Apple Signals Smart Home Mesh Networking Interest by Joining 'The Thread Group'

[daye]

I used to think this way, then I got an Eero mesh that gives me 900/900 from my AT&T 1g fiber. It’s so much faster than Airport.

So you replace that with ATT router or put it behind ATT router? I don’t think ATT allow you to use your own Router.

I have the ATT gigabyte internet. WiFi sucks using ATT or Apple Time capsule router behind it.

Which model of Eero you are using?

 

[sidewinder3000]

I see statements like this quite a bit on this forum; and while I understand the sentiment behind them, I think it would do people some good to reassess the wireless landscape. Prior to switching to eero, I had two 'tower' AirPort Extremes that were wirelessly bridged. I was getting throughput of 30-40 Mbps between them. That was fine for everyday use, but I knew I was getting a tiny fraction of the gigabit fiber pipe I have.

It finally bothered me enough to do some research and see what's out there. I purchased the eero three pack in December 2016 and I haven't looked back. Immediately after setting up the three eeros in my house, my wireless throughput everywhere in my home increased and it is usually between 80 Mbps-300 Mbps depending upon where I'm standing in my house. I know I'm still not getting the full benefit of the gigabit pipe (and won't until I do wired backhaul between the eeros); but I'm plenty happy with the noticeable jump in throughput.

The best part is that the eeros have worked exactly like my AirPort Extremes used to. I don't have to think about them at all. They're just there in the background doing what they do and requiring zero maintenance from me. They update firmware themselves and they just plain work.

They sound great. I currently get 150 Mbps from my airport set up for my 159 mbps plan with Xfinity, so I won’t be upgrading for a while.

 

[aristobrat]

I like my Unifi AP Pro with PoE and the way it mounts on the ceiling like a smoke detector, but I find the performance to be lacking. When when I'm 2 feet away from it I only get about 140Mbps (this is on a gigabit connection). Not saying I'd get better on an Airport or any single device router/AP, but it's not as great as I'd like.

I've never tried testing so close to an AP, but ~15 feet away from an AC AP Pro (with an interior wall <drywall> in the middle) my iPhone X usually gets 250-400 Mpbs from fast.com. If you haven't already found them, UBNT has some community forums. There were a few tips on the Unifi WiFi forum that really helped me squeak out the most I could from my install.

 

[puggsly]

Once you have mesh, it's really hard to look at the traditional modem/router/extender set up the same way. I was initially reluctant to jump on board. Almost mad that I waited so long.

My understanding about mesh is that it's speed on the backhaul is much better than traditional network extenders that rely on wifi as the backhaul. I have my extenders hardwired with GB ethernet so I don't think I would get a benefit from mesh.

 

[aristobrat]

I have my extenders hardwired with GB ethernet so I don't think I would get a benefit from mesh.

Same here.

The only problem I ran into with this setup (using two Apple Airports) was that devices wouldn't always switch between the access points as quickly as I preferred. That's what brought me to get the Unifi access points... you can tell the aps to disconnect devices if their signal level drops below a threshold.

 

[sandman42]

You’ll get my Time Capsule and Airport Express when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Or when Apple comes out with an AirPort mesh network. Whichever comes first.

I used to feel the same way. I loved the easy setup, Airplay, and the way the Airport Utility worked. The thing I didn't like was that each extender would halve the downstream data rate. That, and I couldn't stop my Airport Expresses from connecting to each other, even though they were on opposite sides the main Time Capsule at opposite ends of the house. The speed on the furthest downstream one was so slow devices would consider themselves "not connected". I switched to Netgear's Orbi and my speeds are the same throughout the house (140 MBPS down on a 150MBPS service), and there's a fairly good utility app (with remote access). All I feel I really lost was Airplay, but now I have several Sonos players and have Airplay 2 on some of them. All that said, if Apple produced a mesh wi-fi system I'd probably switch back.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

I used to think this way, then I got an Eero mesh that gives me 900/900 from my AT&T 1g fiber. It’s so much faster than Airport.

In fact, I replaced my Airport wireless network (which consisted of a Time Capsule and two Airport Expresses) with Eero. Eero provides much better wifi. However, I still use my Time Capsule. I just have it connected to the Eero with a cable.

 

[Elmo1938]

This explains a lot! I believe a Mesh network will help with "Homekit" devices.

it does.
I installed a Netgear ORBI last month. The orbi app tells me I have 26 wifi device:about 2/3 are Homekit [elgato/eve]devices. Even the RING doorbell now gets an acceptable signal[ thick walls and a metal front door]

 

[dfs]

Apple has become a member of The Thread Group, an organization that supports companies interested in innovating networking solutions for consumer smart home devices using the Thread mesh standard (via 9to5Mac).

Apple has been added to the list of official members on the group's website, although what that means in practical terms is unclear. According to literature available online, the group's mission is "to focus on education, marketing, promotion of the Thread Networking Protocol, and ensuring a great experience through rigorous, meaningful product certification".

Thread is just one among several mesh standards that smart home products can be certified to support. Zigbee and Z-Wave are two such examples of rival standards competing in the connected home market, while Bluetooth was also recently updated to support mesh networking, or creating large-scale networks across devices without relying on a central hub or router.

In recent years, Wi-Fi mesh systems have become a popular solution for in-home wireless networks, with options from companies like Linksys, Orbi, Eero, and Google.

The technology is also looking to expand, with the Wi-Fi Alliance in May announcing a new certification program called "EasyMesh", which aims to allow users to build mesh networks in their homes across different brands.

Apple joined the Qi Wireless Charging Consortium ahead of its adoption of inductive charging in last year's iPhone lineup, so Apple's Thread Group membership is sure to ignite speculation that the Thread standard could be coming to HomeKit products or even a future version of HomeKit.

Article Link: Apple Signals Smart Home Mesh Networking Interest by Joining 'The Thread Group'

I like my Unifi AP Pro with PoE and the way it mounts on the ceiling like a smoke detector, but I find the performance to be lacking. When when I'm 2 feet away from it I only get about 140Mbps (this is on a gigabit connection). Not saying I'd get better on an Airport or any single device router/AP, but it's not as great as I'd like.

[doublepost=1533774321][/doublepost]All these new mesh systems are great (I'm running a set of Eero's now) but (as far as I know) they all lack one feature that helped the Airport Express be so great: that audio port which allowed you to turn any pair of speakers into wireless remotes.