Home Networking Future Plans As Of 2021
Overview
The setup is fairly stable so anything beyond what has already been achieved are enhancements to our lives better.
Multigig
In performance category, Wifi is the predominant way home devices are connected. In order to support the increasing speeds, the wired network should also keep up with the throughput of wireless.
This is where going beyond Gigabit Ethernet comes in. It’s very common (and cheap) to get gigabit Ethernet. However, moving to 2.5, 5 or 10G seems to be very cost prohibitive. At the time of writing, A Zyxel XGS1210-12 managed switched with 12 ports was retailing for £190. That is double the cost for a managed gigabit switch.
802.11ax (WiFi 6E)
With the wired infrastructure setup, the wireless performance can get the full advantage of throughput and switch capacity.
Cost is a concern as this is leading edge technology and only a few devices at home that support it right now.
Resilience
In particular there is only a single Internet connection in the property. When it goes down, that is it. I’m fortunate enough to have a mobile which supports hotspot however that either requires re-configuring devices to the hotspot or no connectivity to the rest of the house.
Hardware wise, the Unifi Security Gateway supports fail over but it’s not without issues. The other barrier is cost to maintaining a second connection. In an ideal world, it would be load balanced.
Security
Ability to monitor and protect the network. The first solution would be intrusion prevention externally comming in. Then move onto vulnerabilities within the network.
Summary
More plans in works unfortunately I am hampered by costs at the moment.
