Hello Sir/Madam,

 

I need your expertise to configure properly and efficiently, an ER-7206 Router (no WiFi) with:

 

three (3) TPLINK A7 WiFi routers, and one (1) Cisco Layer 3 switch (w/ 20 ports).

 

My problem is illustrated in the following diagram, showing 2 possible configurations:

 

 

At this moment, the ER-7206 DOES NOT EXIST -- the live environment is the one shown in CONFIG-1, but

with a TPLINK C4000 WiFi Router instead of the ER-7206.  The C4000 has WiFi disabled. 

 

This configuration (Config-1 but with C4000, WiFi disabled) has been working very well for over a year.

 

The 3 TPLINK A7's are in 3 separate houses but no so far that the Ethernet 100m limit is exceeded/

 

The plan is to replace the TPLINK C4000 (in Config-1) with the TPLINK ER-7206.

 

Question-1 -- Bearing in mind that the ER-7206 has no WiFi and using it to replace the current C4000 with

WiFi turned OFF, is Config-1 a "sound" (i.e., will it work) configuration?  Any comments/advice are appreciated.

 

Question-2 -- I have received a recommendation that is shown in Config-2.  As can be seen, it recommends

moving the 3 A7's to be "under" the Cisco L3 switch, instead of directly attached to the ER-7206 LAN ports.

 

With that said, will this alternative work?  Is it "better" than Config-1?  I am somewhat doubtful about its efficiency

as the wireless clients in the A7's will require one extra hop to "get to the internet". 

Any comments/advice are appreciated.

 

Thanking you in advance.

R.Tan