GBASE-T transceivers performance with NBASE-T - Marvell 88x3300 v/s Aquantia AQS-107

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MattTheTechLV

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Mar 26, 2022
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dag

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I have not, sorry. Most of my aquantias came from eBay, lucky finds. I did buy 1 Supermicro since then. They all look the same, with a polished/matte body, a black bale clasp, and are branded Aquantia.

As far as I can tell, most of the stuff out there is either Marvell (30m range) or Broadcom (80m range). Shiny/textured body and gold bale clasp.
 
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MattTheTechLV

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Mar 26, 2022
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I have not, sorry. Most of my aquantias came from eBay, lucky finds. I did buy 1 Supermicro since then. They all look the same, with a polished/matte body, a black bale clasp, and are branded Aquantia.

As far as I can tell, most of the stuff out there is either Marvell (30m range) or Broadcom (80m range). Shiny/textured body and gold bale clasp.
Well, it looks like the one direct from Supermicro is the same price as the ones on eBay, so I guess I will just grab direct from Supermicro, not looking forward to spending another $600 on 3 of these.

I have one last hope, and thats that My Old QNAP QSW-308-1C switch's that I originally had purchased for my 10Gb Networking Solution in each room before upgrading to the Mikrotik's, actually Pass VLAN Tag's silently, even though its an unmanaged switch. I know its more common these days for unmanaged switches to pass along VLAN Tags, even though they are not Managed themselves, I just hope thats the case with these, because if so I can just plug the QNAPs in behind the Mikrotik's, tag the Port with all the VLAN's I want to send to my New AP that has the 2.5Gb Uplink I am looking to feed, and hopefully it will pickup said VLAN's. My Fingers are crossed, because if not, Supermicro AOM-AQS-107-B0C2-CX, here I come.
 

MattTheTechLV

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Mar 26, 2022
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In Case anyone here cares, I just tested the QNAP QSW-308-1C, and it does indeed pass Tagged VLAN Frames, even though it is an unmanaged switch. So I can plug my new Engenius switch that has a 2.5Gb Uplink port, into the 1x 10Gb RJ45 Port on the QNAP, and it will negotiate at 2.5Gb Just fine, as well as pickup the VLAN's I have tagged on the Mikrotik SFP+ Port that the QNAP is plugged into. This is awesome, it means I can just add the QNAP Switches I already have back into each Rack in my House in order to feed the 2.5Gb Uplink, and Don't have to spend $200 Per Transceiver to do the same thing off of the Mikrotik. So I am happy, at least I found my solution, and I just figured if anyone was ever searching whether or not this Particular QNAP Switch passes or discards VLAN Tagged Frames, then I can inform them that it does indeed pass them along.

Anyways, thank you everyone for your information. I will report back after receiving the Knock off Aquantia's and see If I happen to get lucky, but after @dag 's report, I am not holding my breathe.
 

jdnz

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In Case anyone here cares, I just tested the QNAP QSW-308-1C, and it does indeed pass Tagged VLAN Frames, even though it is an unmanaged switch. So I can plug my new Engenius switch that has a 2.5Gb Uplink port, into the 1x 10Gb RJ45 Port on the QNAP, and it will negotiate at 2.5Gb Just fine, as well as pickup the VLAN's I have tagged on the Mikrotik SFP+ Port that the QNAP is plugged into. This is awesome, it means I can just add the QNAP Switches I already have back into each Rack in my House in order to feed the 2.5Gb Uplink, and Don't have to spend $200 Per Transceiver to do the same thing off of the Mikrotik. So I am happy, at least I found my solution, and I just figured if anyone was ever searching whether or not this Particular QNAP Switch passes or discards VLAN Tagged Frames, then I can inform them that it does indeed pass them along.
if you want smaller/cheaper the newer qnap 2104-2t/2s ( 4 * 2.5gbe + 2 * 10gbe ports ) also correctly passes vlan tags - using one here to vlan trunk from where my fibre ONT is located to where my esxi server sits
 

MattTheTechLV

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Mar 26, 2022
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if you want smaller/cheaper the newer qnap 2104-2t/2s ( 4 * 2.5gbe + 2 * 10gbe ports ) also correctly passes vlan tags - using one here to vlan trunk from where my fibre ONT is located to where my esxi server sits
Nice, that one didn't come up in my search. I already have 3x Of the Ugly QSW-308-1c's that I bought in I think 2017 or 2018, But I am glad to see that they finally built a low cost option that is black so it doesn't have to look so damn ugly. Luckily Mine were all in a rack closet I put up in every room in a custom mount I made for them, but this would be so much more preferable if I was buying them today.

