R730 vs R850

[stephen_gebhard]

My understanding is that the 850 is essentially identical to the 730. Is this true? Any advantages?

[john_d]

Not right now but that's a different issue. The two revisions of the chip don't work differently in terms of 160MHz. The general limitation with the chip being used is that 80+80/160MHz mode is basically reconfiguring the 8x8:8 5GHz radios to a 2 4x4:4 config. 

Long story short, neither the R730 nor the R850's current firmwares have 160MHz or 80+80 support.... But that's on par with the rest of the market that uses Hawkeye.

[adam_ye]

Thank you for your answer.

[Anye02]

The Ruckus R850 is a Wi-Fi 6 access point with 8x8:8 radios and supports uplink and downlink OFDMA, while the R730 is 802.11ax-ready but not Wi-Fi 6 certified and only supports downlink OFDMA. The R850 uses the Hawkeye v2 chipset (IPQ8078v2), while the R730 uses the original v1 Hawkeye. [1, 2]

Here's a more detailed comparison:

Ruckus R850: [1, 2]

• Wi-Fi Standard: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax).
• Radio Configuration: 8x8:8 (8 spatial streams in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz).
• OFDMA: Supports uplink and downlink Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access.
• Chipset: Hawkeye v2 (IPQ8078v2).
• Data Rates: Up to 5.9 Gbps.
• Features: Multi-Gigabit Access Speeds, Enhanced Security with WPA3, Device Management Options, Better Mesh Networking. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Ruckus R730: [1, 2]

• Wi-Fi Standard: 802.11ax-Ready, but not Wi-Fi 6 certified. [1, 2]
• Radio Configuration: 8x8:8 (8 spatial streams in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz). [4]
• OFDMA: Supports downlink OFDMA, but not uplink OFDMA. [1, 2]
• Chipset: Hawkeye v1. [1, 2]
• Data Rates: Up to 4.8 Gbps with 8x8:8 5GHz radio and 1.148 Gbps with a 2.4GHz radio. [4]
• Features: Designed for high density, high performance applications, and has on-board BLE & Zigbee radios for IOT Applications. [4]

Key Differences: [1, 2]

• Wi-Fi Certification: The R850 is Wi-Fi 6 certified, while the R730 is not, even though it's 802.11ax-ready. [1, 2]
• OFDMA Support: The R850 supports both uplink and downlink OFDMA, while the R730 only supports downlink OFDMA. [1, 2]
• Chipset: The R850 uses the Hawkeye v2 chipset, while the R730 uses the Hawkeye v1. [1, 2]
• Data Rates: The R850 has slightly higher data rates than the R730.