ASUS RT-AC5300 tri-band flagship routing evaluation
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As the newest flagship wireless router from ASUS, the RT-AC5300 's theoretical wireless transmission rate can be as high as 5.3Gbps . This product was officially released at last year's IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Germany, and is sold at ¥3599 .
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The price of this route first surprised us. In past impressions, home routers cost more than one thousand yuan. Everyone thinks it is more expensive, but this time Asus and Netgear are pricing new wireless routers. Such as 3,000 yuan level, this is why? In my opinion, the reason why RT-AC5300 routers are so expensive is because they redefine home routing, which is an important device for smart homes in the future. Smart homes are actually not far from us.
The RT-AC5300 is equipped with eight antennas and can cover 465 square meters of high-speed signals. It uses the 802.11ad transmission protocol, supports 4K resolution streaming and game transmission, and the latest 802.11AC WAVE2 standard and NitroQAM modulation technology. The 5GHz+2.4GHz three frequency bands, 5GHz operating mode downlink peak up to 4334Mbps , 2.4GHz mode also has a peak rate of 1000Mbps downlink .
Of course, taking into account the possible radiation problems caused by multiple routers and multiple antennas, in order to successfully enter the country, Asustek's network products have passed the national SRRC radiation safety certification. In addition, RT-AC5300 's extension is also very rich, support Thunder acceleration download, AiCloud+Smart Sync , Merlin firmware flash , Qos management, game acceleration .
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To understand the basic features of RT-AC5300 , let's explore the first problem:
 What are the benefits of buying expensive high-end routes compared to low-end routing?
Open some online posts introducing thousand-level routing, we often see a lot of users in the comments area, the content is usually such a tone:
"Buy an expensive route not know what to do, I am 99 yuan buying the Link Routing good use ah!"
" Without any use of eggs, will it be faster to use this router to access the Internet? A $ 300 route is enough! "
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In the beginning of the article, we discussed this issue is quite meaningful, the first thing to say is: If your home broadband is 4M or 10M telecommunications broadband, if you use high-end routing and low-end routing, the Internet speed is basically not too much difference, However, high-end routing may have lower network delays, but the resulting differences in usage are relatively minor and are not easily perceived.
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Since high-end and low-end routes have similar speeds on the outer network ( WLAN ), what are the high-end routes? We will talk about the intranet, that is, the local area network ( LAN ).
From the above figure, we can see that we are connecting to a wide area network ( WAN ) mainly depends on how much bandwidth you have with the telecom carrier package. This is fixed, no matter if you use high-end and low-end routes, Outside the network "speed" are similar.
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The difference between high-end routing and low-end is mainly the bandwidth of wireless local area network ( WLAN ). Because there are two frequency bands in dual-band routers, the bandwidth is large. It can be understood that there are more lanes, and the traffic flow through the same time can be greater. Tri-band routers such as the RT-AC5300 provide more bandwidth.
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Another difference in bandwidth is the LAN . The wired LAN ( LAN ) is also the interface of the plug-in cable. We all know the LAN "Network Neighborhood" function, if your computer and routing are connected by RJ54 network cable, the bandwidth of the low-end router 100M , you pass a file from A computer to B computer, only 100M , the speed is relatively slow; and high-end routing, LAN port is usually 1000M , from A computer to B computer, pass the file to B computer is much faster.
The cpu frequency basically determines the NAT performance of the router. The CPU frequency of the low-end router is more than 200-500Mhz , but the high-end router has many CPU frequencies above 1Ghz . The processor performance of the router is the same as the processor concept of the mobile phone and the computer. There is a big difference in the performance of the Celeron processor and the Pentium processor in the high-end routing.
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The more handsets, tablets, and computers that are connected to the router, the less bandwidth is distributed evenly, and the load on the processor becomes larger and larger. The amount of heat is also increased, and low-end routing is prone to problems. Some netizens will say that my family is using my route, a computer and a mobile phone. This is no problem.
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It is true that such use needs low-end routing to be able to meet, but now many people have multiple computers and mobile phones at home. As the smart home becomes faster and faster, we will find smart TVs, wireless speakers, and smart refrigerators. Even devices such as the body weight meter start to access the router, the bandwidth of the virtual route is occupied and the processor load increases.
