec test results, unlike its predecessor the RB750Gr3 which had quite impressive IPsec performance for its price and position in the product line.
Does this mean “hEX refresh” does not have IPsec acceleration, and the “twice the performance for the same price” claim is only for plain routing and not for IPsec?

9

Mikrotik and Ampere… now things got serious. This is something I’m looking forward to.

10

An interesting question. But the don’t have block diagram too. I’d give about one week, in order for them to finish the page.

Not that its an excuse: the page should be done from day one. Still…

11

Not to downplay the importance of publishing IPsec results … but lately they are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Most people are moving towards wireguard (and alikes), which AFAIK doesn’t use IPsec HW offload.

12

“What is the maximum channel width for Chateau PRO at 5GHz? 4x4 160 MHz? 2x2 160 MHz, 4x4 80 MHz?”

It is 4x4 80 MHz

13

I’ve wondered about that myself.
A real shame… I would have bought it right away.

14

2x2 160 MHz is not supported, right?

15

Please, pretty please :-)…
I really need some wsap hw UPDATE !!!
I would really appreciate some device hw update, ideally with the same form factor (wsap) but with AX wireless and (at least ) 1Gbps eth ports.

16

New hex sadly missing speaker

17

Maybe you and most people in your environment? We are using IPsec. It may be a pain, but at least it is a standard.
Also, when indeed most people use wireguard, they could add wireguard performance figures.
But those are not in the datasheet either…

18

Other open questions:


  • The capabilities of this new switch chip; a doc search for “EN7562CT” turns up nothing. Can it do bridge VLAN filtering, for instance?
  • The “E” prefix isn’t documented in the naming guide. I’d want that explanation to cover the reason why the 2024 hEX wasn’t called the RB750Gr4. Is “RB” going to be restricted to naked PCBAs in the future?
19

Block Diagram is available:

https://cdn.mikrotik.com/web-assets/product_files/E50UG_241016.png

Tl;DR - ether1 direct to SoC. ether 2 to 5 to switch chip

20

Cunningly, that doesn’t tell you the Switch-CPU bandwidth.