Asus RT-AC5300U 802.11ac Router - 4x4 MU-MIMO with Broadcom XStream
by Ganesh T S on September 2, 2015 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
- Asus
- Broadcom
- 802.11ac
- Wi-Fi
Asus announced the RT-AC5300U 802.11ac router using Broadcom's tri-band Wi-Fi chipset at IFA 2015 today. This is meant to be a flagship router with AC5300 speeds (1000 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 2167 Mbps on each of the 5 GHz bands for a total of 5333 Mbps theoretical bandwidth). The router uses Broadcom's latest Wi-Fi chipset along with the XStream platform concept.
As a recap, Broadcom's XStream involves combining two discrete 802.11ac radios in a single board, thereby allowing for two different channels to be simultaneously active in the 5 GHz band. Essentially, this concept combines two Wi-Fi routers in one. Initially introduced in a six stream configuration using Broadcom's second generation 802.11ac chipset, it was even demonstrated by Asus at Computex 2014. At CES earlier this year, Broadcom updated their 802.11ac portfolio with some new products sporting Wave 2 features. D-Link also simultaneously announced their ULTRA series using Broadcom's chipsets. The DIR-895L AC5300 was the flagship that combined the Broadcom 4x4 MU-MIMO solution with the XStream concept. The Asus RT-AC5300U being announced today uses the same platform (BCM4709, a 1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 based processor combined with three BCM4366 radios) and has similar features.
Broadcom's proprietary NitroQAM / TurboQAM technology helps in low-latency and high bandwidth requirement scenarios (as long as the client side also has Broadcom silicon). The router sports eight external dual-band detachable antennae. Internally, there iis 128 MB of flash and 256 MB of DDR3 RAM. The other features are standard - 1x WAN and 4x LAN Gigabit ports, 1x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0 port.
The router will be available for purchase sometime in Q4 2015. There is no information on the pricing yet.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
40 Comments
View All Comments
boraski - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
I think the point is to place them obtrusively. It's a conversation piece. I think it looks cool and I would have fun showing it off.sligett - Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - link
Oh yes, it's a coffee table router! You put it out to impress the neighbors.phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, October 15, 2015 - link
You don't have to use 3 separate SSIDs. You can use the same one across all radios, and the client devices will attach to whichever one gives the strongest signal automatically. If you use a single SSID, some routers are also smart enough to steer clients to the 5 GHz band for better performance (not sure if that would work with multiple SSIDs or not).Using a single SSID makes the "load-balancing", for lack of a better work, happen on the AP side of things, automatically. Using separate SSIDs for each radio/band requires you to manage the load / radio selection manually on the clients side of things.
PliotronX - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
Are they serious?Makaveli - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
Have to agree with you all this thing is fugly.I just spent $175 on a R7000 now running Asus merlin I think i'm good for a few years.
Considering I kept my DGL4500 in service for 7 years.
etamin - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
That's not a router. That's a tarantula.Zermus - Saturday, September 5, 2015 - link
The Borg router is upon us.RealBeast - Saturday, September 5, 2015 - link
Too bad that it's only *really* useful if you use a pair of them for a wireless media bridge.AFAIK at this moment there are no USB adapters that are better than around AC1200 and the pcie adapters go up to AC1900, and most have relatively poor performance.
SO other than epeen, what's the point?
phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, October 15, 2015 - link
Enabling multiple 802.11ac clients to connect without completely stomping on each other?Michael A. Bobo - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
4×4 separate antennas for transmitting and receiving signals alongwith MU-MIMO Broadcom with crazy looks. Amazing Router so Far.I checked it out on http://www.pickmyrouter.com/asus-wireless-ac5300-t... as well.