In my earlier post I said I was hooking up a 2.5Gb uplink on my Engenius "Switch", I typo'd, I meant to say My New Engenius AP (Specifically the "EWS377AP".) I am excited to finally roll out Wifi6 in my house. The Wifi5 AP's from Engenius have been working great, but I have deployed a few of these EWS377AP & EWS357AP in Doctor's Offices, Hospitals, & Concert Venues over the past few months, and the difference in lowering congestion when 100's of devices are connected to just a handful of these is amazing, so I am excited to see if just replacing 3 of my EWS360AP's with the newer EWS377AP's makes any difference at all in my house (where I also have way too many wireless devices).

I was really trying to wait out Engenius' New Wifi6e AP's to release before I upgraded, but I have been waiting for those since the end of last year, I figured I would just bite on the Wifi6 ones for now, and then Sell them to a client later when the 6e Ones finally roll out, I can't wait to play in that 6Ghz Band. Anyone here had a chance to play with the 6E APs yet? Unfortunately companies have been slow to sample us on the new APs, we are still waiting, so I haven't had a chance to tinker with them yet.
 
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unmesh

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Apr 17, 2017
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if you want smaller/cheaper the newer qnap 2104-2t/2s ( 4 * 2.5gbe + 2 * 10gbe ports ) also correctly passes vlan tags - using one here to vlan trunk from where my fibre ONT is located to where my esxi server sits
Since these are unmanaged, are there any visual indications for what link rate the ports have negotiated?
 
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MattTheTechLV

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Since these are unmanaged, are there any visual indications for what link rate the ports have negotiated?
That is an excellent question. I don't know about the new ones, but I can check on mine when I get home later today and report back. I believe the link lights only flash one color on mine, but I could be wrong about that as I have only ever plugged in 10Gb until recently, and I didn't bother to look. I will check when I get home and report back though.
 

MattTheTechLV

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Mar 26, 2022
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Since these are unmanaged, are there any visual indications for what link rate the ports have negotiated?
OK I am back home. My New Engenius AP Arrived so I will get that setup soon and then Plugin the 2.5Gb Link to the QNAS and see what color the status lights blink for 2.5Gb, But for both 5Gb And 1Gb it blinks a fast Orange (So I am assuming since there is no difference between 1Gb and 5Gb on the 10Gb RJ45 Port, than it most likely will be exactly the same once I test 2.5Gb I will let you know for sure soon)

Also just to confirm, I checked the Reported Link Speed to ensure I was connected at the Speed I intended to be, and then once I got confirmation that I was connected at 5Gb or 1Gb, I did a file transfer to test the speeds at both speeds, and They were both indeed the speeds they were supposed to be. So unless you hear back from me saying otherwise, you can assume that at least the QNAP QSW-308-1c's NIC's status lights will blink orange for anything below a 10Gb Link, and will blink green for a 10Gb Link.
 

Juggie

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Nov 3, 2018
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I have not, sorry. Most of my aquantias came from eBay, lucky finds. I did buy 1 Supermicro since then. They all look the same, with a polished/matte body, a black bale clasp, and are branded Aquantia.

As far as I can tell, most of the stuff out there is either Marvell (30m range) or Broadcom (80m range). Shiny/textured body and gold bale clasp.
@dag have you tried this one? Reports on Reddit for it seem positive and it's new this year.

 

dag

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Apr 23, 2020
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@dag have you tried this one? Reports on Reddit for it seem positive and it's new this year.
I believe the newer Ubiquiti RJ45 SFP uses a Broadcom chip instead of Marvell, and if that’s the case, yes, it will likely perform better. We don’t have this specific model, but we have a couple of Broadcom-based SFPs from fs.com, and we’re happy with them.

No need to open the SFP to check, the ones rated 30m use a Marvell chip (or Aquantia for that matter), while the ones rated 80/100m use Broadcom. Either way, I could be wrong but I believe they only work well at 2.5/5GbE when the host supports the speeds natively (as opposed to 10GbE only SFP ports).

To this day, Aquantia is still my personal favorite though, it just works :) Too bad they’re impossible to find and/or way too $$$.
 
