Just wonder know,
when the mirkotik wil support 802.11n wireless card (SR71-5).
I think it may can performance better than the Nstreme Dual…
When ah???
we are still working on that
At least they are working on it!
better than not working on it!
Hope it can come out very very soon…
Since it’s apparent that MikroTik has been working on this for some time and it was demonstrated previously, I’d like to as a few technical questions instead of a “when” question.
First and foremost, does MikroTik have plans to release their own miniPCI card for 802.11n around the same time as the RouterOS support becomes available? Secondly, I’ve seen mixed reviews as to the benefits for outdoor use, some people say it won’t perform any better at long ranges and others argue that it will. In the development of the support for the hardware, what has MikroTik experienced as far as long range performance with 802.11n?
Thanks
I do hope Mikrotik 11n can performance better than other whoever already offered the 11n outdoor bridge.
with only the live test then we can share what’s the weakness of it.
Beside this, with only Fast Ethernet that also not sufficient for the LAN connection.
Is possible mikrotik will bundle it with the multi mode fiber interface?
What about Ubiquiti’s new SR71-15? I guess they scrapped the SR71-5 because of non-OSS practices of Mikrotik? Will there be support for the 15 anytime soon? I would look for an alternative, but Mikrotik’s routerboards and routerOS are just too awesome!
it doesn’t matter what cards you name, RouterOS doesn’t support ANY 802.11n (MIMO) cards yet.
I really hope to hear the good news ASAP and the routerboard can support by the fiber optic interface.
Wish you all the best…
fiber optic??? we are talking about 802.11n here 
What i concern is…
When the wireless card running on 11n…
Then the Ethernet LAN interface should not able to carry more than 100M traffic, then the option is the RB must have Gigabit LAN interface, if it have option to upgrade the Gigabit LAN to be optic interface, then it will more better and can have the LAN surge isolation.
http://www.routerboard.com/comparison.html
Please review specifications for RB 600A
Although I have no idea how this can run int 15.3w allocated for Gigabit POE over datalines.
I don’t think that 100 Mbit Ethernet will be the limiting factor with 802.11n radios. At least not this generation of the technology. 100 Mbit Ethernet is full duplex where 802.11 technologies are not full duplex. With a 300 Mbit theoretical limit on air rate for 802.11n cards, the maximum that should be expected would be ~140 Mbit of actual data throughput, but this is 140 Mbit in one direction. Bidirectional data throughput will be ~ 60 Mbit, no where near the 100 Mbit bidirectional rate of 100 Mbit Ethernet.
Furthermore, a fiber interface would be useless for the vast majority of Mikrotik deployments as most people use PoE. I don’t think there are any power over fiber injectors on the market at the moment 
As already mentioned, the RB600A does include gigabit ethernet ports so this would be an option if you think you will have multiple 802.11n radios running full capacity simultaneously. I would love to see Mikrotik go to all gigabit interfaces in the future as it would allow stop frames and other things that are usually Gig-E only features. I’ll cross my fingers for the 2009 routerboard releases but I doubt it will happen.
I would like to know as much information as possible about the long distance performance of 802.11n cards as we are looking to deploy several new backbone links later this year and are unsure if there will be any benefits with 802.11n.
You’re probably quite right about the POE-part - most installations are base on use of POE these days.
However, the gear we just tested, “Strix Nitro”, already maxes-out its Ethernet speed running UDP. With 20 MHz channels we see 100 Mbps half duplex UDP, and with 40 MHz channels we see 100 Mbps full duplex. I assume we would see higher throughput with Gigabit NICs here - but copper then for heavens sake 
Tbird,
I will not argue that there are a ton of other providers offering gear that will exceed the 100 Mbps that ethernet can deliver. Strix utilizes primarily 4.9 GHz equipment if I’m thinking of the correct gear and thus it’s a non issue for this discussion. I am unaware of any single miniPCI radio that can be installed and utilized in Mikrotik equipment that will exceed the throughput of the ethernet port. The main question here is will 802.11n equipment exceed the ethernet port throughput and from the information I have I would say no. I would love to see some Mikrotik 802.11n data since they have displayed the technology previously and say they are working on having it ready shortly but apparently it’s classified information that if they tell you they’ll have to kill you or something.
Gigabit copper NICS will require 802.3af which would be welcomed anyway. Sure the PoE costs a bit more but come on Mikrotik, it’s 2009 already. We’ve had gigabit NICs for 5+ years now and you still only have one product that supports gigabit? It would be great to see gigabit interfaces standard on all Mikrotik gear, or at least on the AH series equipment, from this point forward.
Anyone with any information as to the performance of 802.11n technology over long link distances (>30km) please post any information you have. The real question is does it offer any benefits over current 802.11a Turbo offerings or should anyone looking for more throughput look into licensed gear (Trango, Harris Stratex, Dragonwave, etc).
Wrong gear - the one I’m referring to is the Witelcom Strix - and it’s Atheros 5GHz. I’m for sure seeing 100 Mbps full duplex, and I’m wondering how much more I would get if the board had gigabit - and it’s not MT.
Impressive results, what kind of range are you seeing 100 Mbps throughput? I only hope that Mikrotik can deliver similar results. From the reading I have done on the Ubnt SR71’s there aren’t very many people seeing the throughput they expected. I’m really surprised you’re getting that spectacular of a result with dual polarized antennas since it provides so little diversity, I’d be interested to know how it performs long range since that’s where most 802.11n gear falls apart.
Yeah, me too - really curious about the range we will see on these, and hope to test this week. I’ll let you know…
Tbird,
please let us know if there is some more info about Strix Nitros.
Regards