Mentioning mesh and multiple radio might seem redundant, but I've seen quite a few models marketed as "mesh" systems but with only a single 5 GHz radio.
Sorry about the tangent right off the bat but, as per the title, I'm looking for mesh-capable outdoor APs, preferably W-Fi 6/ax or better. Their use case is for a sort of amateur live video streaming of race tracks. Besides the Wi-Fi uplink, multiple mesh APs and cameras need to be on track and upload the video feed via the mesh APs I'm asking recommendations for.
There's an existing setup with some Wavlink outdoor AP thing (also marketed as "mesh" despite having a single pair of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio). Any video traffic easily brings it down to its knees with every AP and client on the same frequency.
Also, I know of the methods of OpenWrt meshes, but which would be recommended for this use case?
Wiring things up is not an option? For live streaming you will need both high throughput and low latency. Both kind of the opposite of a mesh.
Additionally, depending of where you are, outdoor wireless is more restricted (see NO-OUTDOOR), limiting transmitting power, available channels and channel width. For example, plenty of countries forbid 6 GHz outdoors. So if you put indoor hotspots on full blast outdoors, you might get a visit from people in suits.
Man, I'd love to have it wired. Ideally, I'd have those long directional AP things to point to specific areas of the track and have a switch and cables snake out of it to various locations with camera. But alas, both the project (remember, it's pretty amateur) execution and wallet is out of my hands. Given the limitation I'm faced with, the best I can do is at least get a proper multi-radio AP. (I am trying to push for wired, but that'll probably only happen when camera equipment are upgraded to something more professional)
I'm not too worried low latency. It is live streaming, but delays to live feed isn't much of an issue. As for throughput, I'm hoping the second radio connecting to clients (about 2 to 4 per AP) would keep things under control without interfering with the uplink over the first radio.
In terms of regulatory issues, I found on the doc that there's a single 5 GHz with NO-OUTDOOR descriptor. Also, I've just joined this "production" project that has been ongoing for a couple years now. Given the length of time they've already done this with 5 GHz outdoor AP that is legally sold here, I think we're good. As for 6 GHz, I don't see any mention of it on the kernel doc along side the current locale. Shouldn't be a problem for now either, since the client devices are only Wi-Fi 6 thus far; 6 GHz radios can be disable for now.
I forgot to ask in the OP, but is there a way to filter the ToH by the number of radios? I couldn't find anything helpful, but perhaps I missed something. A filter for environment capability would also be nice (indoors, outdoors, etc), but I don't think wiki records that data, at least not in a standardized format.
5GHz is generally gives a very unreliable mesh.
In @Dante 's link you actually need to take into account:
NO-OUTDOOR
DFS
AUTO-BW
SHORT RANGE
All of these preclude reliable use with a mesh.
Be aware that being legally sold does not mean it is legal to use it outside regional regulations.
It's your dice, you roll it. If you roll it enough, you will eventually come up with a regulatory hit.
Sure, for ages, no one will notice. Then someone gets interference and the process begins, usually with a cease and desist notice.
Could be cops with a speed radar you interfere with, or even worse, someone's licenced navigation radar....
Your best bet to get anything near suitable performance using unlicensed spectrum is to use routers with ax, 4 stream Tx/Rx radios on 2.4GHz/40MHz(HE40)
(eg MediaTek MT7986)
These will be legal outdoors just about anywhere and can give in excess of 1Gb/s backhaul...
Is this enough for your video streaming use case? Maybe if you keep the resolution down... who knows.
Besides the obvious NO-OUTDOOR thing, what exactly do the others mean? And since these are recorded in the kernel, wouldn't setting the locale automatically avoid/block usage of those frequencies?
I've not hellbent against 2.4 GHz. The thing is, with the current setup (with Wavlink APs as repeaters) there are are 4-10 5 GHz nodes on the entire network, trying to transmit over the same channel. Having any amount of appreciable data throughput tanks the stream. If I hypothetically switch to a 2.4 GHz mesh, even if there's no channel overlap/interference with the devices on the track, my worry is that the internet uplink where our computer receives the feed from cameras, the AP will be similarly choked with other 2.4 GHz network around us. And we are back at step one where too much radio interference tanks the stream.
My primary concern is too many devices being on the same channel, competing for airtime. I'm not worried about the bandwidth at all, since even measly 3 Mb/s is enough for H.264 encoded 1080p stream and all our cameras are doing 720p which should be roughly a quarter of 3 Mb/s.
5 GHz mesh is just to make sure airtime is no longer the bottleneck. If 2.4 GHz can solve this issue, by all means, I'm more than happy to learn how.
By definition, all nodes on a mesh MUST be on the same channel.
NO-OUTDOOR - self explanatory
DFS - dynamic frequency selection aka radar detection - the radio can go offline for some time if it thinks radar is detected and may come back up on an entirely different channel if one is available.
AUTO-BW - the bandwidth can change, for example if there is an overlap of a DFS channel
SHORT RANGE - ie a few metres - aka very low power
It is free use unlicensed spectrum - ie you get what you pay for.
4 stream (or more) radios do beamforming. So making sure your ax meshnodes are not in a straight line can give exceptional performance.
But you are presented with the problem of building something like a gl-mt6000 into a weatherproof radome....
What do you mean? Isn't the entire point of multiple radio AP to have one to act in client mode and connect to the backhaul and second radio in AP mode so clients can connect to it? Regardless of both radio being 5 GHz or 2.4, this setup allows the AP to operate in multiple frequencies. I recall a few Linksys devices with this kind of multiple radio and Ubiquit mesh devices doing backhaul and providing connection without much bandwidth loss.
I mean exactly what I say. ALL meshnodes MUST be operating a mesh interface on the same channel.
A mesh interface is a special and unique type, neither AP nor STA.
Typical triple radio HomeMesh devices are not true mesh devices at all.
The three radios will be, depending on vendor, some combination of:
2.4GHz multi purpose node to node and client to node
Primary multi purpose node to node and client to node
Secondary 5GHz low performance radio for management use
Right, now it's coming back to me... Well, in that case, I'd rather not use a true mesh system, but manually configure backhaul node to node and separate node to client SSIDs...
... if the secondary radio is performant enough...
So three radios, two with highly directional antennas forming a daisy chain of point to point links all on different channels... but you won't have enough clear channels for it:
I'd take anything that'll reduce congestion on a given channel. If for example, 5 GHz point to point links work out, 2.4 GHz connection to the clients should work out since devices on the track would less likely bothered by signals from external devices.
Anyhow, hypotheticals aside, if you've any device recommendations, please shoot. Whether 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz or whatever kind of thing you think is good.
This is a diagram showing a previous device placement (before I got involved) of the largest track that needs to be covered.
The yellows are crappy security cams, only accessed when incidents occur on the track. The purples are the live stream cameras with a constant 720p video stream to another device on the network (not shown) which handles live streaming to YouTube.
The white building besides yellow 10 label is where the AP that feeds to the streaming setup will be located. Every other extenders simply repeat the connection from that AP.
802.11ad is 60Ghz WiFi, it's relatively inexpensive and could be used for backhaul of your various WiFi points.
This way you are moving the backhaul for your WiFi streams out of the normal 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz and 6Ghz radio frequencies, so these could sit where your Live Stream Cams are.
Huh. I think I may have read about the standard, but never knew of a specific product. Now I know, thanks.
But what's with the website? The Specifications section does not elaborate on what radio it has. Presumably it only has a single 60 GHz radio, and I'd need an Ethernet to a more conventional AP for 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi? Is it directional?