D-Link DAP-2610

At a glance | |
Product | D-Link Wireless AC1300 Wave 2 Dual-Band PoE Access Point (DAP-2610) [Website] |
Summary | Qualcomm-based 2x2 AC1300 class "Wave 2" access point with PoE and support |
Pros | • Many management options including built-in AP cluster controller • Lots of client bandwidth management options |
Cons | • Web admin can be confusing • No roam assist features • Poor 5 GHz performance in open air testing |
Typical Price: $140 Buy From Amazon |
Updated 12/4/17
D-Link's DAP-2610 has a design more like the recent crop of consumer "mesh" Wi-Fi systems than most of the other APs in this group. It's based on Qualcomm's IPQ4018 2x2 Wi-Fi SoC, which means it's capable of supporting MU-MIMO and, in fact, is the only AP in this roundup to support it. But despite being described as a "Wave 2" device, the DAP-2610 does not support MU-MIMO. This isn't a big deal, since MU-MIMO is of questionable benefit.
This device combines a 717 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor and 2x2 2.4 and 5 GHz radios, making for a clean design. The board shot taken from the FCC ID docs shows two bent-metal dual-band dipole antennas affixed to the board. The board is kept cool by a metal heat spreader plate occupying most of the bottom cover area. Pairs of 2.4 and 5 GHz RF front ends/power amplifiers can be seen to the left of the IPQ4018; system RAM is to the right.
D-Link DAP-2610 board
Key components are summarized in the table.
D-Link DAP-2610 | |
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CPU | Qualcomm IPQ4018 |
Ethernet | QCA8072 |
RAM | 256 MB |
Flash | ? MB |
2.4 GHz Radio | - In IPQ4018 - Unidentified front end/power amp (x2) |
5 GHz radio | - In IPQ4018 - Unidentified 5 GHz front end/power amp (x2) |
Firmware tested | 1.01 |
The AP can be managed via web interface, D-Link's free Windows-based CWM-100 Central Wi-Fi Manager software controller, command line via Telnet or SSH or built-in cluster controller (AP Array). APs in an Array can be designated Master, Backup Master or Slave and up to 32 APs can be included in an array.
D-Link DAP-2610 web admin
The Web admin GUI wins the award for most old-school style, but it packs a lot of features, most of which are summarized in the tables below. Not shown in the tables, but also supported are a built-in RADIUS server for enterprise-grade authentication, Wi-Fi scheduler and DHCP server.
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Bandwidth use can be controlled using both bandwidth limits and priority levels. Up and downlink bandwidth limits can be set for each of eight SSIDs on each band and for individual clients. The priority-based QoS feature (four levels) can assign bandwidth-use priority by application port.