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Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

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Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

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Mellx1

2020-11-10 07:03:05 - last edited 2020-11-10 13:46:45

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Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

2020-11-10 07:03:05 - last edited 2020-11-10 13:46:45

Model: EAP225-Outdoor

Hardware Version: V1

Firmware Version: 1.20.0

Currently I have OC200(1.7.0 firmware, Controller Version:4.1.5) and EAP225 Outdoor root AP.

I'm planning to buy 2 additional EAP225 Outdoor, 1 is for our transient house I want it to be a root AP and the other 1 is for my client i want to set this as MESH.

Is that possible, 2 root AP and 1 ap for mesh network? I want my 1 root AP for our transient only and the other 2 EAP(1 root AP and 1 for mesh) are for business.

EDIT: I added some sketch

And if this is possible, I also thinking to add more root AP.

Like this,

And from this setup, I will add more mesh from those root AP.

The only doubt in my mind is that mesh will no longer work because of 2 or more root AP??

1 Accepted Solution

JSchnee21

LV4

2020-11-10 12:53:14 - last edited 2020-11-10 13:46:45

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Re:Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?-Solution

2020-11-10 12:53:14 - last edited 2020-11-10 13:46:45

Hi @Mellx1,

Welcome. Great question and nice sketches.

Yes! You can have any number of Ethernet connected "root nodes" and wirelessly MESH'ed AP's will dynamically uplink to the best one AS LONG AS the Omada SW (or OC-200) stays up and running. Omada/OC-200 has to be Ethernet connected to the same network as the root nodes (plural).

Sorry -- just to be clear, all root nodes must have an "Ethernet" uplink back to the main network / OC-200. 100% twisted pair is best, but it is possible to use various extenders and bridges to variable effect (aka MOCA, PowerLine, point to point dedicated wireless (aka CPE's). I'm not sure what you mean by "transient house" (like a modular?) but there will need to be a "Ethernet" connection between your home and transient house.

This is actually very similar to my case. I have:

1) OC-200

2) 2x EAP245V3 (used to be 225V3) which are Ethernet connected (although one uses MOCA)

3) 2x EAP225-OD connected via MESH

Normally, when both indoor EAP's are up and running the OD units are MESH'ed to one or the other Ethernet connected root node. If one root node goes down, they failover to the other one. Additionally, in my case, sometimes the MOCA connection for one of my indoor units flakes out. At which point it actually connects via MESH to the one remaining root node.

Note that it can take a few minutes for the MESH connected AP to detect that it has lost it's uplink, perform a network scan, and re-associate with the remaining root node during which time there will be loss of communication.

-Jonathan

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Mellx1

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2020-11-10 14:23:20

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Re:Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

2020-11-10 14:23:20

@JSchnee21 Thanks so much, that answers all!

nice sketches. Thanks to mspaint, lol!

transient house Lodging house or room, that's our main business here in the PH, sadly due to this covid19 business are closed. While transient are close I decided to make a WiFi Business and planning to get 7-10 pcs eap225OD this month and deploy it.

JSchnee21

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2020-11-11 18:34:50

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Re:Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

2020-11-11 18:34:50

Hi @Mellx1,

Cool, that's a large area (7-10 outdoor EAP's). Are you in the USA? Would this be a "drive in" or camping? Just curious. I've seen a number of Summer camps, camp grounds, etc, beefing up their Wifi so folks can escape the cities and work remotely.

Do you have fast enough broadband?

Some general things to keep in mind:

1) The EAP245V3's (when possible) work a little better for master nodes than the 225V3 or OD as the 245 is 3x3. I'm hopeful the new 660HD (which is 4x4) will support MESH once it's launched.

2) For every "hop" you loose roughly 50% of the Wifi throughput capacity. So ideally, one would deploy master nodes and satellite nodes in a "Star" or snowflake type layout. E.g. ethernet connected master node in the center of an area, with at most one layer deep of wirelessly connected AP's around the outer ring.

3) Some folks limit Wifi STA's to use only 2.4GHz links, and save the 5.8GHz for backhaul.

4) The deepest you can MESH is 3 hopes I think (from Master to STA)

Master Node => AP => AP => STA but I would not recommend this. Client throughput will be very poor.

800 => 400 => 200 => 100 best case.

In my application:

Master Node => AP => STA I get ~120-170 Mbit/sec on the STA when using the 245 as the master node.

Which isn't bad given this rule of thumb (800 => 400 => 200)

The STA is on the 5.8GHz network with the backhaul, but there are very few wireless clients on the MESH'ed AP. In contrast with the 225 master node, it was more like 90-120 Mbit as my master node is pretty busy with ~20 to 30 other directly connected (wireless) STA's.

-Jonathan

Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

Possible to use MESH if I use 2 Root AP?

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