I tested the 30$ Banana Pi WiFi 6 Router and it’s better than anticipated, but far from perfect – MBReviews Leave a comment

This is the Banana Pi WiFi 6 router and the folks behind the venture do additionally make it out there solely as an SBC, so you need to use whichever case you need. They did a superb job nonetheless and it might simply cross as one thing developed by ASUS or Netgear.

But what precisely is a Banana Pi? It’s an open supply venture which is similar to the Raspberry Pi, so that you get plenty of flexibility when it comes to the software program that may run on the SBC. And it did get extra in style throughout the final couple of years as a result of the Raspberry Pi may be very usually out of inventory and it has gotten far more costly than it was initially. The Banana Pi can be attempting to incorporate extra highly effective chipsets and they’re not afraid to get into very aggressive markets, similar to the consumer-based networking {hardware}.

That’s how we received the Banana Pi WiFi 6 router which comes with a model of OpenWRT already flashed and if you happen to don’t belief the builders, you may simply flash your personal software program. In phrases of WiFi-centered options, there isn’t any point out of OFDMA help, and even the extra frequent MU-MIMO and BeamForming, so I checked whether or not the chipset helps them. I might discover the help for the WPA3 encryption, each Personal and Enterprise, the spatial streams configuration is 2×2 on each the 5GHz and the 2.4GHz radio bands, but no point out about OFDMA or BeamForming. So yeah, the WiFi 6 certification is a bit bare-bones, but then once more, the price ticket of the router is 30 {dollars}, so I can’t actually complain that a lot.

Design and Build Quality

Design-wise the Banana Pi WiFi 6 router seems like a daily wi-fi router with some sharp angles right here and there, and when it comes to antennas, we get 4 of them, two on the rear aspect and two on the sides. I would have most popular to have all of them on the rear aspect, but I assume the warmth from the ports would have an effect on the cables.

The antennas can’t be eliminated, but the joints are much like different routers, so it’s nonetheless attainable to interchange them in case they’re damaged. I did a video which reveals how that may be achieved. The gadget might be left on a desk since there are 4 toes to maintain in place or, if you happen to don’t have the area, you may mount it on the wall utilizing the devoted mounting holes.

As for the LEDs, we get fairly just a few of them on the entrance aspect, it seems like about 15 LEDs. But, whereas the selection is excessive, every LAN getting its personal standing LED, in addition to the WPS, the radios and the Power, the relaxation don’t actually serve a objective. They’re there only for aesthetic causes. Moving on to the ports, from the left, we get the Power port and the Power connector adopted by three LAN ports, all Gigabit, identical as the WAN port. For the price ticket, it could have been fascinating to see 2.5GbE ports, but it is sensible to not go this route.

There is a Reset and a WPS button as effectively, but I seen that the WPS enabled itself after start-up which no bueno. I want to say that the builders have included the choice to energy up PoE gadgets as we’ll see in the teardown part.

The Heat Management

As with all different wi-fi router and entry factors that I tested so far, I have to verify how effectively the producers managed to discover a approach to effectively transfer the warmth away from the PCB and the chipsets. And to take action, I used a thermal digicam and checked how the Banana Pi was doing whereas I was working some pretty intense exams. This just isn’t in idle mode. And, as you may see, we initally don’t see something out of the extraordinary, but after turning the router the wrong way up, there are some hotter spots.

Will this result in thermal throttling? I am pretty positive that it’ll as a result of I have already seen some throughput limiting when working some WiFi exams. The builders ought to have added some aluminum warmth spreaders. Or possibly the chipsets aren’t that power environment friendly. I am undecided at the second.

The Banana Pi Quick Teardown

Besides the reality that you could see every thing you want on the official Banana Pi WiFi 6 router web page, I determined to make a teardown video no matter that to see if we get what’s being promised. And I was pleasantly suprised by the sturdiness of the plastic case and the entry to the PCB is kind of simple. Just take away the 4 screws and use a prying device to detach the higher half.

We can see that the 4 antenna connectors and the PCB which, sadly lacks any sort of warmth spreaders. I additionally want to say the PoE module, so there may be the possibility to make use of it to energy up PoE gadgets, but it does want further {hardware}. That being mentioned, it is a very fast run via the predominant parts. And I additionally included a comparability desk at the finish.

The Wireless Test (5GHz)

For the single-client wi-fi take a look at, I used a WiFi 6 consumer and two WiFi 5 gadgets, together with the Pixel 2 XL that I previosuly discarded. And, after being accustomed to seeing close to Gigabit throughput on different WiFi 6 routers, it is a bit underwhelming, particularly when utilizing the 160MHz channel bandwidth.

The fascinating factor is that if I ran the iperf take a look at for a couple of minutes, I would see a median of 950Mbps, but this might probably not inform the full story.

So, to better perceive the throughput, we want to take a look at the longer-term efficiency graph. As you may see every thing ran high quality for a couple of minutes, but the Banana Pi WiFi 6 router appears to have a drop to about a median of 600Mbps sooner or later and it doesn’t get well instantly.

It occurred when utilizing each the 160 and the 80MHz channel width and I suppose it reveals that there’s some thermal throttling that happens a while throughout the take a look at and it does drop the general throughput efficiency. Which is why it’s vital to run these exams over many, many hours. And sadly not many publications do because it prices cash and time that the majority don’t have. That being mentioned, it’s nonetheless a good efficiency contemplating the price ticket of the gadget and there may be all the time room for enchancment.

If we take a look at the sign attenuation graphic, we are able to see that even at -83, we’re nonetheless getting usable throughput, effectively, solely when utilizing the WiFi 6 consumer gadget. And that is true each upstream and downstream, as we are able to see in the following graphics.

If I have been to check the Banana Pi to different wi-fi routers that I tested so far, it does sit at the backside of the record when utilizing the 160MHz width which I suppose is sensible and that’s additionally true when utilizing the 80Mhz channel bandwidth. It’s an affordable gadget that does its greatest.

The Wireless Test (2.4GHz)

Moving on to the 2.4GHz community, regardless of establishing the router to make use of the 40MHz channel bandwidth, the throughput nonetheless solely barely went above 200Mbps, but it’s good to see that it remained pretty robust up till the 70 toes and past, which is kind of the feat.

And, as we are able to see from the graphic, even when the sign attenuation was -69, we nonetheless get usable throughput on all three consumer gadgets. Everything appears to be nice, but I do want to say that the 2.4GHz radio refused to work sooner or later and required a router reboot whereas I was testing it, so there are some occasional stability points.

When in comparison with different wi-fi routers, the Banana Pi is definitely above another gadgets.

The Multi-Client Tests (5GHz)

OK, now let’s see how the Banana Pi handles a number of consumer gadgets working numerous sorts of visitors. I used the identical gadgets that I all the time use and you too can see the sign attenuation that I measured at every consumer stage.

I did depend on the identical open-source instruments developed by Mr Jim Salter which you will get from GitHub. And I began with the simulated 1080p visitors on 5 consumer gadgets. As anticipated, the solely consumer gadgets that would sit beneath 100ms for not less than 95% of the time are the WiFi 7 and the WiFi 6 purchasers, whereas the WiFi 5 instantly shut above that restrict.

I suppose the solely cheap latency might be seen on the two Lenovo laptops but just for 75% of the time. Let’s transfer ahead and run 4K streaming on the 5 purchasers. I am stunned that two purchasers managed to remain beneath 100ms for 95% of the time, but all the relaxation went above it, particularly the two Wifi 5 consumer gadgets, the ZimaBoard reaching 300ms for not less than 5% of the time.

At this level, it’s greatest to depend on Ethernet cable. I didn’t cease right here and I included intense searching to run alongside 1080p on all 5 consumer gadgets.

There is a rise in latency, but the WiFi 7 and the WiFi 6 purchasers did better than anticipated, up till that final 1%.

