New house network design

[ggadrian]

Hi everyone,

I'm buying a new house and I'd like to design and install a proper network before I move in.

It's a hose inside the town, it has 4 floors, each around 50m2 (aprox. 540ft2), concrete walls and the distribution is:

• Ground floor: garage and house entrance (that's were the fiber will come in)
• First floor: open kitchen and living room + small bathroom
• Second floor: main bedroom, guest bedroom and bathroom
• Third floor: office and terrace

I plan to go mostly wireless, since it's more comfortable to use, it's just for me and my girlfriend and other than streaming tv shows and movies we don't have big bandwidth requirements, but cheap 1Gbps fiber is around the corner (standard right now is about 300/300, but I expect 1Gbps to be standard in 2 or 3 years) and we want the wiring to be as future-proof as it makes sense.

The idea is go with a Unifi setup (I have installed one for a small office and I like it), with a rack on the garage for the router, switch and patch panel, and then

• 1 wired AP per floor (Unifi AC Lite right now, to be replaced in the future as needed)
• 2 ethernet connections near the TV for streaming (I think 4k and future standards are better served wired)
• 2 ethernet connections in the studio

As for the hardware, I was thinking:

• USG
• Unifi switch 16 ports
• Cloud key
• 4 x AC Lite AP

The main doubt I have is which cable should I go for. Cat6 is quite cheap (around 60-70€ for 300m), but I'm not sure if I should go for Cat6a or Cat7 to be ready for 10Gbps, though it's consireably more expensive.

Thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[sdifox]

How much more is 6a?

 

[ggadrian]

How much more is 6a?

I might be able to find something cheaper with some research, but for what I see now is abour 2,5x to 3x the price of Cat 6, same price as Cat 7 actually.

 

[sdifox]

I might be able to find something cheaper with some research, but for what I see now is abour 2,5x to 3x the price of Cat 6, same price as Cat 7 actually.

How much is wiring labour and difficulty of doing it later?

Personally I would not worry about 10gbps lan.
Besides, cat 6 can do 10gbps, for shorter disances, up to 55m compared to 100m of 6a.

 

[ggadrian]

How much is wiring labour and difficulty of doing it later?

Personally I would not worry about 10gbps lan.

Not sure about labor, we're doing this one ourselves (with the help from a friend which has worked installing networks for some time that will do the difficult bits, mainly because he's got the tools). So provably right now it'll cost me about 2 days of work, some beer and dinner for my friend and a few ours helping him fix his motorbike in exchange (which I'd do anyway).

I guess that changing the wiring in the future should be about another day of work, aprox.

 

[sdifox]

Just get cat 6 then. You are probably able to run 10gbps anyway since I doubt you have 50m runs.

 

[ggadrian]

Just get cat 6 then. You are probably able to run 10gbps anyway since I doubt you have 50m runs.

That's true, I'd have to meassure it to be sure, but most if not all the runs should be >50m. Thanks

 

[sdifox]

That's true, I'd have to meassure it to be sure, but most if not all the runs should be >50m. Thanks

Going mostly wirelss and worrying about 10gpbs is just silly.

 

[ggadrian]

Going mostly wirelss and worrying about 10gpbs is just silly.

Well I plan to keep the house for many years, so in the near future I won't have a need for 10gbps, but who knows what'll be the bandwith requirements 10 or 15 years down the line?

I'm mostly thinking about 8k streaming, not sure if 1Gbps will be anough for 2 simultaneous high quality streams

 

[sdifox]

Well I plan to keep the house for many years, so in the near future I won't have a need for 10gbps, but who knows what'll be the bandwith requirements 10 or 15 years down the line?

I'm mostly thinking about 8k streaming, not sure if 1Gbps will be anough for 2 simultaneous high quality streams

By then you should probably rewire anyway. Netflix 4k is 12.5mbps...assuming same codec 8k will be 52mbps.

 

[mnewsham]

If you want gigabit performance from your wifi you'll need to go up to the Unifi AC-AP HD. The AC-AP Lite is great for it's price, but it's a 2x2 access point and using 80MHz DFS channels within ~5 feet I can only manage ~350-500mbps. The AC-AP HD however is a 4x4 access point and I've seen it push 900mbps+ from 5-10 feet.

 

[mnewsham]

By then you should probably rewire anyway. Netflix 4k is 12.5mbps...assuming same codec 8k will be 52mbps.

And they've already announced they plan on moving to AV1 for their stuff when they can anyway. So we could see even further compression (or similar bitrate with better picture quality)

 

[ggadrian]

Well I plan to keep the house for many years, so in the near future I won't have a need for 10gbps, but who knows what'll be the bandwith requirements 10 or 15 years down the line?

If you want gigabit performance from your wifi you'll need to go up to the Unifi AC-AP HD. The AC-AP Lite is great for it's price, but it's a 2x2 access point and using 80MHz DFS channels within ~5 feet I can only manage ~350-500mbps. The AC-AP HD however is a 4x4 access point and I've seen it push 900mbps+ from 5-10 feet.

