These results have been replicated using a PCE-AC68. For this reason, I decided to run this test for multiple hours throughout the last week and indeed, the router struggles keeping a constant throughput, delivering a pathetic average of about 200 Mbps when it was positioned near the antenna (if I increase the distance, the speed falls even lower). UPDATE : This is the second time I fully test the Asus RT-AX58U and the first time I tested it, I used a client equipped with an Asus PCE-AC88 and the throughput was not stable – it would run up to 800+ Mbps and then I noticed that it would sometimes fall underneath 100 Mbps and then back up (5GHz, on either 80 or 160MHz). It’s worth mentioning that the router makes use of Roaming Assist to drop the connection in case the RSSI falls below a certain threshold and there’s support for Smart Connect.
There is also the Ethernet Backhaul which can make a difference for a dual-band mesh system – the bandwidth is less affected than when it has to handle both the inter-node communication and the client connection. That being said, the AiMesh does function in a similar manner to the other proprietary implementations, allowing the creation of optimized paths between multiple nodes (the routers) and one of the most important characteristics is the self-healing ability, which, in case a node fails, re-routes the data through the closest and least congested node available (this property can be seen in action when there are more than two nodes connected). I have tested AiMesh using an Asus RT-AC68U and an Asus RT-AC86U and the results weren’t that great (I also had some problems getting the two device to work together), but the RT-AC68U is old hardware and I assume that the RT-AX58U will work a lot better with the RT-AC86U (I will test this config soon). Lastly, I have to mention the support for AiMesh, a technology that allows multiple compatible ASUS routers to interconnect and create a mesh network (just like the Google WiFi, Eero WiFi or Netgear Orbi).
Another significant improvement over the last gen is the Target Wake Time (TWT) feature which has the role of creating a scheduled wake time for each client based on the expected traffic, therefore conserving the battery life for 802.11ax IoT client devices (this is going to be useful only if the manufacturers aren’t requesting tons of info continuously from their devices, as they usually do) – one issue with the implementation of this feature on the RT-AX58U is that a laptop that’s not connected to a power source, will have its bandwidth severely limited (even if you disable this feature in the interface).
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