What's special about this wireless router, which is popular in the whole network?

Hello everyone , I'm xiaozaojun .

Today I want to bring you , It is an ultra detailed wireless router evaluation report .

The reason for this is ：

After this summer , My ASUS AC88 The wireless router began to suffer frequent downtime . Considering that this router has been used for a long time , Plus now it is Wi-Fi 6 Times , therefore , I simply decided to change a new router .

When selecting a router , I was going to continue to choose Asustek . however , ASUS （ASUS） The price of is too high , There is no cost performance .

therefore , I decided to change the brand , Buy one at 600 Domestic routers within RMB .

Choose to choose , I chose ZTE AX5400Pro.

For the following reasons ：

1、 I visit a lot “ What is worth buying ”. This router has a high degree of attention , It is said that the hardware stack has cost money . Especially the chip , It is said to be very strong .

2、 Although xiaozaojun once worked in ZTE for many years , But I have never used ZTE's router . This time, , Add value to your feelings .

3、 I need it 2.5G Wired port , Because my family has a Qunhui NAS（ Network memory ）, Plan to speed up . And a meter 2.5G yes “ bottleneck ”, some Link Of 2.5G Need to buy additional optical modules , The cost is too high .

All right. , Background introduction completed , Start to enter the theme .

█ Unpacking part

Open Jingdong , Search self support , Order directly .

The official price of this router is 599, Add a shop member , You can pay the membership price 549. I'll use another plus Membership coupons plus Jingdou or something , Final 528 Take down .

It is worth mentioning that , Jingdong of this router “ Student price ” and “ Jingxi App price ” There are often discounts , You can squat and watch .

JD's self operated distribution is fast , The next morning , The things were delivered .（ No one at home receives the goods , First directly to the company .）

Okay , Official unpacking .

Open JD Plastic bags , The original packaging of ZTE router ：

Directly corrugated paper , No color shell , It looks very simple , It feels like a work package .

The front of the box , In addition to the product name , Namely “Wi-Fi 6” and “ really 2.5GE so ” Mark . Why add a “ really ”？ Hey , Manual here @ A m .

The side logo To a , Very familiar feeling ：

Slogan To a ：

Okay , Open the package , Noumenon appears ：

It's still a very simple style . Besides noumenon , It's a very thin instruction .

The product manual is also printed on the packaging shell , But it doesn't work for me . I usually throw away the packaging shell directly , Paper instructions will not be left .

Take out the body ：

Golden logo, Comparative atmosphere ：

Expand the antenna , Present a complete form ：

The whole router is black , I have a sense of science and technology . Unique appearance , It reminds me of the Star Wars Star ships in an instant .

All accessories are as follows ：

Black host , Black power supply , But with a white cable . This is the rhythm of obsessive-compulsive disorder .

The surface of the router is made of frosted plastic , Take photos in macro mode of your mobile phone , You can feel it ：

The antenna of the router is omnidirectional rotatable , More flexible ：

But I think it seems useless . Now? Wi-Fi Routers are basically omni-directional coverage , Adjusting the antenna angle doesn't make much sense , It doesn't look good in any way .

This is a side view , You can see obvious cooling holes , And the torsion joint of the antenna ：

Another handstand , The more it looks, the more it looks like Star Wars （ The ground attack vehicle ）：

Let's have a motion chart ：

View from the bottom of the router , Relatively simple . There are wall mounting holes , It's well thought out .

Below is the back of the router , You can see 4 A network cable interface ,1 individual mesh Key ,1 A reset hole ,1 Two power jacks , It's simple ：

I always thought , Now the configuration of four ports of router does not meet the needs of the times .

Now , Many people start their houses with three bedrooms and one living room , It seems that four ports are enough , Actually, I didn't consider NAS The needs of , And port redundancy .（ Don't talk about using wireless . Desktop computer 、 TV box , Generally, the cable is stable .）

I personally think , Home routers should at least be designed 5 Ports （1WAN+4LAN）, Just barely enough .

The leftmost hole is marked with blue , yes 2.5G The port of . This port and the second port are interchangeable . in other words , You can take 2.5G Port connection WLAN Extranet , You can also pick up LAN Intranet .

