Ethernet and SFP+ Interfaces
The R4 Pro comes with a variety of LAN ports, including four Ethernet RJ45 ports, one 1GB LAN port, and two pairs of combo-type WAN/LAN 10G ports. In simple terms, “combo” means you can only use one of the paired ports at a time. This design choice comes down to hardware architecture and engineering considerations. While the SFP+ 10G cages are fixed at 10Gbps, the shared RJ45 ports offer full auto-negotiation, giving non-fiber internet users more flexibility.
The R4 Pro Combo Ports
Which ports should you use?
Well, it depends. If you have a 2.5Gb or 5Gb internet connection and your setup uses a standard ethernet network cable, your best bet is to go with one of the shared RJ45 combo ports. That said, we successfully connected our home Fiber ONT unit, which has a 1Gb LAN port with a Cat8 cable plugged into the R4 Pro’s WAN 2.5G/10G RJ45 port.
Fiber ONT unit connected to the R4 Pro WAN 2.5G/10G RJ45 port.
The table below provides an overview of the control and switching functions for all LAN and SFP+ ports.
| Port / group | Physical interface | Data rate | SoC connection (logic) | Switching / selection control |
| ETH1–ETH4 | 4 × RJ45 | 4 × 2.5G | High‑speed inband link to MxL86252C | External MxL86252C 2.5G PHY/switch under MT7988A control; global reset via GPIO4. |
| 10G LAN combo (SFP+ LAN / ETH6) | 1 × SFP+ cage + 1 × RJ45 | 10G each (shared) | USXGMII_0 10G → external 10G PHY | Small selector switch chooses SFP+ vs RJ45; selection by GPIO54, resets on GPIO81/82. |
| 10G WAN combo (SFP+ WAN / ETH7) | 1 × SFP+ cage + 1 × RJ45 (PoE PD) | 10G each (shared) | USXGMII_1 10G → external 10G PHY | Selector switch chooses SFP+ vs RJ45; selection by GPIO63, shared reset on GPIO82. |
| ETH5 | 1 × RJ45 | 1G | Integrated 1G PHY P0 | Direct from MT7988A internal switch and PHY block. bpi-r4pro-blockdiagram.jpg |
| ETH8 | FPC connector | 1G | Integrated 1G PHY (P1–P3) | Routed from MT7988A internal switch to FPC edge connector. |
| Internal 1G switch | Not externally exposed as jacks | Up to 4 × 1G | Inside MT7988A (P0–P3) | Handles basic L2 switching/VLAN between ETH5, ETH8 and any other internal 1G ports. |
| Wi‑Fi NIC slots | 2 × mPCIe slots | PCIe 3.0 x1 | PCIe controllers in MT7988A | Wi‑Fi cards act as separate PCIe devices; no Ethernet/SFP+ path sharing. |
It is already on presale.
Yes, I know, thank you.
Hi, the main problem about the BPI R4 is its BE14 Wifi NIC (6 antennas and many shielding/noise problems).
In your pictures, we can clearly see the new BE19 NIC with 14 antennas: did you test it? Is it going to be released to the public this year? Thank you!
HI. Not yet, but from what I’ve heard, it should officially be released in a few weeks.
Thank you so much! Will you make a new post when the BE19 will be out? Did you have the R4 Pro for testing or these are just info from the company?
Not yet, but I’ll probably test the R4 Pro and the Wi-Fi expansion board and review them once both are ready and available.
For now, it’s just general news info.
Great write up worth adding the battery is uses the ML1220 as you have correctly used instead of the CR1220 because the board features a tickle charge, but what’s more important to note, is that tickle is 3.3v to 3.4v, the ML1220s nominal is 3v, charged it’s around 3.35v, which is 0.35v higher than a CR1220. The BPI team lists the No 42 as CR1220 but it’s important to note thier POS is wrong. The other thing, you mention the battery keeps certain boot options, while this is true for a PCs, it’s untrue for the BPI, the only function… Read more »
Thank you for providing the information; it’s greatly appreciated.