Now that I can access greater than 1 gig internet, my attention for an upgrade has gone straight pass the RB5009, which is limited in only 1 sfp+ port. This forces one to look at the CCR2004 series, but to be honest, in their own literature they compare it to the very old one that I have the CCR1009. Upon researching the CCR2004 its internals are described as:
“The Amazon Annapurna Labs Alpine v2 CPU with 4x 64-bit ARMv8-A Cortex-A57 cores is consideredolder, mature technology, originating around 2015–2016 for network-attached storage (NAS) and routers.”
As well as: “…the Cortex-A57 architecture itself is from an earlier ARM generation compared to current high-performance chip.”
(Architecture: ARMv8-A Cortex-A57, a 64-bit architecture introduced around 2012-2013 by ARM, with these chips entering the market in 2015-2016)
4-core 1.7GHz ARM 64-bit (AL32400)
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I am not really excited to spend money on technology from 2012-2016 in 2026.
Since Bell already has 8 gig service in Canada, its not unreasonable to ensure any purchase should cover that possibility and the CCR2004 fall short here as well.
16-core 2.0GHz ARM 64-bit (AL73400) CPU
Currently, I would have to pay double the cost to get the CCR2216, to get ‘new components’ and throughput good for the next 5 years at least.
Looking for something that is in between the 2004 but dont need the L3 offloading extra cost etc of the 2216. Preferably something with an upgraded ARM cortex A55/A720 vintage ( Arm9 is flagship stuff ). Of note A55/720 is IDS/IDP capable ( think married to a MT server like dyndns or BTH )
Also recommend making the ability to add memory to the already soldered memory, a consideration, especially when promoting APPs (containers) in recent software….
Hello. I dont understand your issue with the CCR2004. Is it not working as expected on your fiber link?
The 5009 has 1xSFP+ and one 2.5G. The CCR2004 (latest releases have 2GHz CPU instead than 1.7) is ARM, is OOO and we use them in 1G+ deployments. It is a nice point that is MATURE technologies. Dont forget that there is a software implementation to use that hardware…
However, wich is your issue with the 2004? Wich is the speed of your internet connection? 2.5G, 10G? wich speed do you plan to use?
Basically all of Mikrotik's devices use older generation cpus. That's why they're cheap. This is not meant as a dig: a lot of networking and other behind the scenes work is done by these devices, even is large data centers.
To be honest, I don't really "get" the ccr2004, especially the sfp28 variant. The device barely has more forwarding performance compared to the rb5009.
So, if you're looking at the ccr2004, I'd much rather attach a switch to the sfp+ port of an rb5009. You get essentially the same forwarding performance with whatever port configuration you like. With fasttrack you will almost certainly reach 8Gbps.
As for non-fasttrack processing, I have bad news for you. There are no good/economical choices for 10Gbps fully software (as in Linux networking stack) based routers, and I don't see a future where there will be. It simply requires a lot of power, not just in terms of cpu but also i/o. These don't come cheap. The 2116 is still a very economical choice.
If you allow a bit of musing, the easy days of software routers were when Internet connections were limited to sub-100Mbps or a few hundred Mbps speeds, where a humble MIPS could deliver adequate performance in pure software. Now, with faster cpus this has been extended to the 1Gbps - 2Gbps region. But jumping to 10Gbps is not at all straightforward.
Thanks for the links interesting reading.
Perhaps I have re-adjust expectations……. going from 465 ( 670 cdn on amazon ) to 965 ( 1170 cdn on amazon ) is not trivial.
In my own testing, the 2004 can indeed pass 19Gbps–with fastpath or fasttrack on and zero firewall/NAT rules, of course.
For a single home, the 5009 and 2004 can easily route 3-6Gbps in software with 20ish rules. And ask yourself, are you really going to ever be able to push that? I have two 10G circuits to my place for the business, and rarely get real downloads from large companies to reach over 500Mbps (speed tests don’t count).
Don’t forget: most of the CRS300’s (dual-core ARM models) can route up to 1Gbps in software, and the CRS309 and CRS317 can do FW/NAT offload in hardware. If you still insist on getting a multi-gig connection, and you need/want 10G ports, the 5009 paired with either the CRS310 or CRS309 would be a good, cost-effective combination. If you want more 1G ports, you could try a 5009 + CRS326.
