I currently have a Batman-ADV mesh with the main router + 3 APs. All 4 devices have 2 radios: 1 for 2.4GHz, 1 for 5GHz. The mesh is set up on both radios on all devices with bonding enabled. This setup gives me an acceptable experience most of the time. Speeds are not fantastic but latency is decent and I can move around the house with no issues.
That said, I'm looking to improve this setup by adding a device next to each AP to serve as mesh backhaul only. The idea is that this device will have a 5GHz radio that will connect to the mesh, and then connect it to the AP via an ethernet patch cable. The AP would then be relinquished of its meshing abilities, and staying free to serve WiFi clients only.
Is there a device that's cheap enough to make this setup worth it?
The closest I found to what I want is to replace the APs with a device with more than one 5GHz radio, such as ipq4019 based ones, but that would cost more than I'd like.
Thanks! That seems to be a list of triple-radio devices though. What I'm looking for is single-5GHz-radio. I already have dual-radio APs, and just wanted something cheaper to serve as a wireless backhaul to the mesh.
Oh I see what you mean. Thanks, I've been considering it. Unfortunately due to cost, I can either find what I'm actually looking for, or keep what I currently have.
Here you are mistaken. The router market is surprisingly regional, both in terms of availability (there are many devices that are only sold in specific markets), commonality (it may be a very common device in the US, from a big vendor, it's technically available on the European market, but pretty rare there) and pricing. The best options vary wildly between North America and Europe, e.g. the T-56 is Europe-only (Dutch ISP branded, but shipping throughout Europe), in the US you'd have quite a few refurbished offers for ipq807x/ ipq60xx/ ipq50xx devices that can be very cheap, Walmart carried the rt3200 for a long time very cheaply (while European prices were no longer competitive and availability dwindling), the Chinese domestic market is completely different, things like the AVM Fritz!Box range is mostly sold in Germany and the surrounding European countries plus Australia/ New Zealand (but as they don't undergo FCC certification, they're completely absent of the North American markets).
tl;dr: for device recommendations your rough location (country) is indeed a major factor.
Just bear in mind that you’ll probably want to run the APs on separate channels once you get your backhaul and this may lead to congestion. I had the same dilemma when running a WDS bridge on 160 MHz. When I added another AP, the connection dropped to 80 MHz due to other neighborhood APs. So, it's a bit of a trade-off.
The problem with that is, in most, if not all, regions, and very much so in the UK/EU regions, it is very hard to get two separate channels for mesh and ap on 5GHz band. It is not feasible to use DFS channels for a mesh as remote nodes generate false "radar" detection, causing the backhaul to go down.
Counter intuitively, running the backhaul on 2.4GHz is very often far better.
It gives better penetration of walls etc and is less effected by multipath fluctuations.
With your Zyxel NWA50AX Pro devices you could run the backhaul on channel 13 HE40 and get 600Mb/s link rates.
Put your APs on 5GHz.
It all depends on what you are trying to achieve with regards to throughput/traffic-types.....
Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts. I have a decent offering of channels available as I live in a suburb, on a corner and have only one neighbour that's close enough to cause any meaningful interference.
