Archer C7 WDS Client: What is wrong with the configuration

[linuxuser]

Master is Netgear 7800 witth OpenWrt 18.06.1 r7258-5eb055306f

Client is an Archer C7 v5 with OpenWrt 18.06.1 r7258-5eb055306f

First I have setup the Client WDS with 5GHz, it worked fine, then I have setup the 2.4GHz-band, which worked fine then too. If both bands are active, 2.4Ghz is fine, but 5Ghz not. Mostly I do not get a connection with my mobile phone.

When I setup the bridge with join, I would like to know if wwan is the correct device with both bands or do I have to use a different name? Join suggests wwan with 2.4GHz although it was used already with 5Ghz.

Maybe I have a DHCP problem. DHCP-server is on a Fritzbox and it should be deactivated at the WDS-master and WDS-client.

This is the WDS-client configuration:

SSID: 4 in the name means 2.4Ghz, 5 means 5GHz, B is bridge, W is master WDS

root@archerc7v5:/etc/config# cat network 

config interface 'loopback'
	option ifname 'lo'
	option proto 'static'
	option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
	option netmask '255.0.0.0'

config globals 'globals'
	option ula_prefix 'xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::/48'

config interface 'lan'
	option type 'bridge'
	option ifname 'eth0.1'
	option proto 'static'
	option netmask '255.255.255.0'
	option ip6assign '60'
	option ipaddr '192.168.178.59'
	option gateway '192.168.178.50'
	option stp '1'

config interface 'wan'
	option ifname 'eth0.2'
	option proto 'none'

config interface 'wan6'
	option ifname 'eth0.2'
	option proto 'none'

config switch
	option name 'switch0'
	option reset '1'
	option enable_vlan '1'

config switch_vlan
	option device 'switch0'
	option vlan '1'
	option ports '2 3 4 5 0t'

config switch_vlan
	option device 'switch0'
	option vlan '2'
	option ports '1 0t'

config interface 'wwan'
	option proto 'none'

Wireless:

root@archerc7v5:/etc/config# cat wireless 

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option channel '36'
	option hwmode '11a'
	option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0'
	option htmode 'VHT80'
	option disabled '0'
	option txpower '20'
	option country 'US'
	option legacy_rates '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
	option device 'radio0'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'PaB5'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option key 'pw'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option channel '11'
	option hwmode '11g'
	option path 'platform/qca956x_wmac'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option disabled '0'
	option txpower '20'
	option country 'US'
	option legacy_rates '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
	option device 'radio1'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'PaB4'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option key 'pw'

config wifi-iface
	option ssid 'PaW5'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option device 'radio0'
	option mode 'sta'
	option bssid 'MAC:MASTER:5'
	option key 'pw'
	option wds '1'
	option network 'lan'

config wifi-iface
	option ssid 'PaW4'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'sta'
	option bssid 'MAC:MASTER:2.4'
	option key 'pw'
	option network 'lan'
	option wds '1'

[mk24]

Your intention seems to be to split the same network traffic between two interfaces to increase bandwidth. This is called bonding, and requires a bonding kernel driver. It isn't done simply by attaching more interfaces to a bridge.

Since the 5 GHz is already several times faster than 2.4, bonding doesn't make a lot of sense here. Use 5 for the backhaul path and dedicate 2.4 to users.

[linuxuser]

I am very sorry, I have no idea what to do.

root@archerc7v5:~# uname -a
Linux archerc7v5 4.9.120 #0 Thu Aug 16 07:51:15 2018 mips GNU/Linux

Note: The C7 has 7dB power only, because I am so close to the router with the phone. The R7800 uses 23dB.

So my kernel is not able to use bonding.

My intention was to use 2.4GHz and 5 Ghz like 2 separate routers.

The 5Ghz connection is very bad, sometimes more worse than 2.4GHz, but then again it could be better. I disabled 5Ghz and at the moment I get fantastic values with 2.4Ghz.

The screenshots are from my mobilephones, the wider is from a Zuk Z1 and the longer from a Xiaomi Max3.

In the case above, the phone is at the 1st floor in the room where the bridge client is, the mobile phone is connected to the master-ap (PaW4, Netgear 7800) 1 floor directly below.

In the room where the mobile phone is, there is the wds-client (bridge, Archer C7) PaB4, where a linux dvb-box (AX51) is connected via ethernet-cable to PaB4. 5GHz is off.

I copied a video-file from the phone to the dvb-box.

If the mobile phone is logged in at the wds-client PaB4 instead, I get:

So in this case the mobile phone was not connected to the master directly, but to the client-bridge.

Here is a speed test between the Zuk 1 as iper3-server and the dvb-box connected via cable to the bridge PaB4, both connected to the wds-client, mobile phones (iperf3 server) is in the same room as the wds-client. Master 1 floor below.

Server

Client:

So at the moment I am very happy with the speed, but days before I got soemtimes 3 Mbit/s (not Byte) with a similar situation. The speed changed a lot in the last weeks and I have no idea why.

So please let me know, what you suggest exactly and how to configure it. I know how to use vi.