Xiaomi Router 4c, 4 antennas, 2 radios, sta mode?

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi all, I recently got a Xiaomi Router 4c with 19.07.04 OpenWrt, 4 antennas, 2 radios as far as it seems.
I want to run the router in sta mode, connecting to an existing wifi and creating another one for users to join.

My question is should I reserve on radio for the ap mode and one for sta mode? Actual wireless config:

cat /etc/config/wireless 

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option channel '11'
	option hwmode '11g'
	option path 'platform/10300000.wmac'
	option htmode 'HT20'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
	option device 'radio0'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'OpenWrt'
	option encryption 'none'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option channel '36'
	option hwmode '11a'
	option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
	# option htmode 'VHT80'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option disabled '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
	option device 'radio1'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'OpenWrt'
	option encryption 'none'
	option disabled '1'

and what about mode option htmode 'VHT80' vs option htmode 'VHT80'?
Thanks in advance for any feedback

2

You can use one radio to connect as wireless client and the other as access point.
Or you can use an SSID for client and an SSID from same radio as access point, but it will be using the same channel.

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3

Simultaneous AP and STA on one radio is possible with two restrictions:

  • If the STA fails to connect to its AP, the AP on the same radio will go off the air. If this situation causes an operational problem, the travelmate package can detect it and temporarily disable the STA so the AP still works.
  • Most drivers including I think the one in this router, do not allow simultaneous AP and STA on the DFS channels in 5 GHz.
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4

Simultaneous AP and STA on one radio is what I have done since ever on other routers, worked always fine but with the restrictions you mentioned of course. Never had dual radio before so what I want to do this time is to optimize WiFi to use both radios. Thanks for the answer;)

5

What I noticed is that by a wifi scan radio0 devices sees much more wifi networks than while scanning on radio1, bit strange IMHO

6

Not so strange, not everybody has a 5GHz capable router.

Usually it is preferred to assign one radio for backhaul (5GHz) and the other (2,4GHz) for access point.

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7

Probably will do the inverse situation as far as I need to access internet from a remote access point behind walls and serve it to clients on the internal room, 2GHz better on this as low latency, correct me if I'm wrong

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