Can an AIMesh node "consolidate" 4x4 bandwidth to 2x2 or can it only forward half of what it receives to a 2x2 client?

[Qbcd]

Kind of a weird question, but I hope it's clear what I'm asking. Let's say I have two RT-AC86Us set up as an AIMesh router and node. There is no dedicated backhaul band, so the node is basically a repeater. They both have 4x4 5 GHz ac radios. Now let's say I have a 2x2 phone connected to the node. Is the phone only receiving 2 forwarded spatial streams, or can the node "reformat" the data that it receives from the main router via its 4x4 radio and give the phone that full bandwidth via 2x2 (provided the 2x2 link has enough bandwidth itself).

To ask another way: Imagine the theoretical link between the main router and node is 1 gbps. So the real world speed is about 500 mbps. But the node is repeating, so the bandwidth to the end client is only about 250 mbps. However, the node receives that data via 4x4 and the client only has a 2x2 radio. Can the client receive the full 250 mbps via 2x2 or will the client only get half (125 mbps) because it has half the spatial streams of the node?

Okay, at this point I think it's clear what I'm asking. I can't find the answer anywhere, I hope someone can help me out.

 

[L&LD]

No. The consolidating you're talking about can't happen. (How can it)?

You're mixing yourself up with actual speeds vs. connection rates.

If two AP's can communicate with each other at 2167Mbps (max possible between two RT-AC86U's) but the AP closest to the client device can only communicate at 867Mbps or less (max possible for an AC class client with 2 antennae/2 streams), the fastest possible communication to the client device is always the slowest link possible.

Real-world speeds; less the overhead and attenuation from the distance, the obstacles, and any other interference (Wi-Fi or not) between the client device and the AP it is connected to.

 

[Qbcd]

No. The consolidating you're talking about can't happen. (How can it)?

You're mixing yourself up with actual speeds vs. connection rates.

If two AP's can communicate with each other at 2167Mbps (max possible between two RT-AC86U's) but the AP closest to the client device can only communicate at 867Mbps or less (max possible for an AC class client with 2 antennae/2 streams), the fastest possible communication to the client device is always the slowest link possible.

Real-world speeds; less the overhead and attenuation from the distance, the obstacles, and any other interference (Wi-Fi or not) between the client device and the AP it is connected to.

I'm not sure you understood my question. I agree with what you said, I'm not asking about speeds so much as spatial streams. I don't know how else to phrase my question since I asked it 3 different ways in the original post.

Let me try a 4th way. Forget about theoretical and actual speeds. Just imagine the node has 200 mbps of real world speed to give that it's receiving from the main router via 4 spatial streams. There is a 2x2 client that can receive the full 200 mbps. But the client can only receive 2 spatial streams. Can the node take that 200 mbps from its 4x4 link and send *all* of it to the client's 2x2 receiver? Or can the client only receive half because it has half the number of streams as the node? In other words, can the node "reformat" 4x4 to 2x2 without losing bandwidth?

I know it's kind of confusing, but I can't think of a simpler way to ask that.

 

[L&LD]

You're still confusing connection rates with data rates.

Of course, the router will give all the data it receives to the client device. Otherwise, that would be a huge packet loss.

The rates it will give to it depends on my answer above.

 

[Qbcd]

You're still confusing connection rates with data rates.

Of course, the router will give all the data it receives to the client device. Otherwise, that would be a huge packet loss.

The rates it will give to it depends on my answer above.

I don't think I'm confusing them, my question is not about the relationship between PHY link rates and real world rates, I know real world is about half (as per my math in the OP). And that applies both to the link between the main router and node as well as the node and the client, I get that.

Okay thanks for the answer. So it will give all the data it receives even if the client device has less spatial streams than the AIMesh node used to receive the data, correct? (again, provided that the client *can* receive it dependent on its own real-world link rate).

And you're right that it would be a massive packet loss if it couldn't do that, but I thought maybe for a 2x2 client, it would only pull from a 2x2 link from the main router.

 

[thiggins]

Let's take spatial streams out of it and just talk bandwidth.

A mesh/repeater can pass, at most, only as much bandwidth as it receives. So let's way the bandwidth on a 5 GHz link between the nodes is 500 Mbps. If a client connects to the second node on the 2.4 GHz band, it could potentially access all this bandwidth, minus some overhead. But it would not be 50% since there would be no repeating.

If the client connects to the second node on 5 GHz, there could be up to a 50% throughput loss since each packet needs to be received and retransmitted. Whether the client can access all the available bandwidth depends on its signal level and capabilities. A two stream AC or AX client with strong signal level should be able to pull 250 Mbps.

Does that help?

 

[Qbcd]

Let's take spatial streams out of it and just talk bandwidth.

A