Wi-Fi Mesh systems are here to stay, this type of equipment allows us to have full coverage in our home, even the last corner of our house will have Wi-Fi coverage. The most remarkable thing about these Wi-Fi Mesh systems is that we will have Wi-Fi roaming to go from one node to another, and without interruption in the wireless connection. With the typical Wi-Fi repeaters, the mobile device or laptop would always be “hooked” to the repeater or router, and only when it had lost all coverage, would it connect to the other, with the corresponding connection cut and bad experience from the phone. user. Today in this article we are going to recommend the best Wi-Fi Mesh systems that you can buy that allow Ethernet interconnection , to have the best possible wireless performance.
In new homes, the most normal thing is to find all the rooms wired, in all the rooms, including the kitchen and living room, we will have RJ-45 wall sockets to connect one or more devices. If your house has a cellar or attic, you will also have your corresponding network outlet in these locations. By putting an unmanageable 5 or 8 port switch in the input, you will have connectivity in all these network sockets. Before we start talking about the best Wi-Fi Mesh systems that you can buy with Ethernet interconnection, we are going to explain in detail what it is for.
What is Ethernet interconnect or Ethernet backhaul?
Wi-Fi Mesh systems consist of a team that acts as a router, and the rest as “extenders”, nodes or satellites, depending on the manufacturer, they are called one way or another, but it is all the same. Normally the extension nodes or satellites, communicate directly with the main router via Wi-Fi, either in a dedicated frequency band, or in a frequency band shared with wireless clients. In the first case, the performance will be clearly higher than in the second, although logically, the equipment is more expensive.
In some models of Wi-Fi Mesh, we have a third way of interconnecting the nodes, the Ethernet backhaul or Ethernet interconnection. This feature consists in that the Wi-Fi Mesh systems will be able to “communicate” with each other through the wired network and have a 1Gbps trunk link or the speed that we have in the LAN. This backbone connectivity via Ethernet is much faster than trunks via Wi-Fi in terms of actual speed, and they are not sharing Wi-Fi bandwidth with connected clients, rather it is a dedicated, wired connection. The way to connect is to connect a cable from the router to the remote node, so that the remote extender node uses this form of communication instead of Wi-Fi.
In which cases is it advisable to use Ethernet backhaul?
Whenever possible it is advisable to interconnect the nodes via cable, we will achieve the best wireless performance via Wi-Fi, and we will not have packet loss, jitter, high latency, etc. Everything will work much better because the backbone will work via cable. In the cases of houses with several floors and that have wired rooms, it is ideal to use this type of connection, because between one floor and another the Wi-Fi Mesh systems will lose a lot of Wi-Fi speed because the coverage is not so good . In the case of very spacious houses, but with only one floor, this loss of coverage is not so important, and interconnection via Wi-Fi could work well for you. However, our recommendation is Ethernet interconnection whenever you can.
That a Wi-Fi Mesh system has backhaul via Ethernet is something very important that we highlight in the analyzes, we are going to list a series of strengths and weaknesses of this interconnection.
Strengths of backhaul via Ethernet
Some of the strong points of interconnecting via cable the different extender nodes of the Wi-Fi Mesh system are:
- Higher actual speed of the Wi-Fi connection provided by the node
- Higher real speed of the connection if you connect via cable to the node, because the trunk link also goes at 1Gbps as a minimum.
- Greater stability of connections
- Less saturation of the Wi-Fi wireless network, we will be able to connect more devices without compromising speed and stability.
- Lower connection jitter and latency.
Weaknesses of backhaul via Ethernet
- We must have our house previously wired, or wire ourselves by putting RJ-45 rosettes where we want to put the node
- Not all Wi-Fi Mesh supports this functionality, although it depends on the firmware of the device in question.
As you have seen, the scale is clearly inclined to perform an Ethernet backhaul via cable whenever possible. Another aspect that we must highlight is that, in some Wi-Fi Mesh systems, the manufacturer has implemented in the firmware the possibility that the equipment works as Wi-Fi access points, without the router functions. This is ideal so that our operator’s router is the one that manages the entire Wi-Fi network, this is especially recommended when we cannot change the operator’s router or when we cannot connect in bridge mode.
