Hi All,
I want to set up a wireless mesh network in my office. Looking for some Mikrotik device like Google Wifi system. Can any one guide me what is the best wireless mesh device available with Mikrotik?
Thanks & Regards,
Sam
I asked about a similar thing earlier. MikroTik units are all sold today with either a single radio or a single radio per band. This means when you create a mesh you either lose the use of one of the radios or you start to sacrifice speed as that radio is shared between the mesh functions and serving client requests.
The eero product for example has 3 radios, 1 of the 5GHz radios can be used exclusively for mesh functions and the other for serving clients along with the 2.4GHz radio.
I would very much like to see MikroTik offer a dedicated 3 radio product to compete in this sector. I think it’s useful in both residential and commercial settings. My use case is that I actually have to now deploy a dedicated SXT device, run an Ethernet cable into an WAP AC. Two devices to do the job one could be doing. A lot of additional cables and ways for things to break. That’s in an outdoor scenario, I doubt a lot of home users want to buy 2 MikroTik devices to build their mesh over a competing single 3 radio product.
To directly answer your question, any product with 2 radios will be better than 1 for meshing but 3 would be ideal. That means, you could deploy several WAP AC units for example and setup them up in a mesh, you could dedicate the single 5GHz radio to perform mesh functions or repeat only the 5GHz clients. Alternatively, purchase an additional radio to place near your WAP AC units to act as the 3rd radio and connect the 2 physical units over Ethernet.
Your last and performance wise most ideal solution is to hard-wire each of the WAP units.
They do in the form of the RB433. You pick the radio cards you want. Note that the M33 coming out with be faster, but only two miniPCI slots.
Interesting, nice find. Very do it yourself style but totally possible I’d guess. The cost may get a little stupid:
The RouterBoard itself is RB433UL at 89USD
The enclosure is 20USD (indoor) or 89USD (outdoor)
Backhual Radio is R11e-5HacT at 59USD
Client Radio for 5GHz is R11e-5HacT at 59USD
Client Radio for 2GHz is R11e-2HPnD at 39USD
Without antenna’s, cables and adapters you’re at 266USD for a single device. Hardly competitive to a planned offering like an eero. For that money I’d get 3 units easily.