3 routers in a row - Repeater / WDS / Mesh with IPv6

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi,
I have 3 TP-Link TL-WR1043ND currently chained with this repeater configuration:

         xxxxxxxxxxxx
       xx            xx
    xx               xx
   xxx                  xx           ┌──────────┐             ┌──────────┐             ┌──────────┐
  xx                    xx   Wire    │          │  wifi relay │          │  wifi relay │          │
  x   Internet         xx────────────┤ Router 1 ├─────────────┤ Router 2 ├─────────────┤ Router 3 │
xxx                 xxxx          WAN│  SSID1   │             │  SSID2   │             │  SSID3   │
x                   xx               └──────────┘             └──────────┘             └──────────┘
xxx                  xx
   xx                xx
   x      xxxx      x
    xxxxx      xxxxx

This works great for IPv4, but now I'd like to enable IPv6, and unfortunately relayd doesn't have support for it.

Is there any dual stack supported configuration for such a topology?

Thanks in advance.

2

Use a mesh. Bridge the mesh interfaces with the AP interfaces. This will be more reliable than WDS which has always had quirks.

3

Sure... But this one is a blocker regarding my topology.

4

If OpenWrt is installed to all three wireless routers, WDS/ 4addr (which does support IPv6) should just work.

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5

This page describes a configuration for one access point and several remote wireless stations. Does it support chaining 3 routers in a row?

6

Yes.

--
repeater effect applies, same as with relayd or mesh (at least if the 3rd router can't see the 1st one and must pass its data through the 2nd) though,

7

Well, I want to believe in that. But it doesn't describe the configuration for the router in the middle (router 2). Nor anything related to IPv6.

8

The page says:

  • access point wireless interface mode = Access Point (WDS)
  • remote wireless station wireless interface mode = Client (WDS)

These settings are mutually exclusive, and the second router in my topology can't have both as I understand it.

9

There might indeed be an issue with the valid interface combinations on the second router, well - that probably needs testing.

In general, the WDS/ 4addr setup is transparent to IPv6, it 'just works' (even if the routers don't necessarily have an IPv6 address of their own (a lan6 interface with @lan and dhcpv6 can add that), the IPv6 traffic passes through unhindered).

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10

I'll give it a try. Thanks.

11

The router in the middle would run both a client to receive from the first router and an AP to transmit to the third router. This is supported by most wifi chips and drivers although on 5 GHz usually it has to be a non-DFS channel.

If you use the same SSID for all the links also set BSSID on each STA to enforce it connecting to the proper AP, so the network doesn't end up in a loop that doesn't reach the first router and the Internet. (The wifi driver is smart enough not to connect to its own AP, so if there is only one relay router you don't have to worry about this yet.)

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12

I've now migrated my routers from relayd to WDS and it worked out of the box for IPv4. For IPv6 I had to manually add this configuration snippet to routers 2 and 3:

/etc/config/network:

config interface 'lan6'
        option ifname '@lan'
        option proto 'dhcpv6'

Thanks for your help.

13

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