Better Mesh Wi-Fi systems with Ethernet backhaul
ASUS AiMesh
The manufacturer ASUS was the first to incorporate into the firmware of its routers the possibility of a complete high-performance Wi-Fi Mesh network. This allows users to reuse the manufacturer’s routers to turn them into Mesh nodes, and have full coverage at home. The Wi-Fi AiMesh system allows us to have Wi-Fi roaming between nodes, we can have great configurability in advanced parameters, and we can even enable or disable band-steering.
Currently all the routers of the manufacturer ASUS (there are exceptions such as the RT-AC85P), have this feature, and also their Wi-Fi Mesh systems such as the ASUS ZenWiFi or the ASUS Lyra. All of them also incorporate the possibility of interconnecting them via cable to have a bandwidth of 1Gbps in the backbone network, the way of connection is really easy and simple, we will simply have to connect a cable from the router’s LAN, to the WAN port of the different AiMesh nodes.
It is also important to note that ASUS currently has routers and Wi-Fi Mesh triple band simultaneous with Wi-Fi 6, therefore, the speed that we could achieve in the wireless network is up to 4.8Gbps, much higher than the 1Gbps network wired. For this reason, depending on the location and the speed of Wi-Fi synchronization, it will be worth connecting them via cable or directly via Wi-Fi so as not to wire, and to have a better speed.
In houses with two or more floors, we will surely achieve a similar speed if we use the Wi-Fi or cable backhaul, however, our recommendation is to connect it by cable in these cases, to ensure maximum stability of the connection.
Some ASUS Mesh Wi-Fi systems that we recommend (ordered by price from highest to lowest), are the following:
The ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 is currently the top of the range of the brand with simultaneous triple band and Wi-Fi 6, if you are looking for the highest possible performance, this is your ideal Mesh Wi-Fi system.
The ASUS ZenWiFi CT8 is currently the top of the range of the brand with simultaneous triple band and Wi-Fi 5, if you are looking for the highest possible performance without spending too much money, this model will work perfectly for you.
The ASUS RT-AX92U is sold in a kit of two exactly the same routers, and they work as WiFi AiMesh. It incorporates simultaneous triple band, one of these bands being Wi-Fi 6 for the interconnection network.
The ASUS Lyra Trio are computers with AC1750 Wi-Fi that can be interconnected via cable, its design and performance make it a highly recommended purchase.
Of course, the routers from ASUS itself are also highly recommended, such as the new ASUS RT-AX86U , ASUS RT-AX58U , and also the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 , the ASUS RT-AX88U or the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 among others. In this article you have all the analysis of ASUS equipment so that you can see its characteristics in detail and the real performance in the tests.
AVM FRITZ! Mesh
The German manufacturer AVM also has a technology to form a Wi-Fi Mesh network with routers, but this manufacturer also adds support for its Wi-Fi repeaters and PLC with Wi-Fi, therefore, we can have a Wi-Fi Mesh network of different devices very easily and quickly.
Thanks to the FRITZ! OS 7 operating system, we will be able to manage the entire mesh network from the router’s main menu, we will have features such as Wi-Fi roaming and also band-steering, the operation and the user experience is excellent.
AVM allows you to configure the FRITZ! Mesh network with all the manufacturer’s devices, it is only necessary to have the FRITZ! OS 7 firmware or higher, and we can add them to the Mesh network in a really easy and fast way, and all this managed from the router main FRITZ! Box. The manufacturer has incorporated the 802.11k / v standards to allow fast Wi-Fi roaming and totally transparent to the user, and the truth is that in our tests we have verified that it works really well.
AVM also supports Ethernet backhaul, the detection is fully automatic, therefore, we can configure a high-performance Wi-Fi network without fissures in a few minutes. Some of their routers that are highly recommended, and that support FRITZ! Mesh are the following:
As for Wi-Fi repeaters, the best models that incorporate a Gigabit Ethernet port for the Ethernet backhaul are the following:
In this article you have all the analysis of AVM FRITZ equipment so that you can see its characteristics in detail and the real performance in the tests.
D-Link COVR-1102 and COVR-1103
This Wi-Fi Mesh system is ideal if you are going to interconnect the nodes via cable, we have two versions, one with two computers (router and node) and another with three computers (router and two nodes). All nodes are exactly the same and can function as a router, the main characteristic of these devices is that they are certified with EasyMesh from the Wi-Fi Alliance.
These devices are dual band simultaneous with AC1200 Wi-Fi , we can achieve a speed of up to 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band and up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band. It has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one for the WAN / LAN and one for the LAN. Thanks to these Gigabit Ethernet ports, we will have a 1Gbps backbone, ideal for wired homes.
