The author of this article: Mu Xiaoou
Domestic decoration companies generally do a poor job in weak current. I have helped many friends connect their new houses to the Internet. Most of the network panels are just installed without wiring at all. The reason is Plumbers don't know how. In this environment, the weak current design during decoration can only be solved by yourself. If the decoration is not done well, you will have to rely on WiFi that does not require network cables to solve the problem later. Probably for this reason, the Mesh system, which was originally only used for commercial use, has become a hot topic in the past two years, and the AC+AP solution is also about to be launched. Of course, there are many products that look like Mesh or AC+AP solutions, leaving many people at a loss.
My house is a gourd house: the middle area is a long and narrow corridor, stairwell and bathroom, and the two ends are activity areas. This is a typical layout that is not conducive to WiFi coverage. Fortunately, the developer reserved network cables for most rooms, so the Mesh system was not considered at that time, and panel APs were chosen for network coverage.
This is the weak current box hidden in the shoe cabinet in the corridor on the first floor. You can see that the original developer left many wires, such as network cables, telephone lines, closed-circuit television lines, security lines, etc., but there are no other wires except the network cables. Basically can't be used. I have so many devices that it takes up the entire shoe cabinet. The optical modem, router, and 5-port PoE switch are all wall-mounted, and two WD MYCLOUD simple NAS are also placed here.
The powerful NETGEAR R7000P signal is enough to cover the first floor area. Four of TP-LINK's PoE powered panel APs are responsible for WiFi on the second and third floors. These panels also have 2 LAN interfaces, so the desktop computers in the two study rooms and the high-definition players in the audio-visual room are all connected with network cables.
This set of equipment covers the main area of the home very well, but the signal of the panel AP is really weak. It can only cover the corresponding room, and it is basically finished through a wall. The WIFI signal in the bathroom area on the second and third floors Basically no, and seamless roaming is even more impossible to count on. Fortunately, telecoms no longer limit traffic, and automatic switching to 4G when there is no signal does not make sense.
1. Introduction to the four sets of panel AP, Mesh, power line, and dual-band wireless equipment
I clearly know that Mesh is not suitable for my home situation, but I have always been obsessed with Mesh, so I often recommend it among my friends. Finally, I have My friend couldn't help but take action and agreed to lend me for a test. In the past half month of testing, other friends actually got two other sets of similar equipment one after another, so finally this review of four sets of equipment was published.
1. TP-LINK panel AP plus PoE switch
AP plus switch is the most traditional network structure. AP and switch are connected by network cable. As long as the network cable can be extended to the area, AP can be used to achieve WiFi coverage.
TP-LINK TL-AP1200GI-PoE AC1200 dual-band wireless panel AP enterprise-level hotel villa wifi access Gigabit port POE power supply AC management 349 yuan
TP-LINK has many models of panel APs, which can be directly installed on the bottom of 86 On the box, it provides WiFi signal and also comes with a network cable interface. The number of interfaces is 1, 2 and 4. The products I purchased are all 2 interfaces. Behind
is a standard RJ45 interface, which is powered directly through the network cable. It must be used with a switch or router that supports PoE power supply. This kind of switch will naturally be equipped with a larger power supply. In terms of simplicity after installation, this is the highest among all devices. However, TP-link’s panel APs have many weird products. For example, 900M or even 1300M WiFi is equipped with a 100M network cable port. Unfortunately, the first panel I bought was affected by the problem. Now it is installed in the bedroom on the third floor only for mobile phones. I can still use it to surf the Internet with iPad.
The other three sets of distributed routing devices are all placed independently, so they require an external power supply. They are definitely not as simple as panel APs, but they can work hard to make them more beautiful in appearance.
They all use Mesh connection technology. The biggest difference between Mesh and traditional solutions is that it connects various nodes through WiFi signals, and the nodes are also connected to each other, so they have strong self-healing properties: when one of the nodes In the event of a failure, signals can continue to be transmitted and covered through surrounding nodes. The ability to wirelessly achieve large-area coverage and self-healing characteristics have made Mesh very popular in commercial settings, but it has not yet started in the home field.
2, Netgear Orbi RBK50/RBK53
Netgear (NETGEAR) Orbi RBK53 smart split multi-routing system multi-story villa/distributed routing Mesh/large coverage AC3000 wireless routing set 3899 yuan
Netgear is the first brand to propose wireless routing systems. We attach great importance to Mesh products and have launched a separate Orbi brand to produce Mesh products. RBK50 and RBK53 are actually the same equipment, but the number of extensions is different.
The main unit and the extension of this set of equipment have the same shape. The only difference is that the main unit has a blue top cover, while the extension has a white top cover.
The models of the host and extension are RBR50 and RBS50 respectively. This is also the only distinction between the host and extension among the three sets of wireless devices. The interfaces behind
are also slightly different. The host computer has a yellow WAN port and three LAN ports, while the four extension ports are all LAN. In addition, both the host computer and the extension computer have USB interfaces, which can be plugged into a USB flash drive for data sharing. Of course, a better use is to connect a printer to achieve network printing. For data sharing, I still prefer to buy a dedicated NAS.