Thanks, I know I won't get anything near 1Gbps with the AC Lite, in fact the ones I have installed are in the 200-250mbps range.

If I get anything between 200-300 mbps on WiFi for the laptops and phones I'll be more than happy right now. Actually what I'm more worried about (and not right now but in the future) is streaming, which won't be done trough WiFi.

 

[ggadrian]

By then you should probably rewire anyway. Netflix 4k is 12.5mbps...assuming same codec 8k will be 52mbps.

12.5 mbps or MB/s? If it's mbps it's really low, some of the 1080p files I stream are at around 16-20 Mbps according to Plex

 

[mnewsham]

Actually what I'm more worried about (and not right now but in the future) is streaming, which won't be done trough WiFi.

I wouldn't be too worried.

I can stream 8k youtube without buffering it's only around 80mbps. And that should come down with better compression from AV1. (though it will be several years before we have hardware AV1 decoding)

 

[mnewsham]

12.5 mbps or MB/s? If it's mbps it's really low, some of the 1080p files I stream are at around 16-20 Mbps according to Plex

Both netflix and youtube 4k are fairly low bitrate. Youtube 4k is generally under 25mbps. And the same is true with netflix, I would expect 12.5mbps is on the low end though, it's likely averaging closer to 20mbps for 4k.

 

[ggadrian]

Cool, then it seems I can go with Cat 6 and not worry about it, if 8k streaming is <100 Mbps I won't need >1 Gbps in many many years

 

[sdifox]

12.5 mbps or MB/s? If it's mbps it's really low, some of the 1080p files I stream are at around 16-20 Mbps according to Plex

megabit. It has to do with compression algorithm used.

 

[sdifox]

Both netflix and youtube 4k are fairly low bitrate. Youtube 4k is generally under 25mbps. And the same is true with netflix, I would expect 12.5mbps is on the low end though, it's likely averaging closer to 20mbps for 4k.

I only get 12.5mbps streams up here.

 

[mnewsham]

I only get 12.5mbps streams up here.

Well it's variable bitrate, there will be times it falls below the average and times it goes above the average.
The quoted average from netflix for 4k is 7GB an hour or roughly 15.5Mbps. But it depends on the content you're watching, not everything can be compressed to the same extent.

 

[sdifox]

Well it's variable bitrate, there will be times it falls below the average and times it goes above the average.
The quoted average from netflix for 4k is 7GB an hour or roughly 15.5Mbps. But it depends on the content you're watching, not everything can be compressed to the same extent.

regardless, he doesn't need 10gbps for streaming 8k

 

[Genx87]

Only reason I would worry about 10Gbps is if you plan to take advantage of 1+Gbps wireless in the future. If I were building a house would def go Cat 6. It should be able to do 10Gbps in most homes. My only concern in your build is putting the rack out in the garage. Is the garage going to be air conditioned assuming you live anywhere south of the artic circle? It can get hot in a garage in the middle of summer.

I just grabbed a Unifi AC-Pro. Coming from a Meraki background. These are very nice for the price.

 

[ggadrian]

Only reason I would worry about 10Gbps is if you plan to take advantage of 1+Gbps wireless in the future. If I were building a house would def go Cat 6. It should be able to do 10Gbps in most homes. My only concern in your build is putting the rack out in the garage. Is the garage going to be air conditioned assuming you live anywhere south of the artic circle? It can get hot in a garage in the middle of summer.

I just grabbed a Unifi AC-Pro. Coming from a Meraki background. These are very nice for the price.

I live in Barcelona, so it'll be around 30ºC (86ºF) in July and August, and the garage shouldn't be hotter than the rest of the house (well, the rest of the house is going to have AC, but many people don't and I don't hear of many problems with broken electronics)

Do you think that's too hot for a couple of routers and a switch?

 

[sdifox]

I live in Barcelona, so it'll be around 30ºC (86ºF) in July and August, and the garage shouldn't be hotter than the rest of the house (well, the rest of the house is going to have AC, but many people don't and I don't hear of many problems with broken electronics)

Do you think that's too hot for a couple of routers and a switch?

Nececitaras un ventilador al menos.

 

[Genx87]

I live in Barcelona, so it'll be around 30ºC (86ºF) in July and August, and the garage shouldn't be hotter than the rest of the house (well, the rest of the house is going to have AC, but many people don't and I don't hear of many problems with broken electronics)

Do you think that's too hot for a couple of routers and a switch?

86F but days of 90s right? I would be worried about that type of heat with routers\switches. I have thought about running my networking out in the garage in Minnesota. The winters would be fantastic. But then there is a 2 month period in July\August my gear would get killed from the heat.

I guess the key is there good circulation in the garage? I forgot about the lack of AC is normal in many parts of Europe. If you had good circulation probably not as big an issue as I am making it out to be.