Another very important feature is that this Wi-Fi Mesh system can work in Wi-Fi access point mode, without the router functions, ideal in case you cannot remove the router from your operator.
We recommend you visit our analysis of the D-Link COVR-1102 where you will find the real performance of this equipment.
D-Link COVR-C1203
This Wi-Fi Mesh system was one of the first launched by the manufacturer D-Link, it is made up of two or three nodes, and also supports backhaul over Ethernet, to have a bandwidth of 1Gbps in the backbone network.
For wireless clients, we have simultaneous dual band with Wi-Fi AC1300 , we can achieve a speed of up to 400Mbps in the 2.4GHz band, and a speed of up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band thanks to Wi-Fi AC. This Wi-Fi Mesh system has Beamforming, MU-MIMO in 5GHz, band-steering and Wi-Fi roaming with the 802.11k / v standards.
Regarding the wired characteristics, each node has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, the node that acts as a router will have a WAN port and another LAN, and the rest of the nodes will act as LANs.
You can read our Wi-Fi Mesh D-Link COVR-C1203 analysis and see its real performance.
The manufacturer D-Link also has Wi-Fi routers and repeaters that are configured to form a Mesh network, just as ASUS and AVM do, however, the number of compatible WiFi routers and repeaters is still quite limited in models.
NETGEAR Orbi RBK12
This Wi-Fi Mesh system is very similar to the previous one, although it does not support the EasyMesh standard, however, NETGEAR is one of the best manufacturers of Wi-Fi Mesh systems, and it incorporates Wi-Fi roaming and band steering that it works really well. NETGEAR sells the Orbi RBK12 which is the 2-node version (router and satellite), and we also have the RBK13 which is the 3-node version (router and two satellites).
The main characteristics are that it is simultaneous dual band with AC1200 Wi-Fi , we can achieve a speed of up to 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band and up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band. It has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one for the WAN / LAN and one for the LAN, of course, it supports Ethernet backhaul.
You can read our complete analysis of the NETGEAR Orbi RBK12 where you will find all the technical characteristics and the real performance in the tests.
NETGEAR Orbi RBK23
If in your home you have part of the house wired and another part not, this model is ideal for you. This Wi-Fi Mesh system is simultaneous triple band with Wi-Fi AC2200, we have a dedicated frequency band for interconnection in 5GHz (high channels) that works at a speed of up to 867Mbps, this is ideal for the backbone network via Wi -Fi works properly and with great speed.
For the Wi-Fi clients that we are going to connect to the system, it has simultaneous dual band with Wi-Fi AC1300 (up to 400Mbps in 2.4GHz and up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band). We have Wi-Fi roaming, band steering, MU-MIMO and also Beamforming.
Finally, each of the nodes has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the WAN / LAN , and another Gigabit Ethernet port for the LAN . You can read our full NETGEAR Orbi RBK23 review in this article.
TP-Link Deco M5
This Wi-Fi Mesh system from the manufacturer TP-Link was the first one they launched on the market, in this article we had the opportunity to carry out a complete review of the TP-Link Deco M5 , where you could see its operation in detail. This model has two versions, the one with two nodes and three nodes, however, we could also expand the number of nodes up to 7.
This Deco M5 has simultaneous dual band with AC1200 Wi-Fi , we can achieve a speed of up to 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band and up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band. We have Beamforming, MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi roaming and also Band-Steering. Of course, we have two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one for the WAN / LAN and one for the LAN, it supports VLANs on the WAN, guest Wi-Fi and more.
TP-Link Deco M4
In this case, the Deco M4 has very similar characteristics to the previous one, although with a totally different design. It is also sold in two versions, one with two nodes, and another version with three nodes. Its main features are that it has simultaneous dual band with AC1200 Wi-Fi (up to 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band and up to 867Mbps in the 5GHz band), we have Beamforming, MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi roaming and Band-Steering. .
This WiFi Mesh also has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one for the WAN / LAN and another for the LAN, of course, we can interconnect the nodes via Ethernet to have an interconnection network at 1Gbps.
As you have seen, we have a wide range of Wi-Fi Mesh systems that support Ethernet backhaul, equipment with simultaneous triple band and a dedicated frequency band, it is not so critical that they have Ethernet backhaul, although it is highly recommended.
