Can we force mesh on 2.4 IN ZD managed network having 2.4 &5 ghz dual band Ap

[vineet_tomar]

Hi,
Using T300 and R500 Ap managed by ZD1200 I SEE T300 is having low penetration in walls, resulting no mesh happening distance from T300 an R500 is 30 mtrs but a thik wall in between.
If I am not wrong meshing will be done on 5ghz for dual band radio.
Since 5 Ghz having low penetration, can we force the meshing on 2.4 Ghz so that we can connect mesh ap.

Aside I aslo se bandsteering issues on 9.10 firmware in mesh enabled network. Android, Iphone connects on 2.4 Ghz an not 5 Ghz

Thanks
Veenit Tomar

[monnat_systems]

hi,

As far as i know, Mesh will work ONLY on 5ghz on dual band ap's. No setting to change this behaviour.

[michael_brado]

Correct, 5G band used for mesh backhaul on dual-band APs, as most traffic is/was 2.4G clients who may consume more bandwidth/air-time at greater distances.  Clients who see the same SSIDs advertised will chose the band that offers highest SNR/and other factors.  AP side band/client balancing doesn't kick in until over 10 clients seen (with dual-band capabilities and good SNR on both).

You might also try moving APs towards any break in thick walls between if possible, and AP antenna arrays and MIMO might work to help improve mesh link connections.

[brian_hoyt_6612]

What happens if we disable 5 GHz radio? Will mesh just be disabled or will it bounce over to 2.4 GHz? I have a short term distance issue that I need to overcome and hoping to find a solution.

[john_d]

Mesh will be disabled. The support logs hint that there's some sort of 2.4GHz recovery option...

But yeah, I too wish that Mesh backhaul were selectable between 2.4 and 5GHz. Not just the longer distance, but outdoors you tend to be serving a lot of 1-stream and 2-stream clients and the much better 3x3 or 4x4 radios in the Ruckus AP's would probably make much better use of 2.4GHz compared to clients.

I remember reading somewhere that part of the initial reason for selecting 5GHz mesh backhaul other than the obviously better bandwidth is that most clients at the time supported 2.4GHz and not 5GHz. That's definitely not true anymore, and I wonder if it'd be more efficient to backhaul on 2.4 and leave 100% of 5GHz airtime available to service clients.