Mentioned earlier , ZTE this AX5400Pro Keep putting “ really ·2.5G port ” As their selling point , In fact, it is aimed at a certain meter “2.5GE port ” The channel bandwidth to Gigabit switching chip is only 1Gbps The problem of .

Okay , The above is the unpacking part .

█ Data configuration part

Next is the configuration part , It was brought home at night .

Turn on the power , Let's go straight to work ：

Please ignore the messy routing , Take your time later

After power on , The indicator light is red .

This is when I found out , The location of the router indicator is not reasonable , In the lower middle .

If I put the router at the low point or on the ground , I can't see the indicator light , You need to bend down .

Power on successfully , Open the configuration screen ：

The default address of the intranet is “192.168.5.*” The network segment , It can avoid conflicts with bare cat's network segment , The details are well received .

According to the guidelines , To configure WLAN Of PPPOE dial .

I'm not using bridge mode , in other words , Dial directly by the wireless router , Don't let the naked cat dial .

Then the wireless network settings ：

For the convenience of speed measurement later , I didn't choose dual band integration . Dual frequency integration means Wi-Fi Of 2.4GHz and 5Ghz The frequency band uses the same SSID, The terminal independently selects the connection .

There is also a wireless signal setting at the bottom , I'm sure The best .

Best means that the transmission power of the wireless signal will be slightly higher , But it must still be within the scope of national regulations .

Okay , Setup completed , One time networking success ：

After successful connection , The router indicator turns from red to green ：

Can't wait , Let's start with a speed measurement with a wired connection ：

The broadband at home is Telecom Gigabit , There are 936Mbps, Pretty good .

Want to really achieve 1000M Full speed is still a little difficult , And network cable 、 Crystal head 、 equipment 、 Optical fiber has something to do with .

Next , Look at other settings .

First of all WAN Mouth and LAN Port configuration ：

I'm going to talk about this place .

Generally speaking , Users will put 2.5G The port is set to WAN port （ That is, the port connecting the optical cat ）, After all, being out is the most important .

however , Because my broadband subscription bandwidth is 1000M, therefore , Even with 2.5G port , It's useless , It's a waste .（ future , etc. 50G-PON Popularized , The Internet signing bandwidth exceeds 1000M 了 , It makes sense . Around the 2023 Years from now .）

therefore , I will 2.5G The port is reserved for Qunhui NA. When multiple other devices access NAS when , There will be advantages .

Network diagram of my home

Jujube gentleman NAS It's Qunhui DS920Plus, With 4 block 12TB The hard disk of , It is specially used to put learning materials .

Synology 920Plus

however , This NAS It's Gigabit （2 A Giga ）. In order to achieve 2.5G Connect , I bought another one from lvlian USB Interface 2.5G network card .

Through this network card ,NAS Can connect to the wireless router 2.5G port （ It involves some steps of installing the driver , Online , I won't go into details ）.

It's done 2.5G Wired connection to

Okay , Let's go on .

In the version upgrade interface , We found a new version , Hurry up .

After the upgrade , The interface is really very different . Enter advanced mode , It opens the door to a new world .

Let's take a look one by one .

First of all Wi-Fi Set up ：

Everyone is familiar with this , Change Wi-Fi name 、 Password and channel . Visitor networks 、 Wireless switch 、 Anti chafing net , There should be .

One more Wireless performance enhancements , You can switch TxBeamforming（ Beam shaping during signal transmission ）、OFDMA（ Orthogonal frequency division multiple access ）、MU-MIMO（ Multi user multi antenna ）.

This is still quite powerful . It doesn't matter , All open .

Then network settings .

There are two WAN Set up , This means that the router supports single WAN Double dialing . Simply speaking , Dial twice at the same time , Establish two links .

Considering that I have Gigabit broadband , Double dialing is meaningless . and , Dual dialing also requires broadband support from operators , Now many are not supported . therefore , Not very useful .（ Of course , If your Internet speed is only 100M, And the operator supports double dialing , Then your bandwidth can be increased to 200M.）

MAC Don't talk about address cloning , Common functions .

Let's see. NAT type ：

NAT Address type , A very interesting word appeared —— Full cone network address translation （Full cone Network Address Translation） .

