Tag Archives: routerboard

MikroTik Audience – review and teardown

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a pair of MikroTik Audience devices to put through their paces. The Audience is a new device from MikroTik, and perhaps one of the first I’ve seen that is specifically targeted to a home environment, with the stylish exterior designed not just to be a wireless powerhouse but look suitable to be placed on a shelf and give a better connectivity experience to boot.

can’t do meshing with just one..

First impressions

MikroTik are hitting some home runs with design and professionalism recently. This seems like the next step in the evolution from wAP form factor and Wireless Wire kit we have the Audience – and upgrade to both router design and packaging, opening the Audiences is more akin to an apple unboxing than anything else to come out of Mikrotik. Sure it’s nice that the boxing is still relatively simple and recyclable, but it LOOKS like what you’d expect a high end home router to look like; and I’d have no trouble selling this to someone as an upgrade on whatever they’re using now (it really is, but we’ll get to this..).

Teardown

Because I’m a heartless bastard and I know so many Latvians worked for years to create this device, I had to take one of them apart straight away before powering it up. More importantly, I had to try and do this without breaking anything, because I have to put it back together and test it afterwards. Easier said than done, but possible!

Check out the gallery of photos below with instructions on how to disassemble the device, if you’re that way inclined.

Performance

Onto the performance, this device has quad core 716MHz CPU which can be pushed as high as 896MHz (if you’re the sort of person who feels the need to overclock your router) or as low as 488MHz if you plan on the heatsink being a paperweight. During my testing I was unable to max out CPU utilisation while performing any basic routing or wireless functions and as per MikroTik’s testing this should be capable of a few hundred megabits of IPSec encrypted traffic if you have need of it. There are 3 distinct wireless cards available:

  1. 2.4GHz dual chain card (antenna on the board -used for clients)
  2. 5GHz dual chain card (antenna on the board – used for clients)
  3. 5GHz quad chain card (antenna array mounted above board – used for mesh)

Technically there’s nothing stopping a power-user from re-configuring the second 5GHz wireless card as another access point for clients, and if you just had the one Audience device I would probably recommend this for the better MIMO performance – however it was designed with a specific goal in mind – which is meshing.

In my testing – the meshing radios were able to hold a reasonable connection (consistent 60Mbps throughput using btest) through 4 double brick walls and one wooden garage wall. I placed one unit in my lounge room and the second in the detached garage at the other end of the property (a distance of about 24M / 78 feet).

By comparison, previously I have used a set of (non MikroTik) Ethernet over power adapters to deliver 60~Mbps from my office to the ground floor of this house, due to a lack of Ethernet cabling, but switching to the audience units has given me a reliable 300Mbps over the mesh wireless link in the ‘factory’ configuration, or as high as 500Mbps (through 2 walls and up one level) when adjusting the configuration of the mesh radios to use an 80MHz channel.


Even without using the mesh functions I did not coverage around the house also increased noticeably with just the one unit. I suspect some of this is a byproduct of being able to locate the AP on top of furniture, and the antennas being well positioned for good ‘home’ coverage due to the router being stood upright (vs a hAP ac2 which can be mounted on a wall/inside a cupboard/stood on its side).

It’s worth noting at this point – using quickset to configure this device actually employs the use of CAPsMAN to configure each wireless radio (including those of any repeaters) which is the first I’ve seen a product making use of MikroTik own built-in wireless control system.

Negatives / Wishlist

I am sold on the Audience and suspect I will continue using it as my primary AP(s) at home until something better comes along, but that’s not to say I don’t have some gripes.

  1. Port density – yes it’s a pretty router designed to sit up on a bench.. but maybe a stackable switch module (in the same partner-approved style) wouldn’t go astray? Or just one more Ethernet port.. there’s room in there for 3!
  2. PoE out – given WISPs and FISPs are supporters of MikroTik I would have thought it made sense to include a PoE out/pass-through option of some kind – because hey if it can power the radio on the roof, or even another Audience AP nearby.. that’s a useful feature! But the hAP ac2 is also missing this function so I’m not as surprised.
  3. USB support (either internal or externally accessible) would have been useful – yes there’s an LTE version available but the device is targeted at the home market.. how are they going to use the SMB functions now?!

Conclusion

The MikroTik Audience is a well designed and thoroughly capable wireless home router at a price point enticing for gamers and power-users alike. While it lacks the physical connectivity options of some competing platforms, everything about the device makes it clear it wasn’t design to sit connected to a modem/radio or ONT gathering dust in the cupboard – it is well positioned to deliver on the promises of better wireless by providing a platform that looks and feels like part of a modern home and in light of this I can’t wait to see what comes next.

CRS Basic Vlan Configuration

I’ve been playing around with v6.13rc12 over the last week on a CRS125-24G-1S and have put together a an example script for provisioning the unit with a user-vlan and an admin-vlan that are trunked back via the SFP port.

I’ve been waiting for a long time to have a usable and readable switch chip config on the CRS platform, so I hope this is useful for some of you guys too.

CRS125-24G-1S-RM

Continue reading CRS Basic Vlan Configuration

Routerboard 10Gbps capable hardware coming soon?

This was spotted today in the Mikrotik Wiki’s supported hardware list.

Brand Model Rate Connector/Cable Type Wavelength Tested with Works/Doesn’t
MikroTik RB SFP3401 10/100/1000 RJ45, Cat6 RB2011LS-IN Works. Available in Q3!
MikroTik RB SFP5602D-53 155M~2.63G Bi-Di LC, MM 1550/1310 RB2011LS-IN Works. Available in Q3!
MikroTik RB SFP5602D-35 155M~2.63G Bi-Di LC, MM 1310/1550 RB2011LS-IN Works. Available in Q3!
MikroTik RB SFP3420D 1,25G LC, MM 1310 RB2011LS-IN Works. Available in Q3!
MikroTik RB SFP3903D 10G LC, MM 850 RB2011LS-IN and TBA Works. Available in Q3!

