Dual radio wifi repeater (WDS)

Can anyone link me a guide to setting up a repeater using 2 wifi radios?

I've got WDS working on a single radio (DHCP disabled, static IP for router, WDS client/AP, all on same subnet) but I want extra bandwidth so have a USB adapter.

I want wlan1 to connect as a client to my main AP then have wlan0 be an AP itself. Does my repeater have to use a different subnet on it's AP side?

I have the AP set up on radio0 and radio1 is associated with my main WDS AP. I can't get DHCP on the radio0 AP and traffic isn't passing between the AP and client radios

First, you need to add the new radio to /etc/config/wireless
this can be done using wifi detect but wifi detect requires that /etc/config/wireless to be empty or unexistent
you may need recognize the device using VendorID and DeviceID using lsusb command from usbutils package to be able to choice proper kmod's for the chipset.

and follow the second part on this:

Skip until "Steps for Wireless each Link" and add new wireless interface using "Second WiFi interface" but keep in mind that where it says uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].device='radio0' emmiting ap you should put your radio1 in order to use your other wireless interface.

Note, if you will not need WDS for your [wifi clients] you should disable it, some devices like iPhones don't like some WDS and iface turns unstable for all others devices.

Thanks for the guide but I think that bonds 2 wifi interfaces?

I want this:

[Main router : WDS AP] <---> [Remote router: radio0 WDS client | radio 1 WDS AP] <----> [wifi clients]

The remote router is a client of the main router and also advertises a wifi AP for clients that are out of range of the main router.

Ahhh that it is even easier to do!, see again previous post: Dual radio wifi repeater (WDS) - #2 by braian87b

While YMMV, some have reported that adding a second (USB) adapter to their (mostly portable) routers does not actually improve performance. Not sure you will see this here, but check the openwrt forums.

I had a EDIMax 7811 in a HooToo for a while . I got it working, but it did not offer the boost that I had hopped for. Some have reported slower performance. There is no validated technical reason, though interference is suspected. You will find at least one post where using a USB extension cable to move the adapter away from the main device improved performance.

@braian87b thanks

I have it working using my usb AR9271 as the AP but it won't work if I switch around and use the AR9271 as the WDS client. Wifi clients won't receive DHCP responses so I assume it's related to this
https://bugs.lede-project.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=649

@RangerZ that's exactly what I've found, speed is 3-4MB instead of 10MB when using the single radio on my GL-AR150
I even tried moving the AP to a different channel in case of interference from other networks. Thanks for the suggestion I'll try a usb extension cable

Yes, that is probably because WDS is not working, I don't know how to check if WDS negociation is done or not, usually WDS works on same vendor chipsets but may be very different version could have troubles too.

Test bandwidth capability of the USB on a Computer first... may be it is just the CPU-USB max bandwidth and it is not related to interferences, you could try to use channel 1 and channel 11 (if you use 6 for example they are too close) on one and another to fully avoid possible interferences, if there are phisical interferences because of too much tx power you could try a usb extension but no longer than 3 feet to avoid cable intereferences data and power loss, and try putting a wood (door) or wall between antennas.

Test CPU usage too.

@ Magnets

WDS is finicky and generally requires that the hardware on both sides be the same. Not sure there as robust a wiki on LEDE as on OpenWrt. See this:https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/clientmode?s[]=wds

To get WDS working on the AR9271 I had to add 'nohwcrypt=1' as suggested here
https://bugs.lede-project.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=649

Speeds are disappointing but it does work, I think as you suggested the CPU isn't good enough to handle it. Using 2 AR9271 adapters as WDS client + AP I get less speed than using the main radio on the GL-MT300n + 1xAR9271