I’m just starting to plan replacement of our small office AP, and I really like MikrotTik stuff. When I look at non-Mikrotik I see lots of WiFi 7, 700 Mbps throughput, 8 antenna MIMO, etc. access points. When I look at the MT lineup this is all missing.
I have to wonder, am I missing something? Are all those extra antennas, claims of 700Mbps, etc. just marketing garbage? Or is MT really behind in their wireless gear?
The MT wireless gear seems to be popular, I just don’t understand why if they are so much slower/older…
Please clarify, is your question about marketing tactics or specifically about real speed?
I can personally get full 750Mbit download speed in my Macbook Pro from the hAP ax2 (that’s my ISP limit) even though the antennas are not visible and the router does not look like a monster from The Matrix.
I fully agree that MikroTik is not the first when it comes to new standards, this is mainly due to our slow and complicated move from in-house drivers to manufacturer provided drivers. The move is still happening and more changes are coming. We hope new standards will be coming faster then.
My goal is not to get a cool looking box with lots of antennas etc, I want the best performance for the office. The reviews of WiFi 7 and MLO, added frequency bands, apparently make a significant difference in performance in a real world office environment.
So I’m trying to look at features and performance of an AP relevant to a 50+ person office. Ubiquiti’s marking info is a good example of showing the real world performance (and comparisons).
I really like the idea of keeping my whole network MikrotiTik…but I don’t want to buy a 7 year old technology either. And that’s what is looks like to me. Which doesn’t really make sense to me given the routing and switching equipment from MT seems so good! So I’m hoping that people can either point out that I’m wrong and show me how MT’s lineup performs as well or better than WiFi7 equipment from other vendors in a 50 person office, or tell me I’m right and go shop elsewhere.
I understand that my posts are biased, but the MikroTik offices run on a large number of cAP ax devices in a CAPsMAN setup, just the same as thousands of other such offices around the world. The speeds are pretty good (see above, my 750Mbits are also in a CAPsMAN setup). I don’t know how a good comparison could be made with other brands, when it’s not a “lab test”, but there are plenty of happy customers.
Did I just wake up on the wrong side of bed?
Ubiquiti showing real world performance instead of just “fancy numbers” with their unifi range? (aka Iperf with 1500 bytes for FWs and Chipset max Data rate for their APs.)
About Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 and performance:
Wi-Fi 7 has only been finalized last year iirc
Range does get a hit with higher modulation (Not a lot but something to keep in mind)
For most performance differences, you gotta have an AP and Client that support the standard
From what I’ve seen (just on pictures btw since I currently still only install Wi-Fi 6. Customers dont want to pay the premium) 160mhz Wi-Fi 6 vs 160mhz Wi-Fi 7 with 2x2 performs somewhat the same (without MLO I think)
But I’m sure there’s other people with better experiences on the forum here
But other than that, 6ghz might be interesting. Which you only get with Wi-Fi 6E and some Wi-Fi 7 devices.
The channels in Europe are limited, but in the US (and some other countries) are plenty and free.
Mikrotik APs dont support that right now.
Mikrotik might have Wi-Fi 7 on the schedule for the somewhat near future, but if you want some APs NOW and want 6ghz then you gotta choose some other vendor.
P.s: I run an AX3/AX2 combo with just a handful of clients at home and i get around 700/800Mbps (tested a looong time ago) when talking to the NAS.
And ax3/ax2 only support 80mhz channels at 5ghz.
Obviously line rate on the ax3/ax2 is mostly limited to 1G (ax3 has 1 2.5G Port)
As soon as you have a good definition of the requirements, you can get advice.
To help you:
My goal is not to get a cool looking box with lots of antennas etc, I want the best performance for the office.
What is best performance? and why?
The reviews of WiFi 7 and MLO, added frequency bands, apparently make a significant difference in performance in a real world office environment.
Do (all) clients support Wifi 7?
So I’m trying to look at features and performance of an AP relevant to a 50+ person office.
Are you looking for a single device? Or can there be multiple accesspoints?
Ubiquiti’s marking info is a good example of showing the real world performance (and comparisons).
I agree…Ubiquiti does a lot on marketing, I will never use it anymore.
I really like the idea of keeping my whole network MikrotiTik…but I don’t want to buy a 7 year old technology either.
Why and why not?
And that’s what is looks like to me. Which doesn’t really make sense to me given the routing and switching equipment from MT seems so good!
Gladly MikroTik is closing the gap.
So I’m hoping that people can either point out that I’m wrong and show me how MT’s lineup performs as well or better than WiFi7 equipment from other vendors in a 50 person office, or tell me I’m right and go shop elsewhere.
You are wrong on requirements (at least, up till now in this topic), Wifi 6 being “better” than Wifi 7…what is better?
The problem with “50 person office” and 5-7GHz frequency band is that the higher the frequency the bigger signal loss … and “50 person office” is large enough and has enough of obstacles that one needs multiple APs to provide coverage good enough for high performance.
In principle range and performance are anticorrelated … so one can either have range or performance, not both (let’s say that some kind of product of the two quantities is constant). Yes, some devices have better “product”, but none provide miracles … regardless of what marketing dept. says.
Good WiFi deployment is defined by a good plan and its execution, not by newest and latest standards that gives no real life benefit, or marginally small benefit. Wifi6 whit ofdma and RUs alone will give you better performance in larger networks that previous generations, besides, remember you wont be able to push wide channels in office building, 40mhz or less, so wifi7 320mhz wide channels are far, far away… Even then you are in mercy of modulations - if modulations are bad and unstable you will have bad user experience. Higher modulations that are added to newer generations require stronger signals and better environments, that offices usually don’t have. Only interesting thing that can be useful in wifi7, imo, is MLO, that I haven’t tested myself - waiting for that cap be. Also, wifi deployment is as good as its clients, if client devices are old, or have bad wifi stack it will not matter. Future proof - sure, but don’t count on that generation benefits today. For fill today’s requirements and think about the future when planning a network.
