Im looking to implement some hardware to do small scale meshing networks - usually no more than 8-10 nodes. At present Robin Mesh is working fine, but slow so I would like to switch to a 2 radio network, one radio for Mesh and one for clients.
Ive seen a few posts regarding using WDS, MME and HWMP+ and wondered which solutions works best?
Do any support roaming better than others , and does each unit need to run its own HotSpot server or can this be handled edge of network via another MT device?
I’ve tried single-radio HWMP+ → Mesh menu on Winbox; I had 2 boxes (802.11n @ 5GHz), one on ap-bridge & one on WDS-slave, with a Mesh interface for each one on each box. Works OK, not very impressed with the throughput of course, but then, it’s single-radio. As for roaming, it works seamlessly (tested it in a 2-story house with continuous pings), but the downside is that you can’t choose the AP the client will connect to; sometimes it counter-intuitively selects one with a lower signal.
Your next step would be what I’m trying to do now, multi-radio mesh, with one interface working as an AP for clients, and one or more for the backhaul connection to the other APs. (My fruitless as of yet efforts are recorded here.)
As for Hotspot, you just set up one MT box in your mesh network as the hotspot server, and it takes care of the rest. Be advised, though - and I’m telling this from hard experience - that you need to add the IP addresses of the boxes you want to play with to the hotspot server’s walled garden list, or else you won’t be able to access them yourself, unless you log on to the hotspot as well!
Ive set up a couple of 2 radio units in the office, but got distracted today so didnt get to try them out. I’ll have a read through your thread and let you kow if i manage to get it working ok.