Wireless links (Backhaul)

[MhouzM]

Hi,

We have few MR84s deployed in our park. One of them has no physical cable and would be difficult to lay new ones, so it is automatically setup in a Repeater mode but users connected to this repeater were complaining of slow internet connection.

Would it help if we get two more MRs and setup them on a bridge mode then connect this one repeater? would it improve the speed? or would connecting a patch antenna to that repeater help?

[Brash]

Using a repeater will see performance degradation as everything packet is transmitted to the gateway AP, and then re-transmitted onto the LAN. Not to mention the potential of interference.
However you can definitely setup repeaters where the performance impact is neglible.

Adding additional AP's wouldn't help the performance of the repeater (unless they have a better connection to the repeater than the current AP), as the repeater will only send and receive via one gateway AP.

A directional antenna may help if interference is your main problem. 
Are you seeing high latency or poor signal when looking at the AP health/summary information on the dashboard?

[MhouzM]

Hi Brash,

Thank you for the quick reply. Latency is average and the signal from clients to AP are good, it is the Mesh link quality of the Repeater to the neighboring APs that is poor.

So just to be clear on what I am planning, I would like to add an AP(A) gateway that will be bridged (Point to Point using directional antenna) to another AP(B) that will be located on the same pole as the Repeater then have the AP(B) and Repeater connected to an outdoor switch, does that make sense? In that way the repeater would no longer be a repeater but my backbone would also be wireless. Will that work?

[PhilipDAth]

You can do it, but it adds a lot of complexity.

For the existing MR84's, could you dedicate one band (such as 5Ghz) to link them?  If so, get directional antennas to boost the signal for the MESH link.

Is there any chance of using a power line extender for the remote AP (making it wired again)?  Failing that, any chance of using a power line extender and adding an AP in between the other two to reduce the size of the MESH link?

https://www.dlink.co.nz/home-solutions/connectivity/powerline