Tag: multi-gigabit networking

Article -From the horse’s mouth

Matrix

Matrix Audio SS-1 Audio Ethernet Switch

SS-1 Pro / SS-1 Audio Grade Ethernet Switch (Product Page)

Previous coverage

Audiophile / Multimedia Ethernet switches

Melco introduces an audiophile-grade Ethernet switch in Australia

Multi-gigabit Ethernet

Multi-gigabit wired network connections for small networks could be real

My Comments

At the StereoNET Hi-Fi and Home Entertainment Show 2025 at the Pullman & Mercure Melbourne Albert Park hotel, I had come across an audiophile / multimedia Ethernet switch that is also designed for multi-Gigabit Ethernet networks.

This device is in the form of the Matrix SS-1 Series audio-grade Ethernet switches. One of these units, used as part of Matrix’s main demonstrator system, is the SS-1 Pro while the other which was on static display is the Matrix SS-1. The SS-1 costs AUD$2099 at the time this article was written, which underscores the premium role that this unit plays in the home Ethernet switch market.

The SS-1 Pro has eight Ethernet sockets – 2 100Mb RJ45 Ethernet sockets and 6  2.5 Gigabit Ethernet sockets. There are also two SFP+ sockets that provide a 10 Gigabit Ethernet link and support for optical fibre connections or 10 Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 connections using appropriate SFP+ modules. There is also a connection for an external clock-signal generator which some audiophiles may find useful for improving network reliability and such a device was used in the same demo setup. The optical-fibre advantage also works against those dreaded ground loops that can bedevil audio setups. As far as power is concerned, thus unit has a traditional transformer-based linear power supply circuit.

The SS-1, photographed in this article, which is a cheaper model is similar but has 4 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet sockets, a switch-mode power supply, no external clock input and a 12 volt power input for use with a better external power supply.

Matrix Audio SS-1 Audio Ethernet Switch rear panel
– 4 x 2.5 Gigabit RJ45 Ethernet
– 2 x 100Mb RJ45 Ethernet for audio devices
– 2 x 10Gb SFP+ Ethernet
– 12V DC socket for improved power supply
– AC socket for internal power supply

Both these units implement independent electrical architecture for each network port and, like other audiophile / multimedia Ethernet switches, there is a lot of design work gone in to these devices to reduce electrical and mechanical interference across the network segments.

What is also unique about these audiophile / multimedia network switches is them being designed for the kind of high-bandwidth network traffic associated with multi-gigabit Ethernet. This also has the advantage of increased stability thanks to reduced  timing errors no matter the bandwidth needed for the data transfer.

These devices demonstrate the fact that they are future-ready for LAN and Internet setups that benefit from the multiple-Gigabit Ethernet technology. Think of ubiquitous 4K UHDTV or 8K UHDTV use cases, ubiquitous high-speed fibre-optic Internet, Wi-Fi 6//7 wireless networks and the like. It also includes content-creators using high-performance networks as part of their workflow.

The use of the Matrix SS-1 Pro audiophile/multimedia Ethernet switch as part of a demonstrator hi-fi setup at a hotel-based hi-fi show underscored how these devices can assure robust network operation and optimum multimedia performance where the AC supply or data network is an unknown quantity.

Personally, it does depend on the situation whether you need to buy one of these audiophile / multimedia Ethernet switches. This may be about a lot of factors like your equipment and how sensitive they are to electrical noise, what you are listening to or watching, the quality of the AC supply you intend to use, whether you are using it in unpredictable circumstances amongst other things.

Article

Freebox Ultra Wi-Fi 7 router being defined as the cutting-edge for carrier-supplied customer-premises equipment for home networks

The Freebox Ultra’s First Test: Wi-Fi 7 Surpasses Expectations – GAMINGDEPUTY

French language / Langue française

Freebox Ultra : pourquoi elle est devenue rapidement une référence technique | Freenews.fr

Test de la Freebox Ultra : notre avis complet sur la box Internet de Free (frandroid.com)

My Comments

The competitive telecommunications and Internet market in France has led towards some exciting equipment being offered has led to the local telecommunications providers offering customer premises equipment way above the average for this class of equipment.

One firm I have given space to a lot on this site is Iliad who run their “Free” Internet service in France as something that raised the bar for value there. They ended up offering a highly capable piece of equipment in the form of the Freebox Révolution with a highly-capable router / NAS unit / DECT cordless-telephone base station in one Phillippe-Starck-designed box and a “décodeur” set-top box with Blu-Ray player in another similarly-designed box. It even ended up with features like “box-to-box” or “client-to-box” VPN support, software-defined Wi-Fi 5 support and a gyroscopic remote control and both devices benefited from continual firmware upgrades that offered new functionality.

