With 2Gbps links becoming more and more common with Fiber and even cable, I was wondering what the plans were to support 2Gbps throughput + LACP on smaller routers.
We have 2 small branch offices with only 5 people in each, so we don’t need and can’t afford massive infrastructure, we are using B20xs with HA failovers for now and were considering upgrading to B One Plus routers with the idea of being able to maximize our throughput for transferring large files.
But then we realized that even the latest B One Plus barely can do 1Gbps without encryption. Ideally we could do 2Gbps with Speedfusion enabled to the main office. Our current provider offers 2Gbps Download/1.5Gbps upload through 2 1Gbps links aggregated through LACP.
Looking around, there are consumer grade routers that can do that (without encryption at least), including consumer grade network boxes from Comcast and others. Of course that is not what we want, but it means it is possible to achieve this performance using not overly expensive equipment.
So our question stands, what are the plans from Peplink. Any plans for a 2Gbps refresh on the BOne, with enough processing power to run encryption and routing functions without destroying the throughput?
Similarly, what are the plans to support WiFi8 in the APs. Currently we use AP One AX Lites but we are having degraded performance linked to interferences in particular. Our experiments with WiFi8 yields vastly superior performance in our offices.
The Balance 310 HW5 has 2.5Gb wan ports, 4Gb of firewall throughput and 1gb of sd-wan throughput and its quite well priced. I don’t think that performance level will drop to BOne pricing just yet.
WIFI wise, yeah I want more here as well- the newer devices have newer wifi, the new 310 5G hw3 has wifi7 (only dual band unfortunately). WIFI8 is not a ratified standard yet, so enterprise gear isn’t likely to be out until it is. Also, no real clients are out yet with wifi8.
They do have a WIFI7 AP (ap enterprise), which is proper tri-band wifi7 and performs well, so you could try that.
(but I would also like a version of the 310 HW5 that has wifi7 in it please!)
Thank you for your thoughts. The balance 310HW5 is a very nice router (spec wise), but it is completely overkill for our small locations. We might still consider it, but when you take into account we need two at each location + the PrimeCare subscriptions this is a huge step up in cost and complexity for the extra throughput we need only at times.
I would still love to hear from Peplink if there are any plans to bring a bit more throughput and computing power (for the encryption) to the BOne product line, for those smaller offices that don’t need a higher end router, but do need to use as much of the available bandwidth as possible.
Same for WiFi, the ap enterprise is nice, but we need two at each location for coverage range (commercial buildings with 2 floors), and we only have 5 permanent users at these locations, the step up in price is measurable, so getting WiFi7 or WiFi8 when it is ratified to the Ax Lite and the B One product lines would really be welcome.
Anyone from Peplink care to chime in and share the plans in that area?
It would help a lot to set expectations and help us decide how to develop our networking solution in the mid-term. Thank you.
This is not a straight forward thing. As we all know, the recent surge of memory and almost every electronic components has made entry level products difficult. Peplink has chosen the path of having a stable, long term supply and long term support on our products. Technology-wise, we’ll definitely have 2Gbps throughput and WiFi 8 products. But we might not be able to offer them under the B One family from what we are seeing today. This does not mean we give up the all-in-one one box solution. It’s just we are looking at how could we make it having a stable supply while maintain a price that make sense for the deployment.
@Alex thank you for the input.
From a business standpoint I can see the logic.
As a marketing input: for us the 2Gbps throughput [with encryption turned on preferably] is the most important as we are already using external APs (AP One AX Lites). So it is not so much having an all-in-one box solution that interests us, but rather having an entry level router that can take that 2Gbps throughput. When you have small branch offices with few users (#5 users) but need the bandwidth a few times per day (trickle traffic the rest of the time), it is hard to justify the higher price points and added complexity (not withstanding the higher cost of primecare) of larger routing devices like the 310HW5 that are overkill (we won’t be using half of its capabilities).
Hopefully such higher end entry devices make it to the lineup in the mid-term. Otherwise some options to consider would be offering lower price points (including lower price for prime care) for some higher end models in exchange for some limitations in its capabilities (some of the more advanced features could be disabled in software and/or not populated on the board?) to make those devices more approachable for lighter applications in smaller organizations? Just some thoughts