In the full cone NAT in , All from the same intranet （IP, port ） All the requests sent will be mapped to the same external network （IP, port ）, And any external network host can access the mapped public network address , Realize the function of accessing the host device located in the intranet .（ The external network host can actively connect to the internal network host , So it's not safe .）

Than the full cone NAT Safer , Is the address Limited NAT. It is related to the whole cone NAT The difference is ： The generated mapping table entry and purpose IP of , Only for the purpose of meeting the requirements IP（ The public network server to access IP） To communicate .

Port Limited NAT, More limited than address NAT More strictly . It is limited in address NAT On the basis of , Added restrictions on ports ： In addition to the host that was actively connected before, it can communicate , Other hosts （ Different IP, Or the same IP Different ports ） Can't communicate with it .

Safety first , Therefore, the default port selection is limited NAT.

The rest is IPv4 and IPv6 Address and DHCP Set up , I won't go into that . I feel more IPv6 after , The configuration is much more complicated .

Mesh To configure , Let's talk about it later ：

Security 、 application 、 Diagnostics and systems , There are many functions .

Most functions are similar to traditional routers , Let me pick some interesting ones to highlight .

first , It's in the diagnosis Mirror function ：

This is the first time I have seen this function on a home router . People who have worked as Internet workers , Should be familiar with this .

Some people think , This is for loading image files .

It's not , It does port mirroring . in other words , If LAN2 and LAN3 Set the image , that ,LAN2 Data packets of , Will appear exactly the same in LAN3. This is mainly used to grab bags , Troubleshooting .

the second , It's in the system Intelligent restart （ Restart regularly ） function , This function is still very useful ：

When the router runs for a period of time , Pick a time in the dead of night to restart , It can release the occupied resources , Keep the router “ go to the battle-front without any burden ”.

Third ,IPTV function .

This function is for many people , It's very useful .

Generally speaking , Users will put the wireless router in the living room , Because this signal is the best . meanwhile , Customer's IPTV The set-top box , It is usually placed in the living room .

However , From weak current box to living room , Users usually only deploy one network cable .

There is a contradiction , A wire line , How to meet both wireless routers and IPTV Two uses ？

Traditional practice , Is to remove and dial the network cable ,8 The root line is used separately . In this case , It will lead to the wireless router from Gigabit to 100m .

Now this IPTV function , That is to say VLAN Technology of division , Turn the same physical connection into two virtual LAN. One for wireless router , One for the IPTV, It's very simple and effective .

I won't introduce other functions , in general , That is to say, we have everything we should have .

ZTE AX5400Pro There are also mobile phones App, It's integrated into “ ZTE smart life ”App Inside .

I took a look at , mobile phone App The configuration function of is simpler than that on the web . however , There should be , Basic configuration and checking working status are enough .

█  Network speed test part （ Extranet ）

All right. , Finally, the most exciting speed measurement link ！

The speed measurement is divided into two parts , One is Internet speed measurement , One is intranet speed measurement .

ZTE AX5400Pro The wireless speed of the router is over Gigabit . therefore , Internet speed measurement , The bottleneck lies in signing export bandwidth , That is, my home Telecom Gigabit broadband （1000Mbps）. This is to test the real experience rate of accessing the Internet .

And Intranet speed measurement , Mainly to test the wireless router Wi-Fi The highest stable connection rate .

First look at it. Internet speed measurement .

To verify the wireless signal of this router , I will compare the speed measurement at various locations in my home . Speed measuring mobile phone , One is my Xiaomi 12, There is also an apple for my wife 13.

The house type of my home is shown below , It's a small area ,110 flat , The house type is relatively square , It is more suitable for wireless signal coverage .

The wireless router is in the living room

In order to reflect the real rate more accurately , Speed measurement at each point 3 Time , Average. .

Before speed measurement , I use speed measurement App Let's take a look at the specific situation of the wireless channel , Find out 2.4GHz The interference of frequency band is still quite serious , It's really crowded .

5.8GHz There is also interference , therefore , I decided to use it. 5.2GHz Frequency band （ channel 36） Speed measurement .