The 2116 will handle 10Gbps easily in CPU (no L3HW needed), but in a residential deployment will be mostly twiddling its thumbs. For you, the 2116 would be more useful hosting containers, like a server. You’ll certainly never need to replace/upgrade it (except for hardware failure).
(But then, if you’re going to spend the money on that, get something beefier like an Minisforum MS-01 or MS-A2 and run Proxmox with a CHR VM on that. It has two SFP+ ports and two 2.5G ports, with a PCIe slot for more networking if you want.)
My opinion as an ISP (25+ years): today, anything over 1-2Gbps for a house is a waste of money, and the carriers offering that know it and are using the big numbers to make a few extra bucks from people who don’t know any better. I helped a contractor put in some CAT7 (ugh) and the homeowner wondered if they needed to go up from Google’s 2Gbps or 5Gbps that they currently had. They had exactly zero devices with >1Gbps ports. His laptop had 1GbE in the docking station, all the rest was on WiFi, so I said to go DOWN to the cheaper 1Gbps and save the money. His wife asked “Are you sure?” I answered with an emphatic “YES.”
Either that homeowner was not customer of your ISP (so you gave advice which lowers ROI of your competition) or you decided that your ISP has too much money. I can't decide which is the correct option
I guess most businesses work according to saying "it's not a sin to screw the naive ... sin is not to try to do it". So they try to sell customer something that customer absolutely doesn't need.
Thanks SirBryan, for the clarity, 2004 it will be! My wallet thanks you!!
By the way, I saved money from going from 1 to 1.5, ( and from just internet to internet, tv, phone (not that I will use their phone and tv ) and will be saving approx 30$ per month.
I am all about honesty and practicality. I’m a network engineer first, salesman second, and one of the local tech gurus in our community. I tell customers–mine or not–that they should get what they need. I’ll take the extra money for sure if they want to spend it, but I know my customers, and most homes and small businesses rarely use over 100Mbps.
Yes, of course there are the gamers and professionals that do get 500-800Mbps downloads going on occasion, but that’s rare enough that 1-2Gbps backhauls to most of my sites is sufficient to meet everybody’s needs. After five years, we finally upgraded one of our 2Gbps backhauls to 10Gbps to handle occasional spikes and some new growth opportunities.
You are correct in that they were not my customer (they have Google fiber), but Google is also not my competition. We were putting in the CAT7 because the Google tech told them they needed that to support multi-gigabit speeds, which was wrong. CAT6A would have been much simpler and done the job. (Only to find out the homeowner has nothing in his house that could actually take advantage of it…)
Under-educated techs are the bane of my existence (i.e. when it comes to cleaning other people’s messes).
Make sure you check the timeline/terms for that. Regional cable companies around here have done that promotionally for years. Then after about 2 years they jack up the prices. I get customers calling me all the time wanting to switch because Xfinity (Comcast) did that to them.
Concur, the store was an old Radioshack store, which became the THE SOURCE stores, which was bought and rebranded by Bell and Best Buy, to be Best Buy express stores. It was some “special” promo deal and we checked all the fine print, no time limit on the deal, otherwise, I would have said no thank you.
Damn, all the “used” or demo or ebay models, even amazon are selling the “old: CCR2004 WITHOUT the usb port. :-(. I dont mind if it doesnt have a USB port, but I fear that there are other ‘unadvertised’ hardware improvements on the newer model that would lead one to avoid these older ones???
In recent revisions the CPU frequency seems to have been increased to 2000MHz from 1700MHz, there were several reports about that if you search on this forum. Example:
Unit came in today, any recommendations for version? 7.21.3 stable?
Also, how do I get the latest stock firewall rules, havent opened it up yet but I am led to believe, upper end routers come with basically bare bones config?
Couldn’t agree more… I’ve heard reasons as “got a good deal” or “got a rebate for the first year”. So no techinlcal reson, just the feeling that you’ve made a good Mbps per $ deal.
The switch chip on the CCR2116 is 28nm - that is the number I came across. The CCR2216/RDS2216 both have a newer switch, but the CPU on all three is 10 year old. So whatever choice you make would still have a 10 year old technology in it so may as well go with CCR2004 and save some money. We get spoiled by the new technology used in mobiles today expecting a router to have 7nm tech in it.
In Western Canada the max offering is 5Gbps from Telus and I am also looking at upgrading but would like to see better energy efficiency so I sit on the fence. For now.
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