Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro, MT7988A Quad-Core Cortex-A73, Wi-Fi 7 Router Board, 10G SFP + 2.5G LAN

Quick Learning Wiki for Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro

Product Overview

The Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro is a high-performance router development board based on the MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880) quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 processor running at 1.8GHz, delivering approximately 30K DMIPS. It features an onboard MediaTek NPU for hardware network acceleration and tunnel offload (VLAN, PPTP, L2TP, GRE). The board is equipped with 8GB DDR4 memory, 8GB eMMC, and 256MB SPI-NAND flash. It offers an extensive set of networking interfaces including dual 10G SFP/RJ45 WAN+LAN, four 2.5G RJ45 LAN ports, and two 1G LAN ports. For wireless, it supports Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be, tri-band 2.4/5/6GHz, 320MHz, 4096-QAM) via two mPCIe slots. Expansion includes two M.2 M-Key slots for NVMe SSDs and three M.2 B-Key slots for up to three 5G modules. It supports OpenWRT 24.10 and is designed for internet service routers, Wi-Fi 7 routers, 4G/5G routers, NAS gateways, industrial communication, and smart home applications.

Core Hardware

• SoC: MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880)
• CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 @ 1.8GHz, approx. 30K DMIPS
• NPU: MediaTek onboard network processing unit, hardware QoS acceleration, tunnel offload engine (VLAN / PPTP / L2TP / GRE)
• Memory: 8GB DDR4 (4GB option available)
• Onboard Storage: 8GB eMMC + 256MB SPI-NAND Flash
• External Storage: 1x Micro SD card slot

Network (Wired)

• 10G WAN: 1x 10G SFP (optical) / 1x 10G RJ45 (shared, mux)
• 10G LAN: 1x 10G SFP (optical) / 1x 10G RJ45 (shared, mux)
• 2.5G LAN: 4x 2.5G RJ45
• 1G LAN: 1x 1G RJ45 + 1x 1G via FPC connector
• SoC Ethernet: 4x GbE ports + 2x UNXGMII interfaces (chip-level)

Wireless (Wi-Fi)

• Wi-Fi Standard: Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) via mPCIe card (not onboard)
• Bands: Tri-band — 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz
• Bandwidth: 320MHz
• Modulation: 4096-QAM
• Features: MLO (Multi-Link Operation), MRU, AFC
• Supported Wi-Fi Modules:
  
  Wi-Fi 6E: ASIA.RF AW7916-NPD (mPCIe, 802.11ax, dual-band dual-concurrent)
  Wi-Fi 7: BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 (mPCIe module)
  Wi-Fi 7 Extension Kit: Banana Pi designed module expansion board for flexible enclosure design
  
  

USB

• USB 3.2: 1x port
• USB 2.0: 1x port
• USB Type-C: 1x debug serial port

Expansion Slots

• mPCIe: 2x mini PCIe slots (PCIe 3.0 2-lane, for Wi-Fi 7 cards)
• M.2 M-Key: 2x slots (PCIe 3.0 1-lane, for NVMe SSD)
• M.2 B-Key: 3x slots (USB 3.2 interface, for up to 3x 5G modules)
• Note: PCIe lanes can be switched between M.2 M-Key and M.2 B-Key slots

GPIO

• GPIO Header: 2x13 pin GPIO expansion interface

Cooling & Accessories

• Fans: 4010 fan and 5020 fan supported (available for purchase)
• Heatsinks: Mainboard heatsink, BE14 Wi-Fi 7 module heatsink (with/without fan versions)
• Enclosure: Official metal case available (sample purchase)

Operating System

• OpenWRT: OpenWRT 24.10 supported (DSA architecture)
• Linux: Supported (refer to Frank wiki for BPI-R4)
• Available Image: BPI-R4Pro-8X-BE14-MT76-OpenWRT24.10-DSA (for 8GB + BE14 Wi-Fi 7 configuration)

Source Code

• BPI-Pro (8X) OpenWRT: https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-R4PRO-8X-OPENWRT-V24.10.0-Master-Devel
• BPI-Pro (4E) OpenWRT: https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-R4PRO-4E-OPENWRT-V24.10.0-Master-Devel

Application Scenarios

• Internet service router
• Wi-Fi 7 wireless router
• 4G/5G wireless router
• Wireless / wired relay communication gateway
• Home security gateway
• Smart home control gateway
• NAS gateway
• Network communication applications
• Industrial control and integrated communication applications