3, Huawei router Q2
Huawei (HUAWEI) router Q2 (3-mother flagship version) new generation sub-mother router/full gigabit/full house high-speed WiFi coverage/smart wireless wall router 1379 yuan
Huawei router Q2 has the following Orbi has a similar appearance, the same elliptical column shape and suspended top cover, but the soft curve has been removed and turned into a straight shape, which is somewhat "borrowed".
The Q2 I borrowed is the three-mother flagship version. All three machines are model WS5280. According to the official website, there is also a daughter-mother version. The parent router is connected through a hybrid power line + WiFi method, while the sub-router is only connected through power line. It is not a Mesh product, but it still looks a bit similar in appearance.
There is a very conspicuous button on the front of the router, which is paired with Huawei's smart home products. Obviously Huawei wants to vigorously promote its own smart home platform.
Because the three machines are the same, there will naturally be no interface differences behind them.
It feels strange when you see this network interface for the first time. It does not distinguish between WAN and LAN, but directly writes WAN/LAN, which is automatically and dynamically recognized. In addition, the power supply part is also directly plugged into the 220V power supply, which is also the reason why the power line transmits signals.
4, Honor distributed routing
Huawei Honor distributed routing dual gigabit large-sized wireless router system large flat/duplex/villa high-speed coverage plug-and-play smart network optimization 849 yuan
Honor actually didn’t name this set of routing products The model is directly called Honor distributed routing.
There are also three machines, and there is a sticker on the middle host.
The sticker says to start the configuration from this machine, so of course it is the host computer.
However, when I looked at the model number, I found that, just like Huawei, the three machines are actually the same model: HiRouter-CD20.
The subsequent interface processing is the same as Huawei Q2. WAN/LAN is automatically recognized, but the power supply becomes the interface of the transformer. This set of equipment does not support power line transmission.
5, lighting of four sets of equipment
Before continuing with the formal test, let’s talk about the lighting that is not important.
Honor only has a small spot light on the front, Orbi has a circle of lights around the floating cover on the top, and Huawei moved the lights to the bottom to form a half circle. During the initialization process, both Huawei and Honor have red lights, while Orbi has white lights.
The author of this article: Mu Xiaoou
Domestic decoration companies generally do a poor job in weak current. I have helped many friends connect their new houses to the Internet. Most of the network panels are just installed without wiring at all. The reason is Plumbers don't know how. In this environment, the weak current design during decoration can only be solved by yourself. If the decoration is not done well, you will have to rely on WiFi that does not require network cables to solve the problem later. Probably for this reason, the Mesh system, which was originally only used for commercial use, has become a hot topic in the past two years, and the AC+AP solution is also about to be launched. Of course, there are many products that look like Mesh or AC+AP solutions, leaving many people at a loss.
My house is a gourd house: the middle area is a long and narrow corridor, stairwell and bathroom, and the two ends are activity areas. This is a typical layout that is not conducive to WiFi coverage. Fortunately, the developer reserved network cables for most rooms, so the Mesh system was not considered at that time, and panel APs were chosen for network coverage.
This is the weak current box hidden in the shoe cabinet in the corridor on the first floor. You can see that the original developer left many wires, such as network cables, telephone lines, closed-circuit television lines, security lines, etc., but there are no other wires except the network cables. Basically can't be used. I have so many devices that it takes up the entire shoe cabinet. The optical modem, router, and 5-port PoE switch are all wall-mounted, and two WD MYCLOUD simple NAS are also placed here.
The powerful NETGEAR R7000P signal is enough to cover the first floor area. Four of TP-LINK's PoE powered panel APs are responsible for WiFi on the second and third floors. These panels also have 2 LAN interfaces, so the desktop computers in the two study rooms and the high-definition players in the audio-visual room are all connected with network cables.
This set of equipment covers the main area of the home very well, but the signal of the panel AP is really weak. It can only cover the corresponding room, and it is basically finished through a wall. The WIFI signal in the bathroom area on the second and third floors Basically no, and seamless roaming is even more impossible to count on. Fortunately, telecoms no longer limit traffic, and automatic switching to 4G when there is no signal does not make sense.
1. Introduction to the four sets of panel AP, Mesh, power line, and dual-band wireless equipment
I clearly know that Mesh is not suitable for my home situation, but I have always been obsessed with Mesh, so I often recommend it among my friends. Finally, I have My friend couldn't help but take action and agreed to lend me for a test. In the past half month of testing, other friends actually got two other sets of similar equipment one after another, so finally this review of four sets of equipment was published.
1. TP-LINK panel AP plus PoE switch
AP plus switch is the most traditional network structure. AP and switch are connected by network cable. As long as the network cable can be extended to the area, AP can be used to achieve WiFi coverage.
TP-LINK TL-AP1200GI-PoE AC1200 dual-band wireless panel AP enterprise-level hotel villa wifi access Gigabit port POE power supply AC management 349 yuan
TP-LINK has many models of panel APs, which can be directly installed on the bottom of 86 On the box, it provides WiFi signal and also comes with a network cable interface. The number of interfaces is 1, 2 and 4. The products I purchased are all 2 interfaces. Behind
is a standard RJ45 interface, which is powered directly through the network cable. It must be used with a switch or router that supports PoE power supply. This kind of switch will naturally be equipped with a larger power supply. In terms of simplicity after installation, this is the highest among all devices. However, TP-link’s panel APs have many weird products. For example, 900M or even 1300M WiFi is equipped with a 100M network cable port. Unfortunately, the first panel I bought was affected by the problem. Now it is installed in the bedroom on the third floor only for mobile phones. I can still use it to surf the Internet with iPad.