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With the increase in the number of machines, network usage problems are more likely to be encountered by some businesses. Many restaurants have free wifi , and the shopkeepers have not deployed enterprise-class routing, which is to use their own home routing and self-surfing. Providing free WiFi to customers and waiting for access to more than one person, it is very easy to connect the network or the card is not the case, if the high-end routing is used in such an environment, with a large amount of machine is not easy to go wrong.
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The above picture shows the firmware screenshot of ASUS routing. You can see from the menu on the left and the function settings on the right. There are many functions that are not available on the low-end routing. The functions of high-end routing and low-end routing are still different. For example, the USB interface is much lower. The end route is no USB interface, but there is high-end routing, USB can be used to connect network printers, can also be used to connect memory, such as ASUS RT-AC5300 routing, as well as USB3.0 interface, you can basically AC5300 will take a removable hard drive, use it as a simple home NAS or FTP server to use, and enable the routing function from the computer so that downloading files.
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There are many differences between the upper and lower routing of the firmware function, such as VPN support, high-end routing like Asus, Game Boost game acceleration, more advanced firewall functions, and so on. Relatively high-end routing on route management and monitoring and QAS bandwidth allocation functions are obviously better, and ASUS' high-end routing also has mobile phone APP management applications.
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Many people know that routers can use third-party firmware to implement more functions. OpenWrt , DD-WRT, and so on are all well-known third-party firmwares. Third-party firmware has more functions and can perform deeper management and setting of routes. , is equivalent to the phone Root , or that Apple jailbreak. These third-party firmware authors generally prefer third-party firmware for high-end routing, because the hardware is good, and more functions can be achieved, while for some of the lower-end routing, there are fewer third-party firmware that can be used.
After reading the above high-low end routing hardware, software, functional differences, etc., we can probably understand why RT-AC5300 such a route is so expensive, high-end home routing, often in hardware configuration or software features rich, somewhat similar to the taste "with a small amount of enterprise-class routing features", we all know that enterprise-class routing, carrier-class routing expensive, in case there are tens of thousands of dozens of stations.
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The difference between an ordinary routing domain in an enterprise routing domain is naturally the number of interfaces (100Mbit, 10Gigabit, 10Gigabit, etc.), performance (popularity is how many terminal accesses can be supported), supported network protocols ( NAT ; DMZ) , and even dynamic routing protocols such as RIP. , OSPF , BGP ; Layer 2 protocols), NAT performance, and even supported network interfaces (such as E1 , POS, etc. in addition to Ethernet access ), scalability (cards, etc.).
In the past, our living standards were not high, and there were few devices connected to the network. However, nowadays, the demand for various devices and networks is increasing. From the back of the RT-AC5300 , we can see that the RT-AC5300 positioning is to meet the arrival of the era of high-definition and smart home.
1, so that all kinds of Internet access at home, game consoles, smart appliances, network cameras are connected to the route but not enough bandwidth, or the load can not afford;
2, born for the game, ASUS's new firmware is to support the gameboot function, allowing you to visit foreign online games faster, but also for the XBOX access network to accelerate;
3 , 2K , 4K video transmission rate requirements are very high, many people have a 4K screen TV, if the future telecom operators continue to upgrade bandwidth, we may see youtube , Youku, on-demand TV drama movies are 2K , 4K resolution Transmission, high-bandwidth home routing can afford such applications.
Most netizens think that this day will be a long time away, but many players have already deployed NAS , HTPC mainframes at home , or build DLAN media servers via routers to allow home smart TVs to play their own HD movies. This is a comparison of bandwidth requirements. big.
4, in such a high-end routers Asus AC88U, AC5300, Aicloud firmware on the integration of cloud services, already more advanced firewall and anti-virus program for Internet security provides greater protection.
ASUS RT-AC5300 Unpacking and Appearance
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As a flagship route, the AC5300 's packaging and accessories are very sophisticated. After the mainframe is used, eight antennas can be seen neatly, with an AC adapter and a cable.
