AP Channels and Clients - what has to be the same and what can be different?

[RumorConsumer]

Hello!

I have 2 gateways about 40 feet from each other and 5 repeaters scattered around them.

My RF environment is completely clean - I am way out in the country. 

I want clients to be able to roam between the various APs as usual.

I want to be able to tell the hardware which repeaters to use with which APs. I believe I can do this with manual channel assignments. 

My questions:

1. Do both the 5ghz and 2.4ghz channels have to be the same on each set of gateways and repeaters? So for instance

Set 1 - Manually set to Ch 11 and Ch 46

Gateway 1: same

Repeater 1: same

Repeater 2: same

Set 2 - Manually set to Ch 4 and Ch 36

Gateway 2: same

Repeater 3: same

Repeater 4: same

And will clients be able to seamlessly move between both gateways and all 4 repeaters without issue? 

[NolanHerring]

Never used Meraki for the meshing for outdoors, so never read up on it.

Here are the links I shared with you previously, for the benefit of others. I think most of your questions are answered in here, I just don't have time right now to read through as I'm going on vacation tomorrow (woot woot).

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Deployment_Guides/Mesh_Deployment_Guide 

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/WiFi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Wireless_Mesh_Networking

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/Manually_Changing_Channels_in_a_Mesh_Network

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/WiFi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Extending_the_LAN_with_a_Wireless...

TLDR - You can set channels manually, but looks like its in your best interest to let the 'auto-ness' of the super special algorithm do its thing and not worry about it. Also doesn't look like you have control over what radio gets used for backhaul either.

[NolanHerring]

Basically just make sure each gateway is on a unique channel and hope for the best >.<

[PhilipDAth]

Whatever channel you are using for the bachhaul from the repeaters to the gateways needs to be the same (typically this is only done with one band, so you only use 5Ghz for back haul for example).

The other band can use whatever channels you like.

[RumorConsumer]

If I set the repeaters and gateways to the same channel on both bands that I want to be meshed together is that harmful? It seems like out here in this very clean radio environment either would do?

@PhilipDAth are you a proponent of fixed channels or auto if i live out in the country?

[NolanHerring]

I wouldn't do static because based on my recent readings, the auto-mesh will determine on its own if it wants to use 2.4GHz or 5GHz for the backhaul. Since you don't have full control over that choice, I would let autoRF do its thing.

If the 5GHz gets used, you don't want all the 2.4GHz radio's being on the same channel, when in theory they could be on different channels since its not doing backhaul. If you static them, then they will be.

[PhilipDAth]

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@RumorConsumer wrote:

If I set the repeaters and gateways to the same channel on both bands that I want to be meshed together is that harmful? It seems like out here in this very clean radio environment either would do?

@PhilipDAth are you a proponent of fixed channels or auto if i live out in the country?

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It is not harmfull, but with everyone using a single channel only a single device can use the RF spectrum at a time.  It will result in a massive reduction in bandwidth.

I would use "auto".

[RumorConsumer]

Switching both gateways to auto results in both choosing 48 and 1 and 11 respectively 🤓🙈.

[RumorConsumer]

update - now 48 and 52