2.4GHz I'm too lazy to measure the frequency band . Tell the truth , I didn't use it much a long time ago 2.4G The frequency band has changed , It is also recommended that you do not use . The speed of this frequency band is slow , There are many disturbances , The Internet experience is very poor , and 5G The frequency band is completely incomparable .

Now? ,2.4G Frequency band means that some smart devices are in use at home , For example, Xiaomi's wireless socket , wait . All mobile phones at home , Are accessed by default 5G Frequency band , It's very comfortable to use .

Okay , Open test ！

First , Measure in the living room . That is, stand beside the router and test .

In an instant 935.05Mbps, Basically, it is consistent with the previous network cable speed measurement ：

Uplink is limited by operators , Only 65.21Mbps, Can't .

Next , To the master bedroom .

In order to reflect the real situation more accurately , I closed the door of the master bedroom . A measurement result , Damn it , The master bedroom can even arrive 800 many M：

My first reaction ： wipe , Is the door of the bedroom too thin ？

It shouldn't be ,TATA Wooden doors , It is already a good brand .

Is the wall not thick enough ？

I looked at the decoration drawings carefully , That's right! , It's a load-bearing wall ...

Anyway, I'm surprised , Separated by a wall or a door , The speed didn't drop much .

Make up a video , prove ：

The speed measurement of the master bedroom

So it looks like ,6 root 6db The high gain antenna is really not for nothing , Penetration can indeed .

I'm in the second bedroom 、 The study and bathroom have been speed tested , The final actual results are recorded below ：

millet 12 The whole house speed measurement results （ Company ：Mbps）

It can be seen that , The downward rate of each room is almost the same as that of the living room

This expression , It can be said that I am very satisfied . Basically, it is equivalent to a wireless router to realize the whole house Gigabit . That's it , no FTTR What's the matter ...（ ok , Maybe it's because my house is not big enough ...）

Change your wife iPhone13, Continue to measure .

I don't know why ,iPhone13 Its speed measurement performance is far inferior to that of Xiaomi 12, Especially after the wall , The rate of decline is very obvious .

iPhone13 The speed measurement results of the whole house are as follows ：

iPhone13 The whole house speed measurement results （ Company ：Mbps）

It can be seen that , The living room is ok , The downward rate of the room drops a lot

At present, it is not clear iPhone13 And millet 12 The reason for the rate difference . I think it may be related to mobile terminals Wi-Fi There is some relationship between the chip and RF scheme .

The above is the speed measurement part of the external network .

Next , Let's see. Intranet speed measurement .

The way of Intranet speed measurement , I use the following method ：

Intranet speed measurement channel （ Green line ）

in other words , wireless router 2.5G Wired port connection NAS, wireless Wi-Fi 6 Connect the phone （5GHz Frequency band ）. I am here NAS On , With the help of Docker Set the iperf3 Speed measurement service , So as to measure the speed of the intranet .

Docker In the container iperf3

millet 12 Wireless interface negotiation rate , Yes 2401Mbps. This is based on 160MHz Bandwidth only rate .

Start testing ：

This is millet 12 The uplink rate of the mobile terminal ：

192.168.5.4 yes NAS Of IP

192.168.5.3 It's a cell phone IP

This is millet 12 The downlink rate of the mobile phone ：

in general , Up about 1.4Gbps about , The downward direction is about 1.6Gbps about , The highest can reach 1.68Gbps.

Wireless is a metaphysics , It is impossible to reach the theoretical maximum speed . At present, this speed is good .

Want to achieve 2Gbps Above wireless rate , The mobile terminal needs 4×4 MIMO, There seems to be no mobile phone support at present , Basically only 2×2 MIMO.

Changed iPhone13 test , give the result as follows ：

Up speed ：

Down speed ：

Compare the list , The advantages of Android are still obvious ：

because AX5400Pro Only 1 individual 2.5G mouth , So we can't measure the wire to wire speed . otherwise , You can challenge 2.5Gbps The ultimate rate of . Normally , It should be 210MB/s Of NAS File copy speed , It is close to the reading and writing limit of mechanical hard disk .

follow-up , I may still change 2.5G Switchboard , Realize desktop and NAS Between 2.5G passageway .

Target network architecture

Okay , The above is the speed measurement part .

Network stability aspect .

This router is 17 It was officially launched on the th . It took so many days , There is no router restart .

