[Network|AiMesh]ASUS AiMesh System (WiFI 6) Review ~ Dream Spec system that choose a person ~

★★★★★Features★★★★★

The five star feature of AiMesh setup is its scalability.

Scalability

This is one of the core intrisic design advantage of AiMesh system. In January 2019, I started out with just a single Ax11000 router unit while waiting for the second Ax11000 to become available and arrive to our home.

In October 2019, after living with two unit AiMesh system for several months while waiting for additional Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 AiMesh node to extend coverage, Ax92U was finally released. This originally came in pair so I got additional two AiMesh nodes at that point. With a scalability/flexibility of AiMesh system, I could technically have made one of Ax92U as a router unit and made both Ax11000 units as AiMesh nodes. However, Ax11000 is obviously a higher spec unit so I kept it as a router.

Now looking into the future, Asus will for sure will release recently announced Wi-Fi 6E capable router as soon as they can. With AiMesh setup, I have an option to buy such unit right away and add to the existing system or replace any of existing unit with it.

Wired vs. Wireless Uplink Option

In my case, all 4 units connected via ethernet cable backhaul so the system is essentially access point system, but it was certainly an option to use wireless backhaul for any or all of AiMesh nodes.

★★★★☆Features☆★★★★

Four star features include its speed and range performance, ability to install one of well recognized custom firmware.

Speed

*Of note, following tests were all conducted using internet speed test rather than iPerf. Having said this, since ethernet internet speed was higher than any of the result below, I believe bottleneck is within the Wi-Fi rather than internet. However, in general iPerf (local speed test) can have a bit higher throughput than online speed test though not necessary reflective of most user’s daily experience.

I have asymmetric internet service from Xfinity with 1 Gbps download and 40 Mbps upload. I have confirmed 940 Mbps speed at router ethernet port, which is indeed what Xfinity claims.

Note that the maximum speed for Xfinity Gigabit Internet service over WiFi is limited to 1000 Mbps and the maximum speed over a hardwired Ethernet connection is limited to 940 Mbps. 

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xfinity-wifi-gigabit-download-speeds

The first, I have conducted peak speed performance test to see what the system is capable of.

The peak performance of the AiMesh system router (Ax11000) performance is great but not excellent. In 5ft proximity to the router, I could get average speed range of 450-660 Mbps internet download speed. Macbook Pro 15” 2016 model (3×3 WiFi 5 MIMO) had the max speed test measurement over 700 Mbps. So this is certainly a number I could not get with Eero Pro system with their rated max throughout of 600 Mbps.

The real important number here, in my opinion, is Wi-Fi efficiency as this defines the system’s capability assuming PHY throughput is peaked at its expected value. What this means is that iPhone X and iPad 11 Pro physically have no way to get over 866 Mbps because of their hardware capability I.e. I can not get 1 Gbps on them and that’s not the fault of Ax11000. However, the difference from PHY throughput is indeed related to Ax11000 capability. Normally, the Wi-Fi efficiency is 50-70% i.e. no system is generally over 70% efficient.

So based on the wireless physical link speed, the AiMesh system is at the best 60% efficient when iPad 11 Pro is connected. However, the iPhone 11 Pro, only Wi-Fi 6 capable device on the list, had the barely over 50% efficiency. Therefore, AiMesh system has lower end efficiency.

AiMesh is about 50-60% efficient.

Next I conducted, speed tests at AiMesh nodes.

The speed performance next to two of three AiMesh nodes (Access Points) were measured about 5ft from the nodes. These numbers were lower than that of at the router, which is expected as there are some processing overhead involved as part of AiMesh system.

One part of this result I could not explain was MBP 15”, which should be faster than iPad 11 Pro because 3×3 vs. 2×2 WiFi 5 MIMO difference but somehow my test result showed otherwise. I even confirmed MBP 15” it had PHY of 1300 Mbps. But one thing I did not confirm was actual node MBP was connected to. Recently, I’ve learned MBP 15’’ 2016 takes much longer time to roam than iPhone Pro (and probably iPad 11 Pro) due to difference of MacOS and iOS for roaming protocol support capability so I could have been connected Ax11000 router located just above rather than the mesh node next to. Regardless, I was happy with these numbers. One thing I hoped was the system to be a bit more efficient side like 60% to give 5 stars.

Range Performance

With 4 AiMesh node system, I was able to get most part of home covered with 5 GHz band with 300+ Mbps speed. However, even though I still got 200+ Mbps in the North-end basement bed-room, this was not consistent but this number clearly shows I had 5 GHz coverage there.

In fact, if it were just for wireless coverage I should have had no issue with 3 AiMesh nodes and even possibly two using 2.4 GHz band. However, I suffered with 2.4 GHz band instability as detailed in stability section. So I needed 5 GHz to get usable Wi-Fi experience in my home while using AiMesh.

As for non-systematic recorded speed test numbers reflecting some coverage information, I had only couple data points.

Speed at approximately 15ft distance with a single wall between, I could get upper 300’s Mbps download in the ground level living room (west of kitchen where the router is). As for reference, my current UniFi 3 AP setup, I can only get low signal 5GHz or 2.4 GHz connection so this same area has under 50 Mbps throughput.

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Approximately 30 ft from the nearest AiMesh node (Ax11000) in the basement entertainment zone with a clear line of sight without any significant obstacle, all the speeds looked great.

As for reference, I needed 3 Eero Pro and 4 Orbi AC units to cover my home. With current UniFi setup, 3 Access Points does not cover living room and basement bathroom with 5 GHz band. So 4 AiMesh nodes seems on board with other systems I have owned.

WiFi 6 Support

Wi-Fi 6 support was one of the main reason I chose this setup just a little over a year ago. The potential gain of WIFI 6 (802.11ax) standard sounded huge including speed boost, battery saving, and more simultaneous device connection with a title of owning cutting edge technology and future proof.

Besides I only have one Wi-Fi 6 capable device after a year of owing the AiMesh system, the result was underwhelming due to only 50% efficiency on Wi-Fi 6 speed.

Security

Integrated security in the router now a days is almost a mandatory feature. Some charges for monthly subscription for such feature e.g. Eero Pro. Ax11000 came with AiProtection. This included Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). I thought I turned on the feature but in retrospect either I may have not turned it on or IPS of AiProtection Pro was not doing its real job. This is because while I was using AiMesh, my NAS constantly got a message “attempted admin log in from outside.” Since I switched to the UniFi system with IPS turned on, UniFi catches this multiple times a day and none of them reaches to the NAS.

Custom Firmware

This is a tricky feature to rate. A vast majority of home user will not utilize this at all. One could also make an argument, if manufacture made really good firmware themselves, custom firmware may be just a niche for some special functionality and otherwise, they won’t be needed. But there are certainly strong follower of custom firmware options on their router.

If this is you, Asus has an excellent custom firmware support by community, but this is model dependent. For my case, Ax11000 router did not have the custom firmware. So I cannot speak the first hand experience with it. Just be sure to check the model of router if you are looking for installing custom firmware.

Personally, I won’t recommend it as I feel router/network gear should work as intended and if there is a specific feature one is looking for and that is crucial part of daily use, one should just buy such router from the start so there is the official support for the functionality and never have to hope/rely on unpaid enthusiast who may potentially quit supporting the firmware tomorrow.