Hello Everyone,
I was a bit shocked to read about the new CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS . It is definitely a great step forward after the TILE era. It is strange to be limited to 32 bit on 64bit hardware. However one can imagine that this device was designed with RouterOS7 in mind. Full BGP loads is noticeable faster right now and one can expect everything to be ever better in the upcoming releases.

However there is something that is causing us to postpone any further purchases for as long as possible . Having recently installed a number of MikroTik CRS326-24S+2Q+RM and a couple of MikroTik CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+RM I was ready to switch my 10G links with 40Gs adopting the 40G QSFP+. I played a bit with the break-out cables and even have two f them in production already.

But the first new router comes with an new, incompatible port - 25G SFP28! I am not aware of any method to connect CRS326-24S+2Q or CRS354-48G-4S+2Q to CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS other than switching back to SFP+ (10G).

We will definitely not switch vendors because of this. However it will be unwise to invest in QSFP+ if Mikrotik is going on the other path.
Its unsafe to think of 25G-50G-100G path before we have future devices released.


Hey, Mikrotik - can you give us some ideas? Please help us unfreeze the upgrades budget With all the MUMs postponed we have no semi-official information from you available too.

The CCR2004 is the first of a new family. And it's the small one.
There is nothing official yet, but it is said that the bigger ones will have something interesting...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=158149

Unfortunately those models are all on the 25/50/100G path. It looks like we have invested in the wrong switches...

I hope they will have new switches too but unfortunately I will be in bad position recommending MikroTik again.

There is always a chance Mikrotik will release a CCRX QSFP28 router in the future. (which should be backwards compatible with QSFP+)
40 Gbit / QSFP+ was kinda a stop gap technology tbh . I don't see a huge future for it especially if QSFP28 starts getting cheaper.

Expect it to be pricey . Routing instead of switching/l3 switching packets around at those rates is expensive at this stage.

Pricing of some 40G and 100G cards has become similar.

A new 25G/50G card was announced today. Maybe it will undercut 40G.

The CCR2004 is the first of a new family. And it's the small one.
There is nothing official yet, but it is said that the bigger ones will have something interesting...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=158149

The 98PX1012 supports 40G, so you might be able to use a 100G port for this.

But the first new router comes with an new, incompatible port - 25G SFP28!

You're supposed to connect the old 10G-SFP+ to the new 25G-SFP28,
and the old 40G-QSFP+ to the new 100G-QSFP28.

That's how they are physically and electrically backwards compatible. Of course you will only get the slower speed of the two.
Not tested on Mikrotik yet.

The decision of Mikrotik to build a device that mixes old style SFP+ ports with two new style SFP28 ports and no 100G QSFP28 uplinks is indeed odd and will naturally confuse users.

I would have expected 100G QSFP28 up links as standard on the new routers. In a bandwidth hungry world they are a must.

40G QSFP+ ports seems an odd route to go. I would have thought that 25 Gbit/s SFP28, 50 Gbit/s QSFP14, 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 leading to 200 Gbit/s QSFP56 the logical route to go. 40Gbit/s seems an odd rate and not common.