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slaystin
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Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:50 pm

Wireless Mesh with RBGrooveA-52HPn

Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:12 pm

I am posting this in the wireless forum because it involves a wireless mesh. Let me know if it should be in forwarding protocols.

I needed to provide L2 connectivity between building automation controllers in a building that is under construction. Because the permanent network is not ready, I built a temporary wireless mesh network to allow building automation controllers to communicate. These controllers can reasonably operate on a 10 MB network so bandwidth is not a major concern. A wireless laptop also connect to the mesh network. Another goal is to allow the network to remain operational if a router or two is powered down (site is under construction).

The building is 9 stories above ground and two below grade. Here is a diagram of the installation.
MeshNet-R01-50.png
I purchased 12 RBGrooveA-52HPn routers (one spare). Each was originally configured in ap-bridge mode with WDS Static Mesh using 802.11/2GHz-only-N and 20/40MHz Ce channel width.

An RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN (R252 in attached diagram) provides Internet connectivity and acts as a VPN server providing remote access. It has no Mesh configuration. Connected via Ethernet through R111.

All routers, controllers and PCs are in the same subnet.

At startup the signal and throughput are sufficient. Over time we experience issues where some devices were pingable from one location and not the other. This is when I noticed that path costs were not being calculated. I attempted setting the path-costs manually but still experienced the problem. Finally, I converted to a dynamic mesh but still see some issues reaching every device from every device.

The network operates fine for a few hours or days.

One example is R252 is able to ping R101 but nothing past R110. Router 111 can ping all other routers. A reboot of R101 & R110 seems to fix the problem for a while.

I have read through the tutorials and forums but I still not clear on the following:
1) Should I configure R252 Ethernet port part of the mesh
2) Should I configure R101 as a mesh-portal
3) Should I configure R108 as a mesh-portal
(I have tried each of the above but still experienced instability)
4) Are there other settings that will keep these connected (Reoptimize Paths?, timers?)

Can anybody provide some guidance on improving the stability of the network?

Was my move from static-mesh to dynamic-mesh a unwise? Should I revert to static-mesh?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Here's one of the configuration files from one of the Grooves (typical) devices
/interface mesh
add name=BuildingMesh
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] supplicant-identity=MikroTik
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" management-protection=\
    allowed mode=dynamic-keys name=Building-Mesh-WPA2 supplicant-identity="" \
    wpa2-pre-shared-key=LTN.Building
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-onlyn channel-width=20/40mhz-Ce \
    default-authentication=no disabled=no frequency=2412 mode=ap-bridge \
    radio-name=R101 security-profile=Building-Mesh-WPA2 ssid=BuildingMesh \
    wds-default-bridge=BuildingMesh wds-mode=dynamic-mesh wireless-protocol=\
    802.11
/interface mesh port
add interface=ether1 mesh=BuildingMesh
add interface=wlan1 mesh=BuildingMesh
/interface wireless access-list
add vlan-mode=no-tag
/interface wireless connect-list
# poor signal between this router and the following router. prohibit connection.
add connect=no interface=wlan1 mac-address=6C:3B:6B:55:DE:29 \
    security-profile=default
add interface=wlan1 security-profile=Building-Mesh-WPA2 signal-range=-90..90 \
    ssid=BuildingMesh wireless-protocol=802.11
/ip address
add address=10.228.10.101/22 interface=BuildingMesh network=10.228.8.0
/system identity
set name=R101
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