The RT-AC5300 's black case, diamond-shaped panel, and red decorative lines make the router's appearance somewhat exaggerated. It looks like the taste of the ASUS player country ROG device. Both the front and the back have a large area of ​​vent holes designed to enhance air convection and promote passive cooling. The use of a side-drain opening on the front side has the effect of preventing direct entry of dust.
After the 8 antennas are installed, the appearance is very domineering. ASUS RT-AC5300 uses Broadcom 1.4GHz dual-core ARM processor BCM47094 network processor chip, equipped with 128MB Flash flash memory and 512MB DDR3 memory, which not only makes its WAN to LAN performance increased by 135% , more capable of carrying more than 180 terminal devices Combined with ASUS's AiRadar smart radar signal beamforming technology, the wireless signal coverage can reach 502 square meters. With MU-MIMO technology, the wireless router and four WiFi terminals can simultaneously exchange data.
The RT-AC5300 interface supports dual-access and supports "link aggregation". When used with a dual-interface NAS or network card , the RT-AC5300 can achieve a bandwidth of 2 Gbps , which can meet the requirements for large data reading.
Because of the peculiar appearance, when RT-AC5300 was placed upside down, it was dubbed "table" by some netizens, but I think it was a bit like the opposite sex or mechanical spider in a science fiction movie. Overall, the shape of this router is still very avant-garde. Feelings, taste of the game equipment, in product design and promotion, Asus is also stressed that it is not the same with the general router game performance and targeted game optimization features.
In addition to the emphasis on game features, in fact, RT-AC5300 is a multi-faceted , 4K resolution, smart home era is approaching, RT-AC5300 a variety of performance and design can meet the application, RT-AC5300 also has balanced mode, game mode and home mode can adjust.
RT-AC5300 working status lights, brightness is not high, very mild.
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PART 2ASUS RT-AC5300 teardown and parts
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ASUS RT-AC5300 teardown is not difficult, the bottom of the rubber mat uncovered after the four screws, and then use the card along the corner seam will be dark buckle open on it, but to suggest that teardown may lead to Loss of warranty.
After opening the shell, the first thing you see is the large heat sink on the back of the PCB . The passive heat sink can make the router work more stable, and it also has a certain shielding effect.
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Open the heat sink, you can see inside each signal processing module is also covered with a metal shield to avoid signal interference.
May be generally seen from the rear surface ASUS RT-AC5300 radio section using three new BCM4366, a region corresponding to separate 5G 1, 5G 2 signals respectively corresponding to regions 2 and 2.4G. WIFI and two master chip is designed in the front, all of the signal amplification WIFI are arranged on the back surface. 5G and 2.4G BCM4366 mixing zone 2 using a positive and negative design, and the metal cover are coupled, this design greatly reduces interference signals, while effectively enhance the ratio of PCB to simplify the routing The overall size is the smallest in its class.
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The separate 5G signal amplification area uses independent antennas, and each antenna corresponds to a 5G signal amplification area. In addition, a filter zone is added above the signal amplification zone, and the metal cover isolates each zone. None of these measures exist to reduce the interference of wireless signals and improve the signal utilization. 5G signal amplification uses a PA5542 to amplify the power. After the SKY15605 RF switch (with low-noise amplification), this band-pass filter improves the purity of the signal to reduce noise.
The heat sink on the front of the PCB has a larger area and covers almost the entire PCB panel.
Each functional area is also covered with a metal shield.
The main control adopts Broadcom's 4709 and 40nm technology, and the dual-core A9 can be upgraded to 1.4GHz with good heat dissipation . Native support for 5 Gigabit interfaces. And the use of the master control of the original data exchange, while the four LAN interfaces support link aggregation, two-way merger to achieve 2000MB of data exchange.
2.4G5G common area 2 pieces of BCM4366 are just the opposite, responsible for 5G signal and 2.4G signal respectively. The design of the 5G area here is no different from the signal amplification circuit of the 5G area 1 alone . 2.4G area uses sky2623l for power amplification, and then via SKY15201 RF switch (with low noise amplification), the last 5G and 2.4G combined into one antenna. Regardless of component selection or workmanship, the RT-AC5300 represents the top level of current home router products.