The other three sets of distributed routing devices are all placed independently, so they require an external power supply. They are definitely not as simple as panel APs, but they can work hard to make them more beautiful in appearance.
They all use Mesh connection technology. The biggest difference between Mesh and traditional solutions is that it connects various nodes through WiFi signals, and the nodes are also connected to each other, so they have strong self-healing properties: when one of the nodes In the event of a failure, signals can continue to be transmitted and covered through surrounding nodes. The ability to wirelessly achieve large-area coverage and self-healing characteristics have made Mesh very popular in commercial settings, but it has not yet started in the home field.
2, Netgear Orbi RBK50/RBK53
Netgear (NETGEAR) Orbi RBK53 smart split multi-routing system multi-story villa/distributed routing Mesh/large coverage AC3000 wireless routing set 3899 yuan
Netgear is the first brand to propose wireless routing systems. We attach great importance to Mesh products and have launched a separate Orbi brand to produce Mesh products. RBK50 and RBK53 are actually the same equipment, but the number of extensions is different.
The main unit and the extension of this set of equipment have the same shape. The only difference is that the main unit has a blue top cover, while the extension has a white top cover.
The models of the host and extension are RBR50 and RBS50 respectively. This is also the only distinction between the host and extension among the three sets of wireless devices. The interfaces behind
are also slightly different. The host computer has a yellow WAN port and three LAN ports, while the four extension ports are all LAN. In addition, both the host computer and the extension computer have USB interfaces, which can be plugged into a USB flash drive for data sharing. Of course, a better use is to connect a printer to achieve network printing. For data sharing, I still prefer to buy a dedicated NAS.
3, Huawei router Q2
Huawei (HUAWEI) router Q2 (3-mother flagship version) new generation sub-mother router/full gigabit/full house high-speed WiFi coverage/smart wireless wall router 1379 yuan
Huawei router Q2 has the following Orbi has a similar appearance, the same elliptical column shape and suspended top cover, but the soft curve has been removed and turned into a straight shape, which is somewhat "borrowed".
The Q2 I borrowed is the three-mother flagship version. All three machines are model WS5280. According to the official website, there is also a daughter-mother version. The parent router is connected through a hybrid power line + WiFi method, while the sub-router is only connected through power line. It is not a Mesh product, but it still looks a bit similar in appearance.
There is a very conspicuous button on the front of the router, which is paired with Huawei's smart home products. Obviously Huawei wants to vigorously promote its own smart home platform.
Because the three machines are the same, there will naturally be no interface differences behind them.
It feels strange when you see this network interface for the first time. It does not distinguish between WAN and LAN, but directly writes WAN/LAN, which is automatically and dynamically recognized. In addition, the power supply part is also directly plugged into the 220V power supply, which is also the reason why the power line transmits signals.
4, Honor distributed routing
Huawei Honor distributed routing dual gigabit large-sized wireless router system large flat/duplex/villa high-speed coverage plug-and-play smart network optimization 849 yuan
Honor actually didn’t name this set of routing products The model is directly called Honor distributed routing.
There are also three machines, and there is a sticker on the middle host.
The sticker says to start the configuration from this machine, so of course it is the host computer.
However, when I looked at the model number, I found that, just like Huawei, the three machines are actually the same model: HiRouter-CD20.
The subsequent interface processing is the same as Huawei Q2. WAN/LAN is automatically recognized, but the power supply becomes the interface of the transformer. This set of equipment does not support power line transmission.
5, lighting of four sets of equipment
Before continuing with the formal test, let’s talk about the lighting that is not important.
Honor only has a small spot light on the front, Orbi has a circle of lights around the floating cover on the top, and Huawei moved the lights to the bottom to form a half circle. During the initialization process, both Huawei and Honor have red lights, while Orbi has white lights.
After the network is connected, the light will turn green, blue and lake blue.
However, Orbi will automatically turn off the lights three minutes after the network is connected, while Huawei and Honor need to enter the mobile APP settings software to turn it off. For people who like to sleep in complete darkness, Orbi will be much friendlier. People who like light pollution will probably prefer Huawei because it can always be on, while Orbi does not have this option.
When the signal of the extension is too weak to connect to the host, Orbi's light will turn into a circle of purple, while Huawei and Honor are both red.
The panel AP of TP-LINK only has a white indicator light that is always on, and there is nothing much to say about it.
2. Comparison of setting interface and functions
Orbi comes with a USB interface that can double as a network print server and data sharing device. This is the only device among several sets of devices that has this function. However, this part does not intend to talk about this, but they serve as Some functions of network equipment. Because in addition to the panel AP, the three sets of equipment not only exist as WiFi coverage equipment, but also have the function of routers. How to integrate with other network equipment in the home is very important.
Orbi’s setting page is exactly the same as a traditional Netgear router, supporting web page management and APP management. It has all the functions that a router should have, plus it has the largest number of LAN interfaces, making it the most suitable for use as a router among the three sets of equipment. It can also be set to AP mode to integrate into the original network system and become a device that simply provides WiFi coverage.
The only difference between
and traditional routers is that it adds the function of pairing extensions. It can be completed in two steps according to the prompts. The operation is relatively simple.