Previously, the Freebox Révolution was defined as the cutting edge for this class of hardware

Now Iliad have taken things further with the Freebox Ultra which is usurping the role of the Freebox Révolution. This, like the Freebox Révolution uses fibre optic as the WAN connection but can work at 10 Gigabit speed, allowing for a competitive 10G Internet service courtesy of Free.

There is an extraordinary local network offering with a Wi-Fi 7 4-band access point with two streams for all of the bands. This media network is protected using the latest WPA3 security specification and there is the ability to steer client devices to the best band to work with. As for the wired network, this Freebox is about multi-gigabit Ethernet all the way with a 10 Gigabit SFP connection and four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet sockets as a switch.

The CPU in this Freebox Ultra is an ARM Cortex A73 RISC CPU, something that wouldn’t look out of place in smartphones, tablets or the connected car. Here it is about using less power to handle a lot of data and offer a rich user interface. A user can install a NVM3 2280 SSD stick in to this router to have this work as a NAS the Freebox way with support for UPnP AV / DLNA, Apple Time Machine and other common standards. The other approach for connecting storage to this device is to use a USB-C socket with 60W PowerDelivery power for a USB hard disk or SSD of some sort.

Like the recent Freebox setups since the Révolution, this unit works on the Freebox OS which has a user interface that wouldn’t look out of place on a recent consumer or small-business network-attached storage device  or a desktop operating system’s GUI. Here, I wouldn’t put it past Free to add more functionality with a Freebox OS firmware update, even have it work with newer Wi-Fi or other network standards.

This device even comes with an extender known as the Freebox Répéteur 7 which works on Wi-Fi 7 to cover larger French homes like the “mas en Provence” so you can have continual Wi-Fi coverage through them. There is even an Ethernet connection so you could connect a wired Ethernet device to the extender or, perhaps, run a wired backhaul to the Ereebox 7.

Due to this connectivity and these capabilities, it bas been realised that the Freebox Ultra is about achieving a future-proof home network for your French home. This device is typically offered for EUR€49.99 per month with a fibre-optic broadband service that offers Internet, TV and fixed-line telephony of the kind expected in a French competitive telecommunications market.

Once you have the French telecommunications providers and AVM continually offering cutting-edge consumer-premises network equipment, it wouldn’t take long for these firms to compete with Silicon Valley and become an “Airbus” or “Arianespace” equivalent.

Articles

Next generation home networks could be implementing Wi-Fi 7 in the next few years

Wi-Fi 7 to Make a Splash at CES 2022, Led by MediaTek | Digital Trends

Wi-Fi 7 is coming, and Intel makes it sound great | Network World

My Comments

Wi-Fi 6 is already established as a wireless network standard and this is being taken to  Wave 2 with some incremental improvements.

But Wi-Fi 7, is to be coming soon and is actually the IEEE 802.11be wireless-network standard which is expected to be the follow-on to Wi-Fi 6.

It is expected to offer 320MHz bandwidth for each RF channel and provide a theoretical link-layer throughput of 96.1Gbps. As well, a Wi-Fi 7 wireless network segment is expected to be able to work on the 2.4 GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz radio bands.

This will support multi-link operation where network devices can work on multiple channels across multiple wavebands at once. This allows for a “fat pipe” that carries more data along with reduced latency (important for games or videocalls) and increased operational robustness. This latter benefit is provided by allowing particular data to use particular channels.

Wi-Fi 7 is to lead wireless network segments towards multiple-gigabit networking. As well, Wi-Fi 7 will have integrated support for Wireless Time-Sensitive Networking which assures synchronous delivery of data to multiple endpoints with use cases being multichannel sound, multi-camera setups or robotics and industrial automation.

This technology will take time to come to fruition even if it is “cemented in stone” by the IEEE now. There will be the need to see the necessary silicon being made available to client-device and network-infrastructure manufacturers so they cam implement it in their own products. This will also include the requirement to to see power-efficient Wi-Fi 7 client-device silicon implementations before a significant number of portable devices come with this technology.

Then the client and network infrastructure devices will appear but be at that price point and marketing position that only appeals to early-adopters who will pay a premium to have the latest and the greatest. But a few years later will see Wi-Fi 7 be a mature wireless-network technology.

But this will come in to its own with ubiquitous ultra-high-definition TV, augmented and virtual reality along with computing environments pitched towards gamers, creators and mobile-workstation users.