The intense searching graphic reveals that the aforementioned purchasers did show the next latency than the relaxation, but it’s nonetheless beneath the 1.5s restrict the place most individuals would simply refresh the web page. So all is okay. Now let’s run the intense searching visitors alongside the 4K streaming.

And boy, did the two WiFi 6 purchasers wrestle to remain beneath 100ms, but they solely managed to to so for 75% of the time. The relaxation couldn’t hassle and went above 100ms and effectively past for the total length of the take a look at. Not good.

(*6*)

The intense searching does present some 1s values, but once more, something beneath 1.5 seconds stays pretty acceptable. Let’s transfer ahead and change issues a bit. I ran downloading visitors on two purchasers the place I simulated the steady obtain of a 10MB file. Two purchasers dealt with the intense searching and one the 4K streaming.

The intense searching was dealt with effectively as all the time, but the 4K streaming latency renders it unusable. The downloading purchasers additionally displayed latency values effectively above what might be thought-about cheap. The whole throughput for the downloading purchasers 402Mbps.

Next, I restricted the downloading visitors to 1 consumer, the 4K streaming to a few consumer and the intense searching to the final two. The 4K streaming latency remains to be too excessive to be thought-about cheap, the intense searching is dealt with effectively and, whereas the obtain latency is better than final time, it’s nonetheless too excessive.

So, let’s restrict the take a look at two solely three purchasers, one for the obtain visitors, one for the 4K streaming and the final for the intense searching. Again, better than earlier than, but nonetheless not ok, so let’s now obtain a 1MB file, run intense searching and let the final consumer deal with VoIP.

Things received considerably better because it normally occurs at this level. We’re not achieved as a result of I needed to run the downloading visitors of a 10MB file on all 5 consumer gadgets at the identical time. And you may solely think about the sort of latency I received to see. The solely excellent news if you happen to can name it like that’s that the Banana Pi didn’t drop the connection, whereas some far costlier gadgets did whereas working this take a look at.

The Power Consumption

Now let’s speak a bit about the energy consumption of the Banana Pi WiFi 6 router. I didn’t anticipate it to be that top, so I used the identical ol sensible relay that I all the time use. And, as you may see from the app, that is what you may anticipate throughout regular operation. This just isn’t whereas I was working the stress exams.

The Web-based Interface

As for the software program, it’s OpenWRT. You can run no matter you need on the SBC, but, by default we get an already configured model of OpenWRT, as much as a sure level. We do have to create an admin account and the WiFi networks are open, so that should change. And the builders included an entire lot of SSIDs to decide on from. You can delete all of them and create your personal or simply edit the present ones.

I do want to say that sooner or later, the router determined that the WiFi networks now not want a safety key, in order that was not good. You do have to verify if issues are so as from time to time. I checked the Software part and it doesn’t appear that there’s something added above the commonplace packages, so you may add your personal, though do concentrate on the RAM and CPU limitations. Something like SNORT is not going to run correctly. Adblock and AdGuardHome will work high quality although.

There isn’t a lot else to say, if you happen to’re acquainted with OpenWRT, then you must really feel at house, in any other case, know that it’s a bit much less pleasant than a few of the OEM software program you get on the market, similar to from ASUS, TP-Link or Netgear. But it’s simple to grasp what’s occurring and begin configuring issues the method you need them to work with out a lot limitations.

The Conclusion

I am all the time excited by open-source tasks and the Banana Pi is certainly a step in the proper course contemplating the all the subscriptions and the Cloud limitations, in addition to the information assortment. And sure, the 30 {dollars} will flip plenty of heads, but perceive that there are some apparent limitations each in processing energy and in the WiFi efficiency that you simply get to expertise. You can see it from my exams that it did OK contemplating its anticipated shortcomings. And, in fact there are fairly just a few, together with some occasional bugs, so it’s not the perfect gadget by any means. But once more, you do get plenty of worth for the cash and hopefully we’ll see even better {hardware} in the future.