PART 3ASUS RT-AC5300 WEB Setup Interface
First of all, to the official website to upgrade the latest version of the firmware, you can download a ASUS routing Discovery program to quickly discover the ASUS network devices in the LAN network to configure. As a flagship router, not only has a high-end design, powerful hardware configuration, but also requires an easy-to-use, powerful management interface. The firmware function of AC 5300 is considered to be superior in current home routing. Basically, the functions that general users need to use are all available. If more functions are needed, you can download the third-party version of “Merlin firmwareâ€.
The homepage of the management interface is still ASUS's traditional dark gray network map interface, but it can be found in the function menu in the left area that many new functions have been added. The right menu shows the router processor and memory load.
The guest network provides internet access for visitors, but it restricts visitors from accessing the internal network and can set the time for the Internet. If three frequency bands all have a guest network, many hotspots can be accessed.
AiProtection smart network guardian function is divided into two parts, network security and parental control. Network security protection uses Trend Micro technology to monitor the network through real-time networks. These threats can be detected before malicious programs, viruses, and other malicious computers and connected devices. The parent computer control program allows you to schedule when connected devices access the Internet. You can also ban unnecessary websites or apps and limit the web content that children visit.
Adaptive QoS monitoring is very powerful and allows you to observe each computer's program access to the network. Adaptive QoS network monitors can pre-define and drag and drop settings to ensure high-priority applications and programs' incoming and outgoing bandwidth during wired and wireless connections: games, streaming media, Internet telephony, web browsing, and file transfer . The web browsing history is also completely preserved. Clearing the browser cache on the computer can also track the web pages visited by the PC .
The game boost this time is powered by using the WTFast GPN circuit to speed up the game's network connection, LAN connection acceleration, and security protection (that is, Trend Micro's protection technology). WTFast GPN is one of the most attractive features. It speeds up access to foreign game servers through GPN network nodes distributed all over the world . This feature is attractive to players who like to play games on foreign servers.
Traffic Analyzer traffic analysis is a very powerful and intuitive network data traffic statistics function. RT-AC88U supports 3G network adapters and 4G network adapters. This function can also count the traffic of 3G network adapters and 4G network adapters. Traffic Analyzer traffic analysis can display real-time network access data, the chart is very beautiful, you can view the past 24 hours of data.
ASUS USB- related applications can connect wireless storage devices, printers, scanners, and 3G/4G network cards to wireless printing, wireless scanning, mobile data sharing, and AiCloud private cloud. Download master is more attractive features, connect the USB storage device on the router , you can add download tasks to do offline download, but the download speed and Thunder, QQ Tornado, Baidu cloud disk offline download function has a certain gap.
ASUS' ASUS AiCloud Personal Cloud 2.0 application is equivalent to a personal Ftp server and NAS , media server, and can be installed on mobile phones for access to iOS or Android mobile devices. The route setting function is consistent with most of the routing functions. It also supports VPN , IPTV , IPv6, etc., without introducing too much.
A small change can be seen in the wireless settings. Both the 2.4G signal and the 5G signal support optimization for the Xbox . This function is of course very popular with gamers. RT-AC88U new version of the ASUS routing firmware can see support for 1024QAM , while the wireless area can also be selected to other regions, set to China / Europe, etc., due to wireless transmission standards, the wireless signal strength is weak, and set For the United States, the signal strength is much higher.
ASUS Mobile Phone App Management Interface
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In addition to AiCloud's mobile client, ASUS also released an Asus Router mobile-end router control app (this article uses the English version, the domestic download can have a Chinese version of choice) , through this graphical software, network white can also be easily on the phone Manage routes, the main interface can see real-time traffic, number of connected clients, WIFI signal and CPU memory usage, UI design is very sci-fi.
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The More tab has a lot of settings, and the common ones are already included. These functions are actually those described in the WEB management interface above .
2.4G and 5G network settings, you can change the SSID password and so on.
The network traffic monitoring interface is similar to the design of the WEB page. You can see instant upload and download data traffic.
CPU load chart and memory usage data.
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Asus's WRT firmware interface design and features are legendary, feature-rich, look beautiful, not too complicated, the average user is also relatively easy to grasp, and this beautifully designed, interactive design more intuitive APP is more intuitive and good With the use of ordinary people can also manage their own routers, RT-AC5300U has added many new features not available in the past routers, and increased the mobile client, which can be seen as the characteristics of the router's "intelligent" evolution .
