3x MX4200 (2x v1, 1x v2) and 802.11s Mesh

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

This will be a long one, I habitually like to share as much information as I can when looking for help. I’ll also preface this post by acknowledging that I did briefly mention my setup, and the troubles associated with it, in the Qualcommax NSS Build topic. I think the reason being that my problems had initially been related to NSS. But alas, I’m creating my own topic to try and nail down how best to move forward with my setup.

Background; initially I had two MX4200v1 devices operating over WDS, I moved to a batman-adv mesh and then to an 802.11s mesh when I started using the NSS builds (not immediately though, as I didn’t realise batman wasn’t using the NSS capabilities straight away).

This is out of necessity as my point of entry for the internet is on one side of the property, and a number of connected devices is in a detached garage next to the house. Using the second 5Ghz radios on the MX4200, I have a very good connection between AP1 (WAN gateway) and AP2, allowing the devices in the garage (AP2 end) to use the full gigabit internet connection into the house.

The problem; I have need to add a third AP (AP3) to the network, and likewise to the connection of the existing AP’s, I don’t have the luxury of running cables from this new AP to either of the other two, so into the mesh it gets added!

This is where I hit problems though. AP1 and AP2 haven’t moved, AP3 gets a good connection to AP2 and a marginal connection to AP1. This has created a weird situation where sometimes the connection from a device on either AP1 or AP2 to AP3 will just seemingly drop, sometimes for only a second and other times for several minutes. It’s definitely noticeable, that’s for sure.

I’ve read a few things here and there on the forums, a few crumbs that are sort of related to my setup. I did find one post, I can’t recall what it was now, but @bluewavenet had said something about AP’s being too close together. The info they gave was a little unclear though, and it sort of seemed like the AP’s being close together was just outright discouraged, no matter how close they are (I likely misunderstood). I don’t have the capacity to move them further apart than where they currently are, and realistically their placement is best suited for the coverage I’m trying to get - making as much of my bandwidth usable as possible without having to run wires where I can’t.

I refuse to believe that mesh/HWMP truly has a mind of it’s own and is effectively untameable in any way. Right now I just have the ‘middle’ node (AP2) running two mesh networks, A and B, with AP1 and AP3 connected to one each. This removes the drop outs but it means anything connected to the third AP will always have to go through the second, reducing the throughput.

Some guidance, or input would be amazing because it’s driving me insane😅

/rant

2

If the mesh nodes (lets call them that instead of access points for clarity), are too close together with respect to signal strength when you have three or more of them, then the defaults for hwmp can lead to path changes that cause apparent dropouts that can take many seconds to stabilise.
Scenario: node1 can see both node 2 and 3, so path from 1 to 3 can be direct or via 2 depending on signal, reflections, background, your cat walking past, many seemingly random things.

The hwmp settings need to be different from the defaults, but cannot be set by uci or luci and some can be dynamic, So for three or more mesh nodes you need "something" to manage it autonomously. The mesh11sd package will do this but you MUST use version 6 or higher for it to be truly autonomous.
A lot of work has gone into this and version 6 will be the open source release. "Coming soon ®"
It is in its final testing phase and will be ported to OpenWrt package feeds on release.

DM me if you would like to be a beta tester :grin:

1 Like
3

@OkieDoke -

why did you abondon WDS for mesh? with WDS, you can direct the backbone connections?

that having been said, i’ve had troubel with WDS connections when more than one cleint is active, even though WDS supposedly supports up to 4 clients (?)

4

That’s fair, and I did spend some time going through the mesh11sd documentation but I’ll admit that I got a little overwhelmed by the setup and the options and parameters available.

Makes perfect sense. Someone elsewhere accused me of “craving control” of the mesh but the reality is that I feel like I need full control to properly path things. I am fine with a package having full autonomy though if it’s going to get the job done - or least attempt to.

For what it’s worth, I was impressed with what your package was seeing and doing when I tested it initially, and that’s part of the reason why I’m hoping I can find a solution that uses mesh11sd as opposed to relying on 802.11s fully on it’s own.

I’ll drop you a DM now :slightly_smiling_face:

5

Initially I only had two nodes, and the two were really just serving the purpose of wirelessly bridging the two groups of devices (AP1 and AP2), on an internet connection that barely got past 50mbps.

This was also with different devices, mainly two Belkin RT3200, that were only dual-band. It was a basic setup that didn’t need to be super quick as the upstream connection wasn’t very quick.

Eventually our internet connection was upgraded to gigabit, and suddenly the RT3200’s in WDS weren’t cutting it.

Research, and a bit of impulsivity, had me ditch them and grab a couple of MX4200’s. The sole reason was because they’re tri-band with two 5Ghz radios, intended for dedicated wireless backhaul.

I decided to move to mesh on the advice that it would be more future proof if/when I add more nodes, and make sure I don’t lose throughput needlessly. I was also under the impression that WDS just wouldn’t work with three or more nodes, but that may be incorrect so don’t take that as fact.