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jimhh

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Bump. Anyone have tested how Broadcom BCM84891 modules perform? (e.g. Fibermall SFP-10G-TS-80). Running into problems with Marvell-type controllers (iPolex, etc) over a 100 ft cat6 run. Probably just too long?
 

dag

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Bump. Anyone have tested how Broadcom BCM84891 modules perform? (e.g. Fibermall SFP-10G-TS-80). Running into problems with Marvell-type controllers (iPolex, etc) over a 100 ft cat6 run. Probably just too long?
I have the fibermall module you mentioned, and another one from FS using the same Broadcom chipset. They do perform marginally better and run slightly cooler than their Marvell counterparts, but it’s not very difficult if you ask me, the Marvells are junk.

I never tried to push them to their limit from a cable length perspective, but I could establish a 10GbE connection over 60ft. You can always buy one on Amazon and return it if it doesn’t perform, they advertise 80m (262ft) after all.
 

nereith

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Mar 23, 2019
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@dag have you tried this one? Reports on Reddit for it seem positive and it's new this year.


Just bought one to test with both Mikrotik RB4011 and CRS309. The other endpoint was a Verizon CR1000A which supports 1/2.5/5/10G.

The module supports NBaseT even if the SFP+ port doesn't. Eg RB4011.

Some changes I needed to make to the SFP+ settings:

1. To establish 1G connection, I had to set the SFP+ interface to a fixed 1G rate.
2. For 2.5/5/10G, I could leave auto-negotiation on. SFP+ interface still reports 10G rate, but CR1000A confirmed the NBaseT rate was used.

There's no DDM reporting with this module.

I also saw a thread about issues with the module expecting the port to be enabled during startup, else it would appear offline unless reinserted due to TX_disable pin being connected to PHY directly. However, I saw no such issues despite restarting and/or unplugging power to the RB4011.

Overall, this seems like a good successor to both the Fibermall 80m variant (which doesn't support NBaseT) and S+RJ10 (which supports NBase-T but runs too hot). The major advantage over the S+RJ10 and AQS107 is the ability to support 10G over relatively short runs of Cat5E. Only downside is no DDM reporting.
 
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n17ikh

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Jul 12, 2019
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Just bought one to test with both Mikrotik RB4011 and CRS309. The other endpoint was a Verizon CR1000A which supports 1/2.5/5/10G.

The module supports NBaseT even if the SFP+ port doesn't. Eg RB4011.

Some changes I needed to make to the SFP+ settings:

1. To establish 1G connection, I had to set the SFP+ interface to a fixed 1G rate.
2. For 2.5/5/10G, I could leave auto-negotiation on. SFP+ interface still reports 10G rate, but CR1000A confirmed the NBaseT rate was used.

There's no DDM reporting with this module.

I also saw a thread about issues with the module expecting the port to be enabled during startup, else it would appear offline unless reinserted due to TX_disable pin being connected to PHY directly. However, I saw no such issues despite restarting and/or unplugging power to the RB4011.

Overall, this seems like a good successor to both the Fibermall 80m variant (which doesn't support NBaseT) and S+RJ10 (which supports NBase-T but runs too hot). The major advantage over the S+RJ10 and AQS107 is the ability to support 10G over relatively short runs of Cat5E. Only downside is no DDM reporting.
Is that the UACC-CM-RJ45-MG? Ubiquiti rearranged their website and it seems like it isn't on their store anymore. They have the 10G listed on a page that says it's multigig, but this post says Ubiquiti shipped them the -10G non-multigig version. Seems like a bit of a mess.
 

nereith

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Mar 23, 2019
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Is that the UACC-CM-RJ45-MG? Ubiquiti rearranged their website and it seems like it isn't on their store anymore. They have the 10G listed on a page that says it's multigig, but this post says Ubiquiti shipped them the -10G non-multigig version. Seems like a bit of a mess.
Yes, UACC-CM-RJ45-MG.
 

ViciousXUSMC

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Yes, UACC-CM-RJ45-MG.
Good Read, I am looking to add multi gig to my Brocade switch.
I ordered several different SFPs to try, not all of them can I confirm what chipset they use.

I am trying to find the best way to test to verify performance issues.
 

BobTB

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Jul 19, 2019
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So S+RJ10 does work in ICX 6610 (spf+) at 2.5Gbit? I have them, but my ISP now offers 2.5Gbit FTTH and I am afraid to do the upgrade, and then not be able to run my switch directly from it. They are running hot, yes, but I have a little fan in front of them which cools them nicely!

Edit - I noticed I have this wrong, I am getting fiber from the ISP. So I will need a compatible module to accept this, idk if they do 10Gbit FTTH and limit the speed, or is the link actually 2.5Gbit.
 
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