ASUS RT-AC5300 Performance Test
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5G wireless throughput performance test
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Client: PC1
Software Version: IxChariot Endpoint 7.10
Connection Mode: R8500 Wireless Bridge AC5300 PC1 Connected to AC5300 LAN1
R8500 firmware version:
V1.0.0.56_1.0.28
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Console: PC2
Software Version: IxChariot Console 6.7
Connection mode: Lan port connects to R8500 LAN1
Test Script: High_Performance_Throughput.scr
AC5300 firmware version: V3004-380-838
Test item: 5G1 TO 5G1
Test item: 5G2 TO 5G2
The 5G1 performance of RT-AC5300 is very fierce. It directly impacts the physical speed limit of Gigabit. The 5G2 frequency band can also achieve the normal speed of about 700Mbps . Under this powerful wireless bandwidth, the wireless WiFi Gigabit enjoyment has been realized, and it is completely comparable to the twisted pair. The transmission rate of the line, but the graphics card can support it.
Distance and transmission rate change test
Although the RT-AC5300 supports 44 MIMO architecture, most of the current wireless network cards only support 33 , which means that under normal circumstances, we use the transfer rate is not as high as the above section, so use the MacBook Pro notebook to test it With a built-in 3 x 3 802.11ac wireless network card, the resulting transfer rate is closer to everyday use data. Test software uses WiFiPerf to measure the speed of client-to-server (c2s) and server-to-client (s2c) differences.
From the test results, in the case of 3 × 3 MIMO , the transmission rate can be relatively stable to 708 Mbps . This result has been quite satisfactory. In the test, it is also substituted into the distance for testing.
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About RT-AC5300 signal strengthFrom the author's direct experience, when the RT-AC5300 sets the wireless zone options to “United States†and “Taiwan†in the setup interface, the signal strength is much stronger than when it is set to “Chinaâ€. In particular, the signal strength of the 5G band is better than the signal strength of the router used by the author, but it can only be connected through a layer of walls. The 2.4G band signal does not have any problems in penetrating the two walls.
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The current signal strength of the router (mainly refers to the signal strength after passing through the wall) is an annoyance for many people. Many people complain that the high-end routing signal strength of Asus and NETGEAR is not as strong as some domestic very cheap routers. This is mainly due to the Wireless transmission power standards are limited, but NetShot and ASUS routing now support Beamforming+ technology, which can track connected devices such as phones and tablets , as well as focus on WiFi signals for optimal speed and range, and walk around the room. It will not be prone to sudden loss of signal.
Game Acceleration is the highlight of RT-AC5300
Two thousand dollars to buy a route is not a cheap product for most users, many people seem to get used to 100-300 yuan to buy a route, but the high-end routes such as nets, Asus, Dlink , linksys and other brands to sell so High price support behind the manufacturers is rich in routing products manufacturing experience, mature technology, stable and efficient for the router is a very important feature, such as gamers, no one wants to suddenly lose the network in a very important moment in the game Alternatively, the RT-AC5300 can support game acceleration and account protection, and it can also accelerate the networking of the XBOX game console. This function is more practical.
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Prepare for the era of 2K, 4K streaming media and smart homeSome users think that there are few computer phones and computers in the home . The 300M bandwidth traditional route home can handle it, and it does. However, the current development of smart homes is very fast. Apart from mobile phones, computers, and tablet access networks, we have found that smart TVs, wireless speakers, wireless air conditioners, wireless sweepers, wireless home cameras and other devices are all starting to access the Internet, so the future bandwidth The demand will be higher and higher, home routing bandwidth is very easy to stretch, especially smart TV, the next 2K , 4K resolution programs began to spread, for the network data transmission bandwidth requirements are high, so if it is a new purchase route, we must choose double Frequency routing, although home broadband provided by telecom operators is not high at present, but in Japan, South Korea and some European and American countries have achieved an average speed of 20 Mbps or more. Both youtube in China and Levision in China have provided experimental 2K. The on-demand programming of the resolution, began to believe that the era of on-demand high-definition audio-visual programs on the Internet soon arrived.
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