The setting logic of Huawei and Honor is a bit strange. After connecting to the computer, you are not allowed to enter the setting page. Instead, you must initialize the settings through the mobile APP. This is obviously to forcefully promote this "Huawei Smart Home" APP. But from the 1.7-star rating, we can predict that the later settings will be a headache.
After both sets of devices are configured, they will appear in the device list, but they must be connected to the corresponding WiFi to click on the corresponding device for management. Logically, there is no problem. So is there any way to integrate these two sets of equipment? The answer is no, just use whichever set you choose.
The management interfaces of the two systems are basically the same. I will not take screenshots of each. The above is the main management interface, more functions and more applications. It seems to have many functions, but there are not many settings related to the router itself, and many settings rely on the Web page to operate.
Honor has a dual-network and dual-pass icon in the management interface, and Huawei Q2 is a hybrid and mesh network. However, dual-network and dual-pass refers to the WAN port setting. Hybrid and Mesh networking are completely invisible in the APP. to the relevant setting information.
In fact, Huawei Q2 also supports dual network and dual pass. If you have two broadband connections at home at the same time, this is a very practical function. But here comes the problem. The hosts of both sets of devices only have three network interfaces. Two interfaces are occupied by broadband. How can only one interface be used? What’s even more troublesome is that neither device supports AP mode. It’s impossible to let it only take care of the WiFi part. They must be used as the main network device.
After completing the initialization of the router on the APP, you can finally log in to the management interface on the page. The interfaces of the two sets of devices are the same. This management interface seems relatively simple. I can't even find a place to add extensions, and no matter how many extensions there are, they will be integrated into "My Router".
But the good news is that in terms of Internet access methods, it was found that the Honor distributed router supports AP mode, but Huawei Q2 does not support it.
Another good news is that after turning off the 5G preference function, both sets of Huawei and Honor devices can be named respectively for 2.4G and 5G. However, Orbi did not find the relevant settings and could only use the SSID for one purpose. In most cases, this function is useless, but very few smart home devices must provide an SSID with only 2.4G WiFi, otherwise they will not be able to connect to the network.
As mentioned before, Huawei Q2 has a hybrid mode of power line plus WiFi and extension connection, while Honor only has WiFi connection.The WiFi part is obviously both called "Intelligent Connection Settings", but there are obvious differences in the setting interface: Huawei Q2 can set a password, but Honor has no corresponding option. This logic is confusing.
Compared with Huawei Q2, the main reason is that it has this power line setting. To put it bluntly, it loads the network signal on the wires at home for transmission. I used the TP-LINK power cat product many years ago, and the experience at that time was not good. How Huawei's products fare depends on the subsequent tests. Comparison of some advanced functions of
The previous introductions are some basic functions and settings. The following will compare the advanced functions of these devices. It is these advanced functions that can make the WiFi experience better.
The picture above shows the options in the Orbi settings page. You can see several advanced features: dedicated backhaul, daisy chain topology, Beamforming+, MU-MIMO, fast roaming, etc.
Dedicated backhaul only means that Orbi supports tri-band WiFi. Two sets of 2X2 are dedicated to connecting clients, and a set of 4X4 5G signals are dedicated to communication between the main and extension units. The total bandwidth of the three-band reaches 3000Mbps, while the other two sets It only supports dual-band, with a total bandwidth of 1167Mbps. It is difficult to load the entire traffic during large-traffic data transmission.
Huawei Q2, which has only 1167Mbps wireless bandwidth, uses power line data transmission as one of the backhaul channels. It claims to support 1G bandwidth, but actual testing is usually discounted.
Beamforming technology simply makes the wireless signal directional and enhances the signal in the direction of the client. It will be greatly improved when the long-distance signal is weak. Orbi is the only one of the four sets of equipment that supports this feature.
MIMO divides data on multiple antennas for transmission. For example, when a 3-antenna router is connected to a 3-antenna computer, it can be three times faster than a single antenna. What was popular before MU-MIMO was SU-MIMO, which is single-user MIMO. In this mode, although the router is connected to multiple devices at the same time, it can only transmit data to one device at the same time, and each device is queued in sequence. If all devices can reach the same full speed as the router, there is no disadvantage in this mode, but if there are low-speed devices, the entire network speed will be dragged down by them. MU-MIMO can communicate with multiple devices at the same time, making full use of bandwidth.
Fast roaming is a technology that various network equipment companies tend to avoid discussing in detail. Large companies have basically developed their own fast roaming technology, but most of them are only used in commercial products. Mesh products may be the first to introduce this technology to home equipment. , but not all Mesh products will add this technology. ORBI obviously uses its own fast roaming technology. Honor uses standard 802.11v. This function mainly provides a base station list. It is usually used together with 802.11r to shorten roaming time and 802.11k to select base stations, but the product introduction does not mention the other two technologies. Huawei Q2 did not mention seamless roaming or fast roaming related specifications.
