Musings on Multigigabit and APeX

Cisco Live is always a whirlwind of information and the 2017 US event was no exception! Between the Catalyst 9k launch, the focus on Software Defined Access, and Intuitive Networking, it’s easy to miss some of the nuance that was to be uncovered on the show floor. In the Enterprise Networking booth there was a hidden nugget that was focused on developers called APeX (short for Access Point Extensions). One part of this APeX program is the Extender Module Hardware Development Kit – EM-HDK for short (or just HDK for even shorter!) that plugs directly into the often-overlooked module port on the AP3800. The board itself is a neat springboard for developing on – it allows you to attach a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, XBee or other Small Board Computer directly to the AP. Of course, you wouldn’t deploy a production solution like this, but you would take the solution you’re working on, and compress it to a design that’s purpose built for the modular slot that’s part of the AP3800.

The APeX EM-HDK

The thing that struck me though is that while the HDK is neat – and if you have any SBC experience at all, a very interesting platform, the hidden secret of the HDK is that it also sports two Gigabit Ethernet connections supporting PoE out. It is worth noting that if your host AP had a single 1 Gigabit link, and you put two additional 1 Gigabit links on the back side of it, you can safely assume you have an automatic bottleneck. This is the genesis of my epiphany – those that were shortsighted enough to make claims that 802.11ac wave 2 doesn’t justify uplink speeds beyond 1 Gigabit, clearly did not take into account that 2x 802.11ac wave 2 radios moves you a lot closer to that 1 Gigabit bottleneck, and when you want to pass an additional 2x 1 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces on the same link as your 2x 802.11ac wave 2 radios, your use case for Multigigabit becomes pretty clear.

HDK with Raspberry Pi attached to an AP3802i.

Remember folks, your wired infrastructure is expected to last much longer than your typical switches will. As you start seeing very obvious use cases for breaking the 1 Gigabit uplink requirement, make sure you’re considering the cost savings of investing in multi gig technology today – especially if you can get it for a nominal uptick in price.

Multigigabit interfaces, left. 10G, right.

Go here for more information on Cisco’s mgig (or NBASE-T) and here for information on the APeX program over at Devnet.