Linksys Ea8500 Max-stream Ac2600 Mu-mimo Smart Wi-fi Router Review
Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Smart Wi-Fi Router Reviewed - Part 1
| At a glance | |
| Production | Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Smart Wi-Fi Router (EA8500) [Website] |
| Summary | QCA based AC2600 MU-MIMO enabled router with Gigabit Ethernet ports and USB 2.0/eSATA/USB iii.0 storage and printer sharing |
| Pros | • Supports bridged router, wireless bridge & wireless repeating • MU-MIMO support provides moderate total throughput comeback |
| Cons | • No outbound port/service filtering • You'll need to buy new devices to do good from MU-MIMO |
Introduction
Linksys' Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Smart Wi-Fi Router is the commencement of the second-generation Qualcomm Atheros (QCA)-based 4x4 routers to hit the market. This new generation gets a bump from 600 to 800 Mbps maximum link rate on the 2.4 GHz side due to QAM-256 support on the boosted radio. But the real potential of AC2600 class routers is that their MU-MIMO feature is actually working.
In contrast, all offset-generation 4x4 AC2350 (aka AC2400) class routers used Quantenna's QSR1000 4x4 radio on the 5 GHz band. Although I saw a MU-MIMO demo at the visitor offices about a yr ago, not one manufacturer of the first round of 4x4 routers has appear even its intention of removing the "ready" from their MU-MIMO "characteristic".
The EA8500 is physically similar to the company's E8350 first-generation 4x4 router every bit shown in the comparing shot below. The EA8500'south antennas are taller than the E8350'due south peek-a-boo antennas. But since Linksys didn't spec them or make a note of their having higher gain, I'm guessing the two antenna gains are the aforementioned.
The cases of both products are largely perforated height and bottom and accept vent slots on the front and sides, providing ample airflow. Both routers also take spiral mounting slots on the lesser that will orient the back panel connectors up, left or right, but not down.
EA8500 vs. E8350
The EA8500's back console is virtually identical to the E8350's, except for a missing power indicator. That's considering the lighted Linksys front panel logo has returned, which also flashes, pulses or shines steadily to indicate cyberspace connectedness status, booting and firmware updates.
EA8500 callouts
All Ethernet ports are Gigabit and each has carve up link and activity LEDs. Like the E8350, WRT1900AC and WRT1200AC, you lot become one USB 3.0 port and a shared USB 2.0 and eSATA (eSATAp) port.
MU-MIMO: Why should I care?
3 words: full throughput improvement. MU-MIMO vs. XStream: The Coming Battle For Wi-Fi Airtime described the basic approaches of the two major competitors in this latest Wi-Fi battlefield. To recap, Broadcom'southward XStream is a proprietary applied science that adds a second 5 GHz radio and mechanisms to automatically assign devices to radios based on link rate and signal level; the ii primary factors that determine how much airtime a device needs to move a packet of data through the air.
MU-MIMO is part of the 802.11ac standard, using an advanced form of beamforming to enable simultaneous AP-to-client transmission for downlink traffic only (AP to STA). The diagram beneath from a QCA presentation illustrates MU-MIMO's effect, which is to move from one customer transmission to multiple transmissions in each on-air timeslot. The freed-up airtime can be used for "legacy" (802.11a/b/g/northward) and unmarried user (SU) MIMO (SU-MIMO) clients, providing benefit to even mixed-device WLANs.
Single User vs. Multi User MIMO Throughput
Prototype credit: Qualcomm Atheros
Notice the example shows three MU-MIMO streams from a iv-stream (4x4) access point (AP), which is due to MU-MIMO'south # of streams-i client rule. This is a past-product of applied limitations in the technology used in MU-MIMO devices.
Inside
Linksys returned to requesting brusk-term confidentiality for key FCC ID docs. So after I finished testing, I opened up i of the ii EA8500's Linksys sent, for the photo below.
Linksys EA8500 inside
At least the upper correct portion of the pattern is similar to the E8350's shown below, with a similar heatsink-topped shield covering the Qualcomm IPQ8064 dual-cadre Internet Processor clocked at 1.4 GHz and 512 MB of Samsung DDR3 RAM. The same QCA8337 Gigabit switch is seen below the Ethernet jacks at photo center.
E8350 inside
It took more effort than usual to get the RF can tops off, only I finally did, revealing the QCA9980 11ac MU-MIMO radios and associated transmit power amplifiers. If my eyeballing of the connections is correct, that internal antenna is connected to the fourth 2.4 GHz radio, which also appears to connect to the right rear external antenna. I don't know what its function is.
Linksys EA8500 inside - components revealed
Table 1 has a comparison of the EA8500 and E8350's components.
| Linksys EA8500 | Linksys E8350 | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Qualcomm dual-core IPQ8064 Internet Processor @ 1.four GHz | Qualcomm dual-core IPQ8064 Cyberspace Processor @ 1.4 GHz |
| Switch | Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337 | Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337 |
| RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB (Qualcomm/QCA) 128 MB (Quantenna) |
| Flash | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| two.4 GHz Radio | - QCA9980 iv-stream 802.11ac MU-MIMO radio - Skyworks SE2623L ii.4 GHz power amp (x4) | - QCA9880 3-stream 802.11ac radio solution - Unidentified 2.4 GHz power amp (x3) |
| five GHz radio | - QCA9980 iv-stream 802.11ac MU-MIMO radio - Skyworks SKY85405 5 GHz power amp (x4) | - Quantenna QSR1000 (QT3840BC Baseband & QT2518B RF) - Unidentified five GHz power amp (x4) |
Table i: Component summary
The E8350'south QCA9880 ii.four GHz radio doesn't back up standard 802.11ac beamforming. But since the same QCA9980 radio is used for both 2.4 and five GHz, you go beamforming on both bands. MU-MIMO works on 5 GHz but.
Source: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32711-linksys-ea8500-max-stream-ac2600-mu-mimo-smart-wi-fi-router-reviewed-part-1
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