People often mention the wireless roaming of AC+AP. In fact, it is only effective for AC+AP that supports wireless roaming. Low-end panel APs like TP-LINK do not support these functions. The method adopted by low-end equipment is to set a threshold to prohibit low-signal clients from accessing, and at the same time kick out low-signal clients, forcing them to re-select an AP with a strong signal. The premise for this to be effective is that the AP coverage must begin to overlap in the high-signal area, otherwise there will be a dilemma of one side being kicked out and the other unable to connect. On the other hand, these APs do not support fast roaming technology, let alone 802.11kvr related standards. All they can do is prevent mobile phones from hanging on to weak signals. Including the TP-LINK TL-AC300, which has been rumored a lot on the Internet, its function is only to manage up to 300 APs in a unified manner, adjust frequency bands, and dynamically adjust AP load balancing, but it does not have the technology to improve roaming conditions.
Finally, let’s summarize the functional differences between several sets of equipment.
3. Performance test
test equipment
The test equipment is mainly my desktop and laptop, as well as my home's original network equipment.
My laptop only has WIFI, so I equipped it with a TYPE-C USB Gigabit network card.
It is actually tested that this USB network card can transmit data to the desktop computer at more than 900Mbps under the same switch, so it will not become a bottleneck in the test.
In addition to the computer, two mobile phones are also used: iPhone After introducing the test equipment, let’s start testing one by one.
1, LAN-WAN transparent transmission rate
Nowadays, home broadband speeds are getting faster and faster. For example, Chengdu has basically popularized 300M optical fiber to the home. Many old routers have weak LAN-WAN transparent transmission performance and cannot take advantage of broadband. Therefore, there are This test is necessary. The test method is relatively simple: the laptop is connected to the LAN port of the router under test through a network cable, and the desktop computer under the same switch is accessed through the WAN port.
The test software is still iperf3, but I made a chart to make the data more intuitive. Unexpectedly, Honor has the fastest transparent transmission speed among the three sets of devices, basically reaching the limit of the USB network card, while Orbi only reaches about 550M, and Huawei Q2 only reaches about 500M.
This test also confirmed my previous worries: we don’t need to worry until the broadband speed at home exceeds 500M, but it may not be far away from this time. If that day comes, the most practical approach is to let the Mesh or AP only be responsible for WiFi, that is, buy a wired router to connect all the devices in the weak current box, and connect the Mesh or AP set to the main router for use. However, Huawei Q2 does not support bridge mode and cannot be integrated into other systems.
2, WiFi transmission rate
Connect the computer to the router under test, and connect the laptop to the router via WiFi. This test is closest to the limit of WiFi data transmission.
The final test found that Orbi has a clear advantage in speed, and the WiFi speed difference between the other three devices is not too big.
2, WiFi signal coverage and speed
Before testing the whole-house WiFi coverage effect, I would like to first test the signal strength of a single device in each system.
I have complained about the panel of TP-LINK before. The signal is very weak, and I basically cannot access the Internet after leaving the room.
Orbi’s 5G signal coverage is not as strong as 2.4G.
Judging from the chart, Huawei Q2 has the best signal coverage, but the actual link speed and stability still need to be tested to know.
Honor’s signal is similar to Orbi’s.
In this test, the four WiFi signal sources are all at location A. I measured the actual network speed at location B and location C respectively.
Overall, the performance of Orbi and Huawei Q2 is more stable, while Honor's network speed drops much more seriously in position C. As for the panel AP, I won’t mention it. It can’t be separated by walls at all, and there will be no signal if I leave the room. Otherwise, I wouldn’t add another panel AP in the audio-visual room.
3, wireless connection rate between main and extension
This test was performed on my desk. The main computer was placed on the right side of the desk and the extension was placed on the left side of the desk.
The laptop is connected to the extension using a network cable, and the desktop is connected to the host. This transmission speed is basically the speed limit between the host and the extension.
Orbi's transmission speed exceeds 400Mbps, which basically reaches the limit of single-line speed, while Huawei Q2 and Honor are both lower than 300Mbps. Among them, the test of Huawei Q2 is particularly disappointing. The 867Mbps 5G WiFi connection plus the so-called 1G power line, and the power supply is specially connected to the adjacent wall plug, is actually far lower than Orbi's wireless transmission.
4. Whole-house coverage test
Finally, it’s time to test the whole-house WiFi coverage effect. Although the layout of my house is not conducive to a one-node layout on one floor, each set only has three devices, so it can only be tested this way.
The three hosts are all placed in weak current boxes and connected to my home LAN through switches, all using routing mode.
The extension is placed on the countertop in the bathroom on the second floor.
The other extension is placed in the bathroom on the third floor. From the color of the light, we can see that only Huawei Q2 still has a signal. This is because after the test was completed, I had taken away the extension on the second floor. The extension on the third floor could not connect to the host signal on the first floor, so only Huawei Q2 through the power line still had a signal. Signal.
The layout is as shown in the figure, which is the A, B and C points.
On the web side of Huawei Q2, you can see the connection status and the connection speed is around 200Mbps.
Orbi's management page can only show the status is good, but not the speed.
The signal of Honor's device is obviously not as good as the previous two. The display position is often poor, and the connection is finally stable after adjusting the position and angle many times.
1, wireless connection rate between the main extension
The first project is still to measure the wireless connection speed between the main extension, but I cannot connect the computer to the LAN port of the router on the first floor, so they are all tested through the WAN port, three models The machine's LAN-WAN transparent transmission rate is far higher than the speed between the main and extension computers, so there will be no impact.
