Hardware recommendations for mesh network (802.11s)

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi,

I would like to replace a Google Home mesh network with an open source OpenWrt alternative.

I am having difficulty finding information on which devices support Mesh (802.11s). The table here doesn't list mesh support information: https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128

This article 802.11s based wireless mesh network describes a commands to run to see if the hardware supports mesh:

iw list | grep "Supported interface modes" -A 9

however I can't run this command if I don't have the hardware. It also states:

Support for 802.11s (type mesh) depends on wireless driver

Again, not too helpful without the hardware.

Are there any guides or resources where I can find device device support for 802.11s to make a purchasing decision? Ideally, for the mesh nodes I would like small devices similar to the Google Home wifi pucks.

I also started reading several devices I could purchase easily online however the individual device pages I looked at did not mention any mesh support either.

2

Hi,
I can confirm that Xiaomi Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition supports 802.11s

root@mir4a:~# iw list | grep "Supported interface modes" -A 9
	Supported interface modes:
		 * IBSS
		 * managed
		 * AP
		 * AP/VLAN
		 * monitor
		 * mesh point
		 * P2P-client
		 * P2P-GO
	Band 2:
--
	Supported interface modes:
		 * IBSS
		 * managed
		 * AP
		 * AP/VLAN
		 * monitor
		 * mesh point
		 * P2P-client
		 * P2P-GO
	Band 1:

ulpian

3

Thank you!

4

The venarable TP-Link Archer C7 (I've used v2 and v5) plus Linksys EA8300/BR8300 are all 'mesh capable'.

1 Like
5

Thanks I will look at these.