I would like to ask for some tips about WDS/Mesh/Dump AP

Hello there,

I'm reading some post, turorials and so one. But I didn't find best answer.

I have an issue on my flat, which has shape like L. One Asus is not enought, I got poor Wifi signal and I need connect there a printer via ethernet.

Topology:

ISP Modem -> Master_Asus RT-AC65P (DHCP & DNS Servers) -> Wireless 2,4 & 5 Ghz & Wired clients --- no Ethernet cable, but WiFi ---> Slave_Asus RT-AC65P -> Wireless 2,4 & 5 Ghz & Wired clients

I set already 802.11s, the mesh is on separate 5 Ghz SSID (used same channel).
Users has own 2,4 & 5 Ghz SSID's. Here for 5 Ghz I coudn't choose other channel than mesh.
And this increase air window time, bigger pings (8.8.8.8) and slow 5 Ghz WiFi network.
I got two SSID (2,4 and 5 Ghz) with two MAC's (BSSID) visible.

I just start wondering about batman, I saw a seprate project libremesh (two devices, one IP, one SSID).

I tried to set a Master as AP WDS and Slave as Client WDS. But here I can't figur out on which radio 2,4 or 5 WDS should be placed ?
When I set on 5, behind Slave I can't see 5 Ghz. This wasn't my target.

I understand that best option is using ethernet and Dump AP (Slave), but at this moment is impossible.
I also understand that any wifi link between Asus consume troughtput.

My target is to keept current topology and get the best performance behind Slave :slight_smile:

I forgot, both Asus are the same with OpenWrt 21.02
Any tips are welcome and many thank You for support.

2,4 GHz penetrates better so personally I'd use that, if you can set it wide enough (probably not if you're in an apartment and your neighbours got 2,4 GHz APs as well).

5 GHz should work well if you have line of sight between both devices. Both devices in the WDS should be on the same frequency and channel. Maybe powerline is an option between the wall outlets of both devices? If your electricity cabling is modern enough that should be pretty OK with modern powerline devices.

My neighbours are also using 2,4 Ghz. I configured 40 Mhz channel wide for 2,4 Ghz.

They can't visible directly due to wall. The distance is less than 10 meters.

Powerline, I didn't tought about that yet :slight_smile:

Ok, maybe I will ask in a diffrent way. How to improve speed behind Slave ?

Behind Master on 5 Ghz I have 300 Mb/s at speed test (okla) and 180 Mb/s at 2,4 Ghz.
Behind Slave on 5Ghz I have 40-50 Mbs at okla, and still 180 Mb/x at 2,4 Ghz.

WDS effectively halves your bandwidth, it's normal for your WDS master to obtain 'full speeds' if you aren't using the WDS. Note your 2,4 GHz throughput does not differ between master and slave - that's because both 2,4 GHz radios can fully serve clients and do not need to handle the WDS as well.

Another option would be to get tri-band devices, there are a few that OpenWrt supports. They come with two 5 GHz radios limited each to one half of the available 802.11ac spectrum (upper/lower).

What I did in our home is make the 2,4 GHz radios the WDS backhaul and hide that connection. Clients can/will only connect to the 5 GHz radios. You could do the same for your 5 GHz and only use 2,4 GHz for your clients. It's a compromise if you 'only' have dual band devices (which is the case here).

With only two stationary devices, mesh (802.11s, batman, etc.) doesn't provide any benefit relative to WFS/ 4addr (on the contrary, throughput will be better with WDS/ 4addr, less overhead). Obviously wired APs would be best - and tri-band devices better than dual-band ones (but those are typically 2.4GHz + low 5 GHz + high 5 GHz (>=ch100), not with two 2.4 GHz radios, so 5 GHz reception would need to be viable).

Ok, understood.

How apply this WDS ? On 2,4 Ghz / 5Ghz ?
I would like to have behind Slave both frequency with best performance.

Those Asus has low and high CH on 5Ghz.