The measured data of the extensions on the second and third floors are shown in the table above. The wireless connection speed of Orbi on the second floor is far ahead, but the speed drops significantly after being transmitted to the third floor. It seems that the attenuation of WiFi signals by the floor is very serious, and the relative position interference on the second and third floors is also serious. The overall performance of Huawei Q2's power line transmission is still a bit disappointing, but the signal on the third floor is actually stronger than that on the second floor, which may have an advantage when there are more penetrations through walls. The connection speed of Honor's device is basically useless. If it is a jumper, don't consider it.
2, roaming test
The coverage area of the panel AP is completely different from the other three sets, so I took it out separately and tested it to see how miserable it is.
I only tested the roaming between three APs on the second floor. The installation locations are at three points A, B, and C. The red lines are the movement trajectories. The results were tested with Xiaomi Mi 8 plus WiFi Magic Box. I walked around and roamed 4 times and lost packets 10 times. Basically, there was no roaming at all.
Finally, there is a roaming test on three sets of devices: Netgear Orbi, Huawei Q2, and Honor. The movement trajectory is as shown by the red dot in the picture above. It starts from the bedroom on the first floor, passes through the corridor to the bathroom on the third floor, and then returns the same way. Originally, I wanted to use my mobile phone to record the live broadcast to see the delay, but I actually found that both Orbi and Huawei Q2 basically did not suffer from lags. Only Honor often lags, so I finally chose the results of the WiFi magic box test.
After many tests, take the worst result for comparison, and you will find something strange in it. The
Orbi set is relatively the most stable. All four roamings are done in one go, and it is always connected to the 5G signal. In most cases, there will be no packet drops, and the delay is mostly around 200-300ms.
Huawei Q2's roaming often skips the extension on the second floor and goes directly from the first floor to the third floor, or directly from the third floor to the first floor. However, the overall Internet access is relatively stable and lags are rare. When the situation is good, the delay is not obvious, but occasionally it will be disconnected for several seconds like in the screenshot.
Honor can probably guess from the previous test that the signal is not stable enough. It feels that the cross-floor layout is still too heavy for it, and neither packet switching nor network speed can meet the requirements.
test summary
1. Don’t have high hopes for panel APs. Basically, each panel can only control one room. The signal in the bathroom and corridor light areas is very weak. It is difficult to cover the whole house, let alone roaming. If you have high WiFi requirements, you might as well consider a ceiling-mounted AP instead of a panel, which is a product designed for wide-area coverage. But be sure to note: this is just a cheap solution. If you set the thresholds for AP access and rejection reasonably, this system can also provide a good experience. However, if you want to eliminate the delay caused by roaming, please choose a product that explicitly supports fast roaming. The cost will be much higher.
2. If you plan to use distributed routing and pure Mesh products to achieve WiFi coverage, please be sure to choose 3-band products with exclusive transmission channels.Due to the limitations of the test conditions, the test projects I did were relatively gentle, and did not fully squeeze out the performance of Orbi 4X4 channels, nor did they overwhelm the glory of only 1167Mbps bandwidth, otherwise the comparison would be more obvious.
3. Mesh is just a networking method. If you want a perfect experience, you must also pay attention to the functions that come with Mesh products. Just like low-end routers and high-end routers, the functional differences are still very obvious, such as Beamforming+, MU-MIMO, and daisy chain. (Daisy Chain Topology), fast roaming, etc. will only appear on high-end products.
4. Although Orbi's Mesh system performance functions are very powerful among similar products, for devices such as NAS and desktop computers that often transmit large amounts of data, laying out network cables is faster and more stable. The NAS can be placed in a weak current box or TV cabinet. The location of the desk must be determined during the design stage. Once the desk is moved, the network cable will become an open wire.
5, The actual speed of power line transmission of Huawei Q2 is disappointing, but it has a natural advantage in penetrating walls, and it is quite effective in certain circumstances.
The WiFi part is obviously both called "Intelligent Connection Settings", but there are obvious differences in the setting interface: Huawei Q2 can set a password, but Honor has no corresponding option. This logic is confusing.
Compared with Huawei Q2, the main reason is that it has this power line setting. To put it bluntly, it loads the network signal on the wires at home for transmission. I used the TP-LINK power cat product many years ago, and the experience at that time was not good. How Huawei's products fare depends on the subsequent tests. Comparison of some advanced functions of
The previous introductions are some basic functions and settings. The following will compare the advanced functions of these devices. It is these advanced functions that can make the WiFi experience better.
The picture above shows the options in the Orbi settings page. You can see several advanced features: dedicated backhaul, daisy chain topology, Beamforming+, MU-MIMO, fast roaming, etc.
Dedicated backhaul only means that Orbi supports tri-band WiFi. Two sets of 2X2 are dedicated to connecting clients, and a set of 4X4 5G signals are dedicated to communication between the main and extension units. The total bandwidth of the three-band reaches 3000Mbps, while the other two sets It only supports dual-band, with a total bandwidth of 1167Mbps. It is difficult to load the entire traffic during large-traffic data transmission.
Huawei Q2, which has only 1167Mbps wireless bandwidth, uses power line data transmission as one of the backhaul channels. It claims to support 1G bandwidth, but actual testing is usually discounted.
Beamforming technology simply makes the wireless signal directional and enhances the signal in the direction of the client. It will be greatly improved when the long-distance signal is weak. Orbi is the only one of the four sets of equipment that supports this feature.
