10Gb home fiber infrastructure. Mikrotik experience or alternatives?

Camofelix · May 19, 2019

Hey Everyone, first of, hope you're having a wonderful day!

I'm looking to try and set up a fiber backbone that will realistically be able to do 10Gb today and if possible move to 40Gbe+ later on down the line. current infrastructure is 2 servers, one for vm's /plex provider(unraid), the other acting as both high speed nas and longterm HDD storage (timemachine backups and the like)(freenas). on the network we typically see 15 devices at the low point with a maximum of around 40. everything from phones to laptops to proper workstations, networked receivers etc. Everything is currently running 1gbe rj45, except for workstations which are a combination of 2 or 4 1gbe links bonded

few things: reason for fiber backbone is that the total length of the space is 100' by 50' 2 floors, not to mention that we'd be able to upgraded the receivers down the line if/when the need or opportunity arrises for a network upgrade. my current thinking for the network is to deploy Mikrotik switches because of their support for 4*10Gb SFP+ on inexpensive switches (crs305 and crs309). For router was thinking going for the RB 4011 since it has fiber and ethernet, and if I go Mikrotik for the AP's the 4011 is afforded with a 4*4 MU-MIMO on 5GHz and 3*3 on the 2.4 band.

Thoughts?

Proposed set up is as such, from top down view https://imgur.com/a/O5l8bKV

For AP's I'm fairly open. Was thinking either Unify or mikrotik,

Edited May 19, 2019 by Camofelix
Proper tags added for search-ability if anyone else finds this thread and could use the help in deploying something similar

brwainer · May 19, 2019

Mikrotik switches and routers - awesome.

Mikrotik wireless for home with more than a single AP - less than ideal. CAPsMan can't hold a candle to Unifi for controlled APs. If you can get away with a single AP, especially built into the router like the RB4011 you referenced, then its not a bad way to go. The RB4011 with wireless is 2*2 MU-MIMO on 2.4GHz though. not 3*3. With a small number of APs (2 or maybe 3) running standalone Mikrotik APs isn't bad. But at 3 or more, having a single place to make your SSID changes becomes important.

I don't see the benefit of the RB4011 and the use for fiber between the router and core switch if your ISP isn't >=1Gb. And if your ISP is >1Gb, I'd want a router with 2x SFP+ because with the RB4011 in order to use >1Gb you'd need multiple ethernet cables connected on the LAN side of the router (either with different networks, or bonded together to your core switch). Unfortunately the cheapest Mikrotik with 2x SFP+ is the CCR1036-8G-2S+ at $1095 - which means I don't really recommend it. The RB4011 isn't a bad choice, it just seems extraneous.

This is my network right now for reference:

Router: RB1100AHx4 Dude Edition (I struggled between this and the RB4011 because they share the same CPU. Ultimately I went with the RB1100AHx4 Dude Edition because I want to play with caching on the router, and the bypass connection on ports 11 and 12)

Core Switch: CRS125-24G-1S

APs: 3x hAP AC (not hAP AC^2)

My next upgrades are to add a 10Gb switch, probably Mikrotik, and to replace the APs with Unifi when they come out with Wifi 6 models (which I also expect will have 2.5Gb or 5Gb ethernet ports, which may require a different switch upgrade).

zeibis · May 19, 2019

For 10GB optical switch from Mikrotik I would suggest CRS317-1G-16S+RM and as router, if you need connection between switch and router at 10GB, CCR1009-7G-1C-1S+.