I've been asked to help deploy some upgraded wireless coverage to the local community hall. There is one existing network cable that runs the length of the main part of the hall so I can wire together 2 APs but I think it's also going to need some mesh-nodes to cover some of the other rooms. Unfortunately drilling holes in the walls and running more ethernet cable is not an option.
Is it possible to configure mesh11sd to deal with this? I still want only one wired device to consider itself the 'controller', the other wired decice would be a mesh node that can simply use it's wired interface for backhaul. Is that supported? Or is meshing and wired backhaul mutually exclusive?
Searching the forum it seems most people are guided not to try this because of network loops it creates. Is it just a case of enabling STP to stop the loops? Or is there some more advanced configuration that can be applied in mesh11sd or perhaps a more advanced package for this scenario?
You could use 80211s to build the mesh and then i.e. batman-adv to deal with the layer2 issues like loops.
Batman is "clever" enough to be aware of if a link is wireless or wired and what quality the link has... Feel free to ask further/for clarification...
STP has really long timers which mostly feels like networking glitches. The Batman adv loop avoidance algorithm is much faster. If a link is flapping all the time is however not good anyway. In stationary scenarios like yours it's best to place the mesh nodes and AP to have the best possible link quality but many people and other factors can degrad even a good link if you have bad luck
Yes, it does so by default as long as the kmod-nft-bridge package is installed.
No. STP works at the bridge device level, whereas 802.11s works at the mesh interface level. So STP will not prevent mesh loop storms caused by cabled backhaul segments.
You do need to think carefully about the physical layout including wall thickness and construction regardless of anything else.
Feel free to post a rough diagram and I am sure you will get some help.
Sketch it on the back of an envelope and photo it with your phone
Wall construction is the biggest issue with this building, the main part of the hall is ancient 50cm thick solid stone, then the rest is modern thin-wall construction. So nothing placed inside the hall will service anything outside the hall and vice-versa, the WAN connection is inside the hall. They also don't want anyone drilling through the stone walls, hence the mesh requirement.
My plan would be to place the wired nodes inside the hall strategically to allow the signal to pass through doorways to the mesh nodes on the other side. I'll draw up a quick plan when I have a minute.
I doubt they will go for that either, as the cables would be visible, but it's worth asking. The only cable run that's been allowed so far is the one from end to end of the hall and that goes through the roof-space.
Typically with this kind of building, the adjacent rooms are add-ons to an original building. From the roof space of the hall, you may well be able to go out of the roof eves/soffits to the add-on buildings. The best and simplest solution will always be fully cabled if it can be achieved.