MIMO divides data on multiple antennas for transmission. For example, when a 3-antenna router is connected to a 3-antenna computer, it can be three times faster than a single antenna. What was popular before MU-MIMO was SU-MIMO, which is single-user MIMO. In this mode, although the router is connected to multiple devices at the same time, it can only transmit data to one device at the same time, and each device is queued in sequence. If all devices can reach the same full speed as the router, there is no disadvantage in this mode, but if there are low-speed devices, the entire network speed will be dragged down by them. MU-MIMO can communicate with multiple devices at the same time, making full use of bandwidth.
Fast roaming is a technology that various network equipment companies tend to avoid discussing in detail. Large companies have basically developed their own fast roaming technology, but most of them are only used in commercial products. Mesh products may be the first to introduce this technology to home equipment. , but not all Mesh products will add this technology. ORBI obviously uses its own fast roaming technology. Honor uses standard 802.11v. This function mainly provides a base station list. It is usually used together with 802.11r to shorten roaming time and 802.11k to select base stations, but the product introduction does not mention the other two technologies. Huawei Q2 did not mention seamless roaming or fast roaming related specifications.
People often mention the wireless roaming of AC+AP. In fact, it is only effective for AC+AP that supports wireless roaming. Low-end panel APs like TP-LINK do not support these functions. The method adopted by low-end equipment is to set a threshold to prohibit low-signal clients from accessing, and at the same time kick out low-signal clients, forcing them to re-select an AP with a strong signal. The premise for this to be effective is that the AP coverage must begin to overlap in the high-signal area, otherwise there will be a dilemma of one side being kicked out and the other unable to connect. On the other hand, these APs do not support fast roaming technology, let alone 802.11kvr related standards. All they can do is prevent mobile phones from hanging on to weak signals. Including the TP-LINK TL-AC300, which has been rumored a lot on the Internet, its function is only to manage up to 300 APs in a unified manner, adjust frequency bands, and dynamically adjust AP load balancing, but it does not have the technology to improve roaming conditions.
Finally, let’s summarize the functional differences between several sets of equipment.
3. Performance test
test equipment
The test equipment is mainly my desktop and laptop, as well as my home's original network equipment.
My laptop only has WIFI, so I equipped it with a TYPE-C USB Gigabit network card.
It is actually tested that this USB network card can transmit data to the desktop computer at more than 900Mbps under the same switch, so it will not become a bottleneck in the test.
In addition to the computer, two mobile phones are also used: iPhone After introducing the test equipment, let’s start testing one by one.
1, LAN-WAN transparent transmission rate
Nowadays, home broadband speeds are getting faster and faster. For example, Chengdu has basically popularized 300M optical fiber to the home. Many old routers have weak LAN-WAN transparent transmission performance and cannot take advantage of broadband. Therefore, there are This test is necessary. The test method is relatively simple: the laptop is connected to the LAN port of the router under test through a network cable, and the desktop computer under the same switch is accessed through the WAN port.
The test software is still iperf3, but I made a chart to make the data more intuitive. Unexpectedly, Honor has the fastest transparent transmission speed among the three sets of devices, basically reaching the limit of the USB network card, while Orbi only reaches about 550M, and Huawei Q2 only reaches about 500M.
This test also confirmed my previous worries: we don’t need to worry until the broadband speed at home exceeds 500M, but it may not be far away from this time. If that day comes, the most practical approach is to let the Mesh or AP only be responsible for WiFi, that is, buy a wired router to connect all the devices in the weak current box, and connect the Mesh or AP set to the main router for use. However, Huawei Q2 does not support bridge mode and cannot be integrated into other systems.
2, WiFi transmission rate
Connect the computer to the router under test, and connect the laptop to the router via WiFi. This test is closest to the limit of WiFi data transmission.
The final test found that Orbi has a clear advantage in speed, and the WiFi speed difference between the other three devices is not too big.
2, WiFi signal coverage and speed
Before testing the whole-house WiFi coverage effect, I would like to first test the signal strength of a single device in each system.
I have complained about the panel of TP-LINK before. The signal is very weak, and I basically cannot access the Internet after leaving the room.
Orbi’s 5G signal coverage is not as strong as 2.4G.
Judging from the chart, Huawei Q2 has the best signal coverage, but the actual link speed and stability still need to be tested to know.
Honor’s signal is similar to Orbi’s.
In this test, the four WiFi signal sources are all at location A. I measured the actual network speed at location B and location C respectively.
Overall, the performance of Orbi and Huawei Q2 is more stable, while Honor's network speed drops much more seriously in position C. As for the panel AP, I won’t mention it. It can’t be separated by walls at all, and there will be no signal if I leave the room. Otherwise, I wouldn’t add another panel AP in the audio-visual room.
3, wireless connection rate between main and extension
This test was performed on my desk. The main computer was placed on the right side of the desk and the extension was placed on the left side of the desk.
The laptop is connected to the extension using a network cable, and the desktop is connected to the host. This transmission speed is basically the speed limit between the host and the extension.
Orbi's transmission speed exceeds 400Mbps, which basically reaches the limit of single-line speed, while Huawei Q2 and Honor are both lower than 300Mbps. Among them, the test of Huawei Q2 is particularly disappointing. The 867Mbps 5G WiFi connection plus the so-called 1G power line, and the power supply is specially connected to the adjacent wall plug, is actually far lower than Orbi's wireless transmission.
