Have you got an overview sketch of the network you're planning on building?

I'm actually not considering any for right now and won't until I have to.

I have a switch that'll tick all the boxes from $employer however it's too deep for the cabinet where the rest of the kit lives. Cabinet is for 300 mm deep kit, this guy is just a touch deeper.

I'm going to hang back and wait for more miniaturisation. I don't actually need many ports as I have plenty of kit to provide more density.

This guy https://mikrotik.com/product/crs326_24s_2q_rm would be fine if it had some 25G ports but unfortunately it doesn't. Could have used a QSFP to 4 * SFP+ breakout cable.

When the time comes I'll have a look and see what's availability with QSFP and SFP28 ports. One thing I need to look at is how packets are being divided between the ports on the router and what the switch will support in hardware. Ideally I would like hardware accelerated layer 4 hashing so that a single host can max everything out.

There's no rush. XGSPON isn't going to be upgraded for a couple of years. I'm looking for some niche products based on 25GPON or 50GPON to arrive in the middle of the decade. The kit I have works for 2 * 10 G if it becomes a requirement.

This post sound very much the same to what i am in the process of building out. I have been checking out (over on ebay) some Brocade ICX6610 QSFP+ 40GbE switches for homelab and to learn more about routing/switching BGP/MLPS whilst using one as part of my homenet. Over on serverthehome forum theres a method to "fix" the device and in that discussion to disable the cap placed on these brocade switches to allow for extra proformance. You can still get ahold of these beasts for a couple of hundred bucks a pop. Apparently they are a bit on the loud side when running at full tilt but again these is a guide to mod the fans too, if im not mistaken. Also, if already failure with Cisco CLI supposedly these Brocade ICX6610's are almost identical from the CLI. For Those curious Brocade ICX on STH

With some breakout cables and adapters https://mikrotik.com/product/crs504_4xq_in would work however I'm going to sit back for now.

The ideal would be something with a few SFP28 ports and a couple of QSFP28 ports that ideally doesn't cost a grand and a half.

https://mikrotik.com/product/crs518_16xs_2xq would work but I really can't see an ONT with a QSFP28 port arriving any time in the next few years even when 50GPON becomes a commercial thing.

See where we are then. Hopefully supply will be way less constrained.

Serve the home have reviewed both of these switches, they both look pretty good.

CRS504

CRS518

Thanks Dan

Speaking with a couple of operators and looking at my own port utilisation stats on my kit it was about time for an upgrade to the main switch.

Rather than stay with Mikrotik given my pretty basic needs I've plumbed in a QNAP QSW-M5216-1T.

It's happily purring away with a couple of SFP28 DACs and a 25GBase-BX optical link.

Next upgrades will be lower port count switches with SFP28 ports and, probably about 2025, a router with a couple of QSFP28 ports, 1 of which will connect to the switch via a breakout cable.

Time to sell a few bits of old kit now, make back some of the cost of the QNAP 😬.

I found my M5216T runs surprisingly quite warm, even with mostly empty cages. PSU is internal though which is quite tight for the form factor so that may be it. Happily runs without complaint with FS supplied BiDi 25G optics

I've found the switch is a PoS incapable of even basic LAG functionality built by a vendor completely indifferent to supporting it