VLAN and hotspot setup

I’ve read most of the posts and docs on the topic of VLAN setup but I need to ensure my configuration will work or what gotcha’s I need to look into.

here is a typical deployment scenario:

cable modem → mikrotik → tower site via pt - pt bridge → 3 sector AP’s connected to a switch.

i want to replace the switch with a managed switch and to reduce broadcast traffic and client communication between AP’s.

The Mikrotik runs hotspot with 1 ethernet port (ether2) connected to the bridge to the tower.

The intent is to setup port based VLAN’s to isolate AP’s from each other.

Questions:

  1. if i have the following:

VLAN 1 = port 4 = AP1
VLAN 2 = port 8 = AP2
VLAN 3 = port 12 = AP3

I assume i need to setup the exact VLAN’s on the Mikrotik? Do I need to then bridge them together? Otherwise would I need to run hotspot on each VLAN?

  1. Currently the IP’s come from the DHCP server that runs on the hotspot server. Can I get the hotspot clients to obtain an IP address from one (1) DHCP server configured in the hotspot?

  2. If I can’t bridge VLAN’s, what IP’s will the client’s get when each AP is seperated with VLAN’s? If I understand things correctly, you must assign IP’s for each VLAN. Unless you can bridge them together, each VLAN interface would have seperate IP subnets.

I’m sure I will have more questions as time goes on. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I’m setting up a similar system right now. Use one physical interface to create the VLANs and just set them to different subnets,

e.g.
/interface vlan add interface=etherX name=VLAN10 vlan-id=10
/ip address add address=10.0.10.1/24 interface=VLAN10
/ip dhcp-server setup
…repeat for each VLAN you want


then add hotspot to each VLAN interface. It should work.