Hello Mikrotik Users,

I am planning to do my first Mikrotik deployment. It's for a campsite that has 10 electrical utility boxes spread across the terrain, all roughly 100 meters apart. We have a wired infrastructure in place between those with copper and fiber links available, all pretty reliable with gigabit so far. Each utility box has a cheap-ass TP-Link switch. We run a wireless network over this infra. In total there are 13 poles with one Ruckus outdoor AP each, attached to the 10 utility boxes.

I want to redo the wired network including the current "core" (1 HPE Procurve smart switch). The internet connection is a 400/30 cable line. I have a PfSense box attached to that, which will work fine for the foreseeable future. Right now we have two stretched VLAN's over the entire terrain, with one BSSID in each. The wireless infra is configured as local breakout for both VLAN's. I would move to a simple L3 network with a Mikrotik in each utility box instead of a switch, then move the wireless networks to tunneled mode to the WLC. Sadly, our Ruckus WLC (ZD1200) is limited to 200 mbit throughput when using the tunneled mode. We might upgrade it but that's a serious investment hard to justify.

Now I'm thinking what if I can build a VPLS? Using a combination of hEX PoE's and RB4011iGS+RM's it should be possible to build a full L3 network with VPLS on top. Then I would have no more spanning tree bullshit, don't have to buy expensive (virtual) stacked switches or something that uses VXLAN and won't fit in our utility boxes. Considering our WAN connection, I'd need no more than around 100 mbit of throughput at each individual utility box. What kind of throughput should I expect over a VPLS with this hardware? I'm guessing between 300-500 mbit?

Would the VPLS make sure every VLAN in the core switch can be made available in every utility box? I'm considering some meshed connections between multiple utility boxes to implement OSPF with BFD for fast failover. I'm wondering if this whole setup is a good idea or if it will be a nightmare? I don't mind spending time on it because it is a learning experience for me and I run this network for a friend. I do want a stable and reliable environment however, otherwise I can just stick with the cheap slow spanning tree monster we have today.