Mwan3 with multiple SSIDs

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

I have previously posted my question about enabling mwan3 with 2 interfaces.
wlan0 which is connected to Wi-Fi (SSID1) and eth0.2 is bound to the physical blue WAN port (VLAN 2)
the WAN port is connected to another another router which acts as a Wi-Fi bridge (SSID2).
Assuming there are multiple SSIDs I can connect to, and I want to load balance between these SSIDs using mwan3, do I need a new router to act as a wireless bridge for each SSID in order to load balance between them all?
How can I simply use 1 router which can connect to these wireless networks and load balance between them? Because as I connect to one wireless network, the previous one gets disconnected for some reason.

2

Your radio cannot connect to multiple channels at the same time. So you are limited to one channel. And most radios have limitation of 1 station mode (a.k.a client).
So if you wanted to connect to multiple wwans then you'll need to have multiple radios.

3

Thank you.
Are there routers with more than 1 radio? Is there a table which describes how many radios are there for each router?

4

Any 2,4/5GHz router has 2 radios.
Otherwise you can look for boards with expansion slots.
Check here the list with dual band.
Or you can connect other bridges/routers by cable.

5

What about 3x3 \ 4x4 \ MIMOs? Can I infer with this information anything about the number of radios the router has?
Also, if my router has a usb port, can I use it to connect a USB wifi dongle to it and use it as another radio?

6

I don't think it is connected. I have a 2x2 Mimo Ubiquity UAP-AC-Lite which cannot use different channels for each SSID.
If there is a USB port and you can make a USB dongle work I don't see why not.

7

@Joey, I have a very similar arrangement to you:

  • MiWiFi Mini (OpenWrt 19.07.2, r10947-65030d81f3) with mwan3 sharing connections on wlan1 (SSID1, built in 2.4ghz radio) and eth0.2.
  • tl-wr703n (OpenWrt 18.06-SNAPSHOT, r7812-aced9de9a4, from Cezary Jackiewicz (obsy), http://eko.one.pl) working as a bridge between SSID2 (on wlan0, the built-in radio) and the MiWiFi Mini (ethernet).

Works ok, but like you I would prefer to have the main router (MiWiFi Mini) connect to both SSIDs.

I tried adding a 2.4ghz USB radio (148f:3070 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Adapter) to the MiWiFi Mini, but couldn't get it working. Looked like a driver problem and I haven't had time to go back and investigate.

I expect that once the USB radio is working, everything else will be pretty straightforward.

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8

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