4. Whole-house coverage test
Finally, it’s time to test the whole-house WiFi coverage effect. Although the layout of my house is not conducive to a one-node layout on one floor, each set only has three devices, so it can only be tested this way.
The three hosts are all placed in weak current boxes and connected to my home LAN through switches, all using routing mode.
The extension is placed on the countertop in the bathroom on the second floor.
The other extension is placed in the bathroom on the third floor. From the color of the light, we can see that only Huawei Q2 still has a signal. This is because after the test was completed, I had taken away the extension on the second floor. The extension on the third floor could not connect to the host signal on the first floor, so only Huawei Q2 through the power line still had a signal. Signal.
The layout is as shown in the figure, which is the A, B and C points.
On the web side of Huawei Q2, you can see the connection status and the connection speed is around 200Mbps.
Orbi's management page can only show the status is good, but not the speed.
The signal of Honor's device is obviously not as good as the previous two. The display position is often poor, and the connection is finally stable after adjusting the position and angle many times.
1, wireless connection rate between the main extension
The first project is still to measure the wireless connection speed between the main extension, but I cannot connect the computer to the LAN port of the router on the first floor, so they are all tested through the WAN port, three models The machine's LAN-WAN transparent transmission rate is far higher than the speed between the main and extension computers, so there will be no impact.
The measured data of the extensions on the second and third floors are shown in the table above. The wireless connection speed of Orbi on the second floor is far ahead, but the speed drops significantly after being transmitted to the third floor. It seems that the attenuation of WiFi signals by the floor is very serious, and the relative position interference on the second and third floors is also serious. The overall performance of Huawei Q2's power line transmission is still a bit disappointing, but the signal on the third floor is actually stronger than that on the second floor, which may have an advantage when there are more penetrations through walls. The connection speed of Honor's device is basically useless. If it is a jumper, don't consider it.
2, roaming test
The coverage area of the panel AP is completely different from the other three sets, so I took it out separately and tested it to see how miserable it is.
I only tested the roaming between three APs on the second floor. The installation locations are at three points A, B, and C. The red lines are the movement trajectories. The results were tested with Xiaomi Mi 8 plus WiFi Magic Box. I walked around and roamed 4 times and lost packets 10 times. Basically, there was no roaming at all.
Finally, there is a roaming test on three sets of devices: Netgear Orbi, Huawei Q2, and Honor. The movement trajectory is as shown by the red dot in the picture above. It starts from the bedroom on the first floor, passes through the corridor to the bathroom on the third floor, and then returns the same way. Originally, I wanted to use my mobile phone to record the live broadcast to see the delay, but I actually found that both Orbi and Huawei Q2 basically did not suffer from lags. Only Honor often lags, so I finally chose the results of the WiFi magic box test.
After many tests, take the worst result for comparison, and you will find something strange in it. The
Orbi set is relatively the most stable. All four roamings are done in one go, and it is always connected to the 5G signal. In most cases, there will be no packet drops, and the delay is mostly around 200-300ms.
Huawei Q2's roaming often skips the extension on the second floor and goes directly from the first floor to the third floor, or directly from the third floor to the first floor. However, the overall Internet access is relatively stable and lags are rare. When the situation is good, the delay is not obvious, but occasionally it will be disconnected for several seconds like in the screenshot.
Honor can probably guess from the previous test that the signal is not stable enough. It feels that the cross-floor layout is still too heavy for it, and neither packet switching nor network speed can meet the requirements.
test summary
1. Don’t have high hopes for panel APs. Basically, each panel can only control one room. The signal in the bathroom and corridor light areas is very weak. It is difficult to cover the whole house, let alone roaming. If you have high WiFi requirements, you might as well consider a ceiling-mounted AP instead of a panel, which is a product designed for wide-area coverage. But be sure to note: this is just a cheap solution. If you set the thresholds for AP access and rejection reasonably, this system can also provide a good experience. However, if you want to eliminate the delay caused by roaming, please choose a product that explicitly supports fast roaming. The cost will be much higher.
2. If you plan to use distributed routing and pure Mesh products to achieve WiFi coverage, please be sure to choose 3-band products with exclusive transmission channels.Due to the limitations of the test conditions, the test projects I did were relatively gentle, and did not fully squeeze out the performance of Orbi 4X4 channels, nor did they overwhelm the glory of only 1167Mbps bandwidth, otherwise the comparison would be more obvious.
3. Mesh is just a networking method. If you want a perfect experience, you must also pay attention to the functions that come with Mesh products. Just like low-end routers and high-end routers, the functional differences are still very obvious, such as Beamforming+, MU-MIMO, and daisy chain. (Daisy Chain Topology), fast roaming, etc. will only appear on high-end products.
4. Although Orbi's Mesh system performance functions are very powerful among similar products, for devices such as NAS and desktop computers that often transmit large amounts of data, laying out network cables is faster and more stable. The NAS can be placed in a weak current box or TV cabinet. The location of the desk must be determined during the design stage. Once the desk is moved, the network cable will become an open wire.
5, The actual speed of power line transmission of Huawei Q2 is disappointing, but it has a natural advantage in penetrating walls, and it is quite effective in certain circumstances.