Because of the busy work , I seldom play games , I seldom watch videos , Therefore, it is difficult to find the disconnection . I asked my family , However, there is no feedback that the network is abnormal . Watch for a few more months .

Evaluation here , Is it over ？

Of course not ！ As a professional disassembly and assembly machine expert , See such a device , How can I not itch ？

and , ZTE AX5400Pro There is a big selling point , That is to say Since the research 12 Nuclear chips .

I also want to see it with my own eyes , Is it true that self-developed chips are used . This chip , What does it look like .

therefore , Opening ！

█ Disassembly part

This router is easy to disassemble . There are four screws on the back , Screw it off . then , From the side, see the following figure , Use the card to pry open a seam , Along the seam , Pry all the way down , Just open the shell .

Dangdang when …… Successful shell opening ！

The black one is a heat sink , The larger .

Open the screw , Uncover the heat sink , Namely PCB The motherboard is broken ：

I don't know much about hardware , On the whole ,PCB The circuit layout and routing are fairly standard .

Three pieces of metal in the middle , It's a shield , Used to reduce signal interference . Black and white lines , It's the antenna connection .

There are many empty solder positions on the circuit board , It feels like it is reserved for future upgrades .

The reverse side of the circuit board （ The opposite heat sink has been uncovered in the figure ）：

Uncover the shield at the lower right corner of the front , A chip is exposed .

The chip is very small , Put it very big to see , It's Qualcomm's QCN6024.

This is a 5G Frequency band Wi-Fi chip . According to the information on the Internet , Support 4x4mimo,160MHz bandwidth , The wireless rate can be up to 4804Mbps, There are four independent Qorvo Power amplifier , model QPF4526.

So it seems , The one on the left should be 2.4G Frequency band Wi-Fi Chip .

The shield is not easy to remove , I was injured with honor ...

（ injured , As a result, I forgot to dismantle 2.4G Shielding cover of wireless part circuit , Remove the main chip shield directly ...）

Remove the main chip shield , Finally, I saw the original ZTE chip ——

From ZTE microelectronics ZX279132,4 nucleus CPU+8 nucleus NPU, common 12 nucleus , Main frequency 1.1GHz. According to the information on the Internet , It's from SMIC 14nm process .

A close-up of ：

Ouch ！ The one on the left side , Turned out to be UniIC（ Purple light the micro ） Made in China DDR Grain ,SCB13H4G160. Flash memory particles are really invisible , Seems to be winbond（ Huabang ） Of .

Another overall perspective , As a souvenir ：

It's done , I have to put it back , Continue to use .

It is convenient to assemble and disassemble , Screw in a few screws of the radiator , then , Align the shell and press it down ,“ Crack ” A voice , And then , Tighten the housing screws , Just OK 了 .

Perfect recovery ... No more screws , There are no less screws ...

█ Conclusion

All right. , It's really over now , I'm so tired ...

Out of the 、 To configure 、 velocity measurement 、 Take apart , A complete set of one-stop . I'm not satisfied ？

Finally, let's summarize .

aesthetic ： Different opinions on Modeling Design , Everyone has different preferences , I think the black appearance may be more suitable for young people ; The antenna has strong steering ability ; The position design of the indicator light is not reasonable .

Hardware aspect ： The configuration is really good ; Domestic chip praise , Domestic storage particles are highly praised ; But there is still room for improvement （ If you can match USB3.0 Interface , Add one more 2.5G port , It's perfect ）.

Software aspect ： Powerful , But the sense of design of the configuration interface is insufficient , Slightly messy ; Too professional function , It is suggested to change to hidden setting （ Avoid mistakes ）.

Performance aspect ： Praise , There's nothing to say , The uplink and downlink rates are excellent , The calorific value is not big . Normally ,120 Square houses can be easily covered . If the area is larger , We can consider setting up a ZTE AX3000, form mesh networking .

price ：500 Yuan this gear , Cost performance is still very high . But the competition is also fierce , If you can add the above USB3.0 Interface and one more 2.5G port , Then invincible .

Other ： The most important stability and reliability , It needs to be further verified by time .

Okay , We'll stop here for the time being , Thank you for your patience ！ See you next time ！