Want to replace Netgear Velop 3 node mesh with Meraki MR ap's - need recommendation

[ScottHardin]

Hi all,

Long story short, tired of dealing with Velop idiosyncrasies while in bridge mode. I tried to verify which Meraki MR models can do mesh with wireless backhaul (I don't have ethernet drops where the APs need to be placed), but could not get a definitive answer. Below is my desired configuration:

MX --> (wired)-->AP1-->(wireless)-->AP2-->(wireless)-->AP3

For my wireless configuration, just needing 2 SSIDs (mapped to vlan 2 & vlan 3 respectively) for internal and guest wireless. No more that 30 wireless devices in total across all 3 APs. 

Appreciate any help!

[cmr · Accepted solution]

@ScottHardin you should really post this in the Wireless LAN forum but in answer to your question, all Meraki APs support mesh and it does just work.  However a wireless only AP can, as far as I know, only mesh with a wired wireless AP.  So in your case AP1 and AP2 would work, but AP3 would look for AP1 rather than AP2.

Also remember that ever wireless hop halves the data rate so AP3 would be a quarter of AP1 speed if it were able to work.

[Bruce]

I believe it should work. As @cmr said you'll lose 50% bandwidth per hop, but you can do multiple hops - what you're describing is about the limit you want to push though, ideally every mesh AP will connect back to a gateway (i.e. a wired AP). The Meraki Mesh design guide is here, https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Deployment_Guides/Mesh_Deployment_Guide.

I'd see if you can actually get a direct connection from AP3 to AP1 - you might get better performance even if it is at a lower bandwidth (due to distance) than putting the extra hop in the middle. Although that may also need some careful planning to make sure that is the way it meshes.