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SM9 · ‎08-11-2022

@GreenMan , thanks for taking the time to reply and thank you for the reference links. The network is very flat and no segmentation is needed for the clients. I had seen the topology examples on the second link but all of the scenarios that have wireless on the remote side require a L3 switch that I was trying to avoid for the reasons described earlier. I apologize for using the terms bridge, etc, it is strictly to try and explain the topology. I see your point about the meshing functionality is strictly designed to be a failover to the wired link. Couldn't the remote AP act as if the wired uplink is up then if connected to the wired L2 switch in the first solution I am proposing? It should only have to act as a mesh member if not, right? I am glad that my thought process for the MR74/6 is somewhat sound on the antenna side...but you mention separating the bands for each direction. My question is with the dual spatial stream MR74/6 why exactly (other than polarity which shouldn't matter as long as they are on the same azimuth) I cannot have a dual band pair outside going to the outside mesh link and a dual band pair inside to support the clients that way there is less mesh incompatibility and client incompatibility. Am I wrong? I am just trying to understand this and identify why this pretty standard scenario requires an MS250 at minimum!

SM9 · ‎08-11-2022

I have a pretty common scenario but haven't found a simple solution with Meraki equipment and hoping the community can help out with some ideas and feedback. We have a 2-building scenario with a length of <50 feet between them but because of outside factors we cannot run cabling between them. Each building is basically a Faraday cage for RF because of corrugated steel walls. I would like to use two MR76 devices (acting as bridged stations) with directional ANT-25 or ANT-27 antennas for each side of the wireless bridge between buildings and then a nameless MR within the remote building to serve up a very low bandwidth client (overall throughput is not a concern, it could be Two things: First: I am told by Cisco that the only fully-supported config that can be done on the remote side of the bridge is by putting a L3 switch...otherwise they all have to run in mesh mode. Getting a L3 switch is both time, space and cost prohibitive right now. I was also told by Cisco that when in mesh mode, you can run a L2 switch on the remote side but it's only good for supplying PoE and connecting wired clients to the segmented meshed SSID LAN. All wireless traffic will have to bounce through the mesh. I can bust a hole in the wall to wire the exterior bridge but according to them, the interior and exterior APs will still only mesh through the wall still with this design. That's a headscratcher but understandable maybe...but still frustrating that this configuration isn't available according to the engineer. This doesn't seem to make sense. Why can't the interior AP serving up wireless to clients connect wired through the L2 switch to get to the exterior bridge as if it was a wired client on the remote LAN? Second: Frequently Asked Questions for Cisco Meraki Access Point Antennas - Cisco Meraki According to this on an MR76, the ANT-25 or 27 antennas need to be used in pairs to handle both a vertical and horizontal polarization for each (2.4 & 5Ghz) band. My question is: If I am only interested in horizontal polarization, purely from a connectivity perspective, it seems to me that you could run dual band in two different directions with another antenna configuration--from one top (2.4 Ghz) & one bottom (5 Ghz) connector for one antenna and one top and one bottom connector for the other? I could then punch a hole through the wall for the the antenna cables and put one ANT-25 antenna outside and use the omnis inside for dual band in both directions. With the MR76 being dual-stream instead of quad-stream I don't see why this wouldn't provide the needed coverage. Am I missing another possible solution?

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Re: MR74 and Wireless Meshing

MR74 and Wireless Meshing