I saw some other products where one is limited in how many ports may be used if you break out a lot of them.

Please please, can we start a poll for the most useless questions ever asked......??

Or do we just provide equally adept answers instead??

I have never tried to split a port, wondering if I need an axe, a sharp screwdriver, do I need to melt it first with a blowtorch.

If you buy one of the new CRS you may want to split the Q.

Maybe in the future it will be possible to break out an RJ45 port into SPE.

You will get disabled ports in some of those other brand products not only by breaking out many.

Splitting a port in 4 might disable another one (OK to split in 2).

Multiple personality disorder, or just like talking to yourself??

SPE, single pair ethernet, seem interesting but I'd expect some sort of converter to do the job. When it connected to the Mikrotik, it would just like adding a L2 switch to a Mikrotik ethernet port?

Why a converter at the switch if there's already RJ45 cabling in place? Just split the pairs at the transceiver and fan out at the other end.

Also, two single pair ports take as much space as one RJ45, so they are half as efficient (there are also 4-pair connectors but it may be pointless to use something other than RJ45 sometimes).

who said this converter will be in the server room?

SPE is new to me, just watched few page and video. it seems to be the technology for industrial IoT use. no point for me to guess what should and what would
I'd be interested to know how you managed to split a Ethernet connection and how the performance, reliability is etc.

If you have one RJ45 cable to each room in a hotel, for example, you could support 4 directly connected devices in each by splitting the pairs upstream (you would need an SPE to Base-T dongle at each piece of gear in the room).

Maybe you also have suites with more than 4 devices, in this case you would keep Base-T to reach the room and install a switch there.

A configurable switch for upstream use would be a flexible product.

en..in this scenario I would use a wsAP ac lite, or a gigabit port version when it comes
Lets say for some reason I do need to connect 4 devices over SFP, I'd get 4 x SPE to Base-T dongles. is it the BASE-T side goes to the device and the SPE side goes to one pair of UTP / STP cable that leads to the Mikrotik? if this is the case, how would the ethernet port on the Mikrotik know what to do with these SPE pairs? it would expect Pin 1, 2,3,6 with data and maybe the other 4 with power.

if the Base-T side goes to the mikrotik, you will need 4 port, that's probably not the case as you mentioned port splitting.

Chips would have to be made that support configuring a port as 1x Base-T or 4x Base-T1.

On products from some other brands you have to execute a command to configure a Q port as 1x, 2x, or 4x.

Not everybody wants to use WiFi for everything.

I saw a 100Base-T1 PHY that can reach 300m over 5e (the standard specifies 15m).

It actually also has some T and TX modes.

It has some proprietary auto negotiation for single pair (as well as even greater distance modes).

IEEE is looking at extending 1000Base-T1 and 100Base-T1 to 100 meters for non-automotive.

In my work splitting an Ethernet cable to get more separate lines is a no go.
Add a new cable if you need more lines.

The point is that recabling can sometimes be a no go and you might also want to avoid additional switches.

I saw some proprietary switches with RJ11 or RJ21 ports and corresponding RJ11 to RJ45 converters.