.. wait what?

RB SFP3903D listed as 10G and working in a yet to be announced product (TBA).

Are they  referring to another as yet unannounced model of the CCR or something entirely new? More info here as we find it!

Update: Relevant reading from Tilera – http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Tileras-TILE-Gx-MikroTiks-RouterOS-Unleash-Worlds-First-36-Core-Cloud-Core-Router-1678838.htm 

This would lead us to believe the SFP in question is a 10Gig SFP+ module intended to work in an as yet unannounced CCR model,  joy to the routing world!

Quick Set Preview

Just a couple of quick screen shots of the new “Quick Set” mode available in some of the newest releases.

As you can see the dropdown box top left lets you select the mode for the device and puts all the basic configuration options in one place.

AP mode:

 

And CPE mode:

The addition of a signal strength graph over time is nice and handy for keeping track of the nearby networks you’re going to borrow internet from  check connections for when testing this out.

 

We mentioned this earlier in thebrotherswisp podcast if you missed it, looks like it’s going to make the entry level setup a whole lot easier for those new to MikroTik.

MikroTik Cloud Core Router: CCR-1036 (Updated)

Announced less than 24 hours ago at the Warsaw MUM, comes the first (and hopefully not the last) MikroTik shot at high end routing.

Update 2012-07-16: Tilera has made a press release confirming their processors will be used in the CCR-1036. You can read the full thing here.

 

Mikrotik CLOUD CORE Router CCR-1036

  • 36 core networking CPU (1.2Ghz per core)
  • New 64bit processor – assuming this one
  • New Future models will support 10Gig SFP+ configurations
  • 12 Mbytes total on-chip cache
  • High speed encryption engine
  • 4 x SFP ports
  • 12 x Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • Colour Touchscreen LCD
  • 1U Rackmount case
  • 16 Gigabit throughput
  • 15 Million+ Packets Per Second on Fast-Path
  • 8 Million+ Packets Per Second on Standard-Path
  • All ports directly connected to CPU (We assuming this means no switch chips will be present)

The release date is said to be sometime this summer however given previous releases the authors opinion is to take this with a grain of salt. A redundant PSU version is also said to be planned for those requiring higher reliability given the high performance/throughput of the device.   The router is suspected to be based of the TILE-Gx8036 processor, a 36 core beast built for networking applications.

Here’s Gregs take on it all: http://gregsowell.com/?p=3625

 

My Opinions (Andrew Cox / Omega-00)

While I’m super excited about the prospect of something that’s able to handle routing at wirespeed + likely a bunch of firewall, filter and QoS settings; I’m also a little concerned about how the CPU loading will take place and if there will be any additional failsafes put in place to make this product as reliable as it needs to be.

Given we’re still at a place where we can’t get support and maintenance contracts from MikroTik, the platform needs to be as stable as a rock and while I find this is pretty much the case with all basic features there’s still some overlooked issues that pop up over time with specific features causing memory leaks and the like.

At present I’ve taken a liking to running systems either with:

a) a remote access card allowing direct console input and the ability to power cycle the router independently of it being responsive.

b) ESXi as the base OS and RouterOS running on top of this to allow an extra layer of protection and management (also gives the ability to backup and restore in the event a version upgrade goes bad) c) Dual boot loader, allowing fallback to a previous working version in the event of some sort of bootup failure. My guesstimate on pricing: $1500-$1800USD

 

My Opinions (Andrew Thrift):

This is a move in the right direction for Mikrotik.  The Cloud Core product line will provide a viable alternative to the Juniper MX5 and Cisco ASR-900x series of routers for ethernet based enterprise and small ISP networks. It will also provide users with a Mikrotik supported platform that can provide over 10gigabit of throughput, where previously they were forced to use a 3rd party x86 server.

Based on the information released so far, this product appears to be:

– Using the new Tilera GX8036 processor

– Using the 6windgate software  a replacement for the Linux networking stack Confirmed false by 6windgate. 

These will allow Mikrotik the following features

Edit: While 6windgate software is not being used for this, it is likely we may see some of these features regardless from MikroTik direclty.

– Allocation of Tiles to different functions e.g. 1st tile can be used for “Control” while next 6 tiles are used for packet processing

– Fast Path packet processing, on the first pass packets are inspected (slow path), while subsequent flows do not need to be inspected so do not reach the CPU. This will boost raw throughput, and will integrate with Queue Trees, allowing for very efficient traffic shaping systems.

– Hardware based “virtualisation” – Multiple instances of RouterOS will be able to run on a group of Tiles at native speed, no hypervisor required. This allows for native performance as there is no hypervisor.

 

A design change with the new Cloud Core Routers, Mikrotik look to have FINALLY moved to using a standard metal casing with a printed plastic sticker with cutouts for the connectors.  I hope this is adopted across the RB2011 line, it makes the products look far more professional, and will of course lower manufacturing costs due to not needing to retool for different model variations.

 

In the future I hope to see a modular Cloud Core Router product that can take two PSU’s, either AC or DC and has flexible module bays, with options such as 2x SFP+, 8x SFP, 8xRJ45 this will allow providers to build resilient MPLS networks on modern high speed links, find use in the modern data centre, and allow use for Metro Ethernet applications.