I currently use OpenWRT 24.10.2 on 8 different devices each with 3 radios.
On 7 of my devices, one of the radios is configured as a ‘backhaul’ using ‘WDS (client)’ mode connected wirelessly (on 5GHz Ch36) back to the 8th device which is a Netgear Orbi (running OpenWRT 24.10.2) which is configured as ‘Access Point (WDS)’ mode - it currently acts as my LAN router & DHCP server.
The Netgear Orbi (my LAN router) is wired to a Zyxel 5G/LTE device configured in ‘Bridge Mode’ for internet access (so the Netgear Orbi has its IPv4 Gateway as the WAN address of the Zyxel 5G/LTE device).
So now my question:
I've just bought a Cudy P5 5G AX3000 router. I’d like to replace my existing Zyxel 5G/LTE device in ‘Bridge Mode’ with the Cudy P5, BUT I don't really want to cripple the Cudy P5 by disabling everything & just using it in ‘Bridge Mode’ (or equivalent).
The Cudy P5 doesn't support ‘Access Point (WDS)’ mode, so can I simply make the Cudy P5 my router & DHCP as normal and then wire my existing Netgear Orbi (currently my LAN router) to the Cudy P5, leave the Orbi configured as ‘Access Point (WDS)’ mode so the outlying Access Points can connect to it wirelessly, then configure the Netgear Orbi so the LAN Interface IPv4 Gateway is set to the LAN IP of the Cudy P5 (instead of the WAN address from the defunct Zyxel 5G/LTE)?
Would I have to disable any services on the Netgear Orbi so it doesn't do any routing? eg. dnsmasq, odhcpd? Or would disabling them prevent the traffic flowing from the outlying Access Points?
I'm not sure if I explained the above very well.
I presume you can't have two routers in a single LAN (unless they use different IP subnets perhaps?)
Any guidance on how to integrate my new Cudy P5 5G into my existing OpenWRT ‘WDS’ wireless setup, would be appreciated.