Product Suggestion: A High-Performance Appliance for the 10G SOHO/Prosumer

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

I love my home MikroTik setup at with a CCR2004, CAPsMAN, and a site-to-site WireGuard VPN with a friend. Lately, I've become the go-to tech advisor for friends and family getting new fiber internet. Here in Switzerland, providers like Init7 are pushing multi-gigabit speeds (10Gbps and beyond) to homes with their Fiber7 offering. When people ask me what hardware to buy, I always want to recommend a full MikroTik setup. However, I consistently find there's a product missing that bridges the gap between basic consumer gear and the high-end rack-mount series. Reluctantly, I find myself having to suggest products from competitors like Ubiquiti for an integrated solution.

The Ideal Appliance We're Missing

I believe there's a huge opportunity for an all-in-one appliance that would be an instant buy for any power user or small office with a new fiber connection. Here’s what my friend and I feel would be the perfect feature set:

  • 1x SFP+ (10G) WAN Port: Essential to connect directly to a transceiver + fiber
  • 1x SFP+ (10G) LAN Port: Crucial for a high-speed connection to a NAS, server, or a 10G switch.
  • 4x 2.5Gbps PoE+ Ethernet Ports: To directly power and connect modern Wi-Fi 6/7 access points or high-resolution cameras, which require more than 1Gbps of bandwidth.

A powerful CPU that can handle 10G routing with firewall rules would, of course, be a must. As a bonus, including integrated Wi-Fi 7 would make it a true single-box powerhouse.

A device like this would be the perfect core for any modern, high-performance SOHO network. It solves a real problem and would be an easy product for me to recommend to everyone getting a fiber upgrade.

What do you all think? Would a device with these specs be an instant buy for you too?

Cheers!

2

Hmmm.

Those must be VVhrc's (Very, VERY, high resolution cameras).

According to Planet, a 2592x1944 uses around 150 Mbps bandwidth:
https://www.planet.com.tw/en/tools/camera-bandwidth-calculator

:confused:

3

Recently the CRS418 was introduced, which is built around a chip that also has WiFi. But this device does not come with WiFi.
We could hope that a consumer version (passive cooling, 1 external power supply, WiFi included) is released soon. With of course 2.5Gbps ports.

4

Ok - you have a point for the camera. That example was mostly for PoE. However the higher throughput argument still stands for WIFI 7 APs or laptops that can use USB-C ethernet adapters. For instance a 2.5G USB-C / Ethernet adapter costs 30 USD and is widely available e.g. on the apple store

5

RB5009-like packaging would be nice.

6

That would likely not fit. There is a package style for the passive-cooled version of those rack devices, it is about 270mm wide instead of 440mm but otherwise the same dimensions. That is what we could expect when the same technology is released as a PC (passive-cooled) version. Would be fine for me.

7

@maxhk
Sure :smile:, I was pulling your leg a bit, mostly out of envy, I have (on lucky days) 40 Mb internet, usually more like 30 or so, the 1 Gb (which is now becoming common in cities around here) is still science fiction, and you come here with 10 Gb fiber and multiple 2.5 Gb
lan ports. (and the costs per month are not even crazy, 40-70 CHF per month, if I got them right).

In any case, (only my fantasy) if I had that kind of external speed, I would probably re-wire with fiber, like your fellow countryman did (and graciously reported) here:
https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2020-08-09-fiber-link-home-network/
https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2021-05-16-home-network-fiber-10-gbits-upgrade/

I would probably envision a simpler device, with two 10 Gb SFP ports (1 WAN, 1 LAN) and an ethernet or console (management) port, and then have a switch with the added ports (either SFP's or ethernet).
I presume that a router without a switch chip might be much cheaper (and more flexible) and - given the growing of connections in modern (large) homes a separate switch (in 8/16/24/48 flavours, with either SFP's or 2.5 or 10 Gb RJ45's) would give more freedom of choice.

8

Why two SFP+ ports? Go the whole hog with 8 and 8 2.5G as well :slightly_smiling_face:

9

So basically a MikroTik version of a UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber?

(I have one sitting on my desk, ready and waiting for me to split the home network from the office network on the 2116 it's currently on...)

The CRS418 is a pretty close alternative, except where it's lacking 2.5G ports.

The bigger issue at hand is 99% of residential users don't need this, so there has to be enough crossover into the SMB market for MikroTik to see it as viable.

10

There's a CRS418-8P-8G-2S+5axQ2axQ-RM with WiFi coming!

11

If they made it a CRS418-8P-8G+2S+5axQ2axQ-RM they'd get a few more buyers.

12

Even more when it is a CRS418-8P-8G+2S+5axQ2axQ-PC.

13

The CRS418 (the real, existing one) has 1100-3500 Mbps in routing speed tests, from that to 10 Gbps there is a looong way.

And it is 500$ RRT, how much would It cost if It was scaled up to manage comfortably 10Gb routing and the 2.5Gb interfaces?

14

This sounds like one of Howard Hughes' fever dreams...

15

JFYI, https://mikrotik.com/product/crs309_1g_8s_in kinda already does everything you want.

It supports quite a lot of L3 hardware offloading, so if one knows their way around Mikrotik, it can easily saturate port speed.

Now, if one wants to have complicated setup, e.g. WAN load-balancing (WAN failover is OK), VRF will likely be necessary and it cannot be hardware offloaded (not because of the hardware, but because RouterOS 7 does not support VRF offloading, so this will be a problem on almost any Mikrotik router without the most performant CPU at these speeds).

You won't be able to route common VPN protocols (e.g. IPsec) at high speed, because its CPU is quite weak even with crypto offloading. But I think it can run it fast enough, and for full saturation you need a dedicated device - SOHO router should never be that performant. You won't be able to route most custom VPN protocols (e.g. Cloudflare MASQUE), because it does not have enough space and its CPU is 32-bit, but even then some can be done (e.g. cloudflared could be run with certain dirty workarounds).

It lacks Wi-Fi, but if person installs 10Gbit internet in their house, it's unlikely that their house is small enough for one Wi-Fi AP to cover the whole house and maintain the highest speed throughout. I think it's an expectation to detach APs from router for such an installation.

It lacks PoE. But not everyone requires PoE (e.g. for SOHO I would prefer Ubiquiti UniFi Express 7 which does not require PoE instead of U7 Pro XG). Lacking PoE allows the switch/router be passively cooled which makes it quiter and less likely to fail. If one needs PoE, you can always inject it for the few ports where it's needed.

Now, I would prefer a refresh of this model with a 4-core ARM64 CPU and more storage (and/or USB-port for additional storage), but even the current, 3+-year old model is quite unique on the market, IMHO.

16

Adding wifi?

Because I always need wifi in my rack?

Or 10 ports on my ceiling?

17

It is "for SOHO/Prosumer". Likely the OP intends it for the desktop.
Here we see the difficulty of defining the ideal new router/switch/AP: requirements vary to widely for any model to fit a reasonable proportion of the uses.

18

@tryrtryrtryrt
So, if one knows his/her ways a device that Mikrotik tests rate as routing at 340 Mbps (890 in fast path) can saturate a 10 Gbps?
Hmmm.

19

Totally agree with you — that gap in MikroTik’s lineup is very real. For people moving to 10G fiber, the jump from consumer routers straight to rack-mount gear is overkill both in size and complexity. An all-in-one desktop appliance with dual SFP+, 2.5G PoE+, and enough CPU headroom for real firewalling would be an instant recommendation for SOHO and power users.

The PoE+ 2.5G ports are especially key now that Wi-Fi 6/7 APs and cameras are no longer happy on 1G. Right now, you either compromise or bolt together multiple devices, which defeats the elegance MikroTik is known for.

It’s funny how similar this is to other “appliance” decisions — people just want something reliable, properly specced, and future-proof without piecing things together themselves. That’s the same mindset I see when clients ask for dependable home appliances or repairs: one solid solution beats a stack of workarounds every time.

If MikroTik released a box like you described, it would absolutely be a no-brainer buy for anyone upgrading to multi-gig fiber.

20

I think there will be a successor to the RB5009 probably RB60xx that has 2 SFP+ and 6-8 2.5 PoE+ ports soon… RB6010 one can dream :face_savoring_food: