I’m looking at deploying some more MikroTik APs and I’m hoping someone can shed some light on the subject for me.
I have a building I’d like to place an AP on and then place 4 - 6 more APs around 100 ft (~30 m) away from it. The APs would have line of sight and little interference as the area is remote with little neighboring RF.
Looking at a product like the WAP AC it seems to only have 2 radio’s (2.4GHz and 5GHz). I’d like to be able to offer dual-band service (2.4GHz and 5GHz) to devices to ensure more wide-spread device compatibility. This would allow the 5GHz capable devices that are close enough to the AP to use that band and radio softening the load on the 2.4GHz side.
If I do that, broadcast a client SSID and connect as a client, on the same 5GHz radio I’d imagine I’ll suffer from the common problem of wireless mesh and I could see a reduction in performance. Does the MIMO (triple chain) of the product off-set the loss of air-time in this case? Would I be better off setting up a dedicated 5GHz network on a non-conflicting channel and feed the WAP AC units off of that? This of course adds cost by needing an extra device at each AP to perform the “repeater-bridge” function and doesn’t look as clean.
The area is a marina and running Ethernet out onto the docks while ideal from a networking perspective isn’t as ideal from a installation perspective. They already have power at various points and I’d like to just tie into the power-source, mount an AP and go.
If I do that, broadcast a client SSID and connect as a client, on the same 5GHz radio I’d imagine I’ll suffer from the common problem of wireless mesh and I could see a reduction in performance. Does the MIMO (triple chain) of the product off-set the loss of air-time in this case
Yes, it does suffer from the same, no matter the chain number, is the radio which can’t actually Tx and Rx at the same time.
Even if you devoted 5GHz only for backbone, problem would be 5GHz doesn’t reach that further, and wAP ac antennas are low gain… mix that with a scenario at sea level and performance can vary widly depending on weather (mist, etc).
If you want to avoid laying cables to the wAP ac’s then the next best approach is wire a low cost, low gain CPEs on each wAP, like the new SXTsq Lite5, wirelessly linking them to a main sector.
Maybe you could instead use one of such CPEs for several docks, if wiring between docks is easier (I don’t have a clue about the harbor design)
Thanks! Seems like a product opportunity, a 5GHz back-haul radio built-into an AP. Could even have an antenna port so we could point a directional antenna back at the base station and only have to deploy a single unit.
Seems to be a loss across all the AP players unless my research didn’t turn up anything useful.
Think of the mesh products on the market now like the Eero. Wouldn’t it be way nicer to have an AP that you can just plop down and plug into the wall that meshes over a dedicated radio instead of sharing one of the existing radios? It’s cleaner, less moving parts and entire less device to maintain (software updates, SNMP, another thing to break, etc…).
You could use a RB912 with a 2nd radio installed + 2 external antennas, but it won’t be neither less bulkier nor cheaper, and way less reliable (pigtails).
I understand Mikrotik philosophy is providing flexible building blocks at disruptive prices, that’s why no too-scenario-specific devices are released.
A SXTsq+wAP ac goes for about $135, taking into account the “kit” provides 3 seperate AC radios, along with its antennas, all being weatherproof (in the case of wAP ac tamperproof also) and all the devices are really tiny, I doubt manufacturing an all-including device will get cheaper having economy of scale in mind.
It also provides other advantages:
CPE and AP positioning is independent (AP and CPE pointing nor linked)
You can provide proper spacing between the AP and the CPE so that they don’t interfere with each other
You may use 1 CPE per several APs (if wiring is possible)