Hybrid Mesh and Cable connection (backhaul)

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,

Currenty I have the following network without any kind of mesh or similar:

current_net
current_net600×508 31.3 KB

I want to add another AP to the network, but this AP has no possiblity to use the cable so I wanted to create a mesh. This is mainly because I wanted to use VLANs with batman-adv, and also to have it ready if I want to add more non lan nodes. Also to have four nodes as possibility links for the non lan AP will increase the coverage and maybe the bandwith.
The problem is that as soon I connect the Mesh, the network becomes very unstable. I suppose that the main problem is that the mesh creates loops in the network so I am not sure how to create at the same time the mesh keeping the local link.

It's possible to do it?. I have not tested Batman yet, so maybe it will help.

Best regards.

EDIT: I forgot to say that the ISP router doesn't allow too much management, and the other AP are all using OpenWRT.
The OpenWRT versions are 23.05.05 for the internal AP, and the latest snapshot for the other three.

2

Given that your unmanaged switch doesn't support VLANs anyways, I'd keep it simple and use WDS/ 4addr (ignoring the ISP Router as potential WLAN backhaul).

3

in short yes is possible using batman-adv.

4

Thanks to both. I'll give a try to the WSD to see if I can solve the problem and if not then I will go to Batman-adv, which is a bit more complex :smile: