Hello,

A few quick questions:

I am creating a mesh network for a condo community utilizing 802.11n draft 2.0 technology, and I have a few basic questions. First, does mikrotik have the capability to run dual radios and set them up, one for mesh to mesh traffic and the other for client to AP traffic?

Second, does mikrotik have the ability to dynamically control routes in a mesh due to traffic loads as well as have the ability to auto-heal if a link goes down?

Third, because with the increase in hops comes an increase in latency and a reduced measure of perceived bandwidth, I was thinking of setting the mesh up in a triangular fashon with the farthest AP having a wireless backhaul linking straight to the switch. This will, of course, require that the furthest AP have a 3rd radio. If it is setup like that, then is it possible for traffic to be routed straight through the backhaul to cut down on wasteful hops and network loading? If it did work it would increase the quality of service as well as provide another layer of redundancy in case the base AP connected directly to the switch goes down.

My idea is to create a highspeed wireless mesh network in which no single residence will require more than a single hop back to the actual wired network. Any thoughts or suggestions? I would refer using mikrotik if its at all possible.

Very Respectfully,
Phillip

First problem you're going to have is that theres no 802.11n stuff supported yet on the mikrotik devices.

Mikrotik has the capacity to run as many radios as you have miniPCI slots for, or you can run virtual-ap's if you're using a compatible card (eg: atheros)

Auto-healing as you put it is normally sorted by using a routing protocol such as OSPF or better suited for a wireless mesh: HWMP+ (http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Layer-2_r ... h_networks)

I would recommend using nstreme on your backhaul links if possible because this normally gives lower latency and stops links being flooded with smaller p2p type traffic (and dropping in and out) however, if you've got multiple links then you should normally be able to set the system up to load balance over these which would make use of all available links back to the internet feed, increasing available bandwidth at a small latency cost.

Thanks for the help so far mate. One more thing though. When you say that .11n isnt supported, do you mean that it literally wont work, or that its more "use at your own risk"?

Thanks for the help so far mate. One more thing though. When you say that .11n isnt supported, do you mean that it literally wont work, or that its more "use at your own risk"?

Mikrotik does not support 802.11n yet. As in it will not work.

From the "mate" I'm assuming you're in Australia?

Feel free to give me a yell as the company I work for actually does this sort of stuff on a large scale. If its big enough we'd probably be interested (if you wanted someone to setup/manage it), if you're don't want that I'm happy to give you some pointers in my own time.

Email: krusher00 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com