Mesh, VLAN, VirtualAP

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello,

I’m currently building a mesh network, using WDS, in my neighborhood using all Mikrotik equipment and I have a few questions.

I’m using the dynamic-mesh wds-mode for the wireless interfaces and HWMP+ for the layer-2 routing. The problem/question is how do I transport VLANs across the mesh? For example I’d like to have two virtual access points on each mesh node, one will be bridge with a VLAN to a PPPoE server, and the other will be for admin functions. So will I make a VLAN on the mesh interface and then bridge that with the VirtualAP? Should I just make a regular bridge with no STP or RSTP? How will this effect clients roaming from one virtual access point to the other? My main concern is how quick the handoff will be and how long it will take the layer-2 routing to restructor, repair, or whatever the correct terminology is.

2

Hi,
You need to create one bridge interface for each VLAN you want to use.
On top of the WDS you create one or more VLAN interfaces.
Then you put the VLAN interfaces with the same VLAN-ID into the same bridge.
ie:
ether1-vl2
ether1-vl10
wds1-vl2
wds1-vl10
wds2-vl2
wds2-vl10

br-vl2 = ether1-vl2, wds1-vl2, wds2-vl2
br-vl10 = ether1-vl10, wds1-vl10, wds2-vl10
Remember that the other end need to be aware of the extra VLAN tag (Cisco trunk).
If you want an interface to be untagged (non VLAN aware, Cisco access port), just put that interface into the bridge.

/Paul