Hi all,
schematically spoken, I have the following situation where WiFi signals will not pass through the walls between rooms R1, R2 and R3.
| aisle |
+-- --+-- --+-- --+
| R1 | R2 | R3 |
+------+------+------+
Since R1, R2 and R3 have LAN sockets while the aisle has neither power nor LAN nor the tiniest bit of WAF, my idea is to have (weak) access points in each of the rooms with a seamless operation when a client changes its position. The LAN has a star topology.
In this regard, my requirements differ from what many mesh solutions provide: I don't need any ad-hoc or dynamic configuration. Also, I don't need a wireless backhaul channel because it simply won't work. At the same time, all LAN cables end in a box where no WiFi makes sense, so the main router will be separate and not a "master" WiFi AP. And, guest WiFi is required as well as isolation of some devices in the rooms from the rest of the network, so VLANs will have to be set up and the main router must sort it all out.
From what I have read, it may be possible that BATMAN can solve this, because it should be able to interconnnect the access points via LAN without a master, is that correct? If yes, can I tell it to not even try to connect the other APs wirelessly?
What I don't understand so far is whether 802.11s support is required or not. As far as I see it I don't need it but maybe the software isn't designed to support the desired functionality without 802.11s capabilities? So is there a dependency or not in this particular case?
Does my solution approach make sense, should I be looking at something different, are there any references to descriptions of such an approach (I'm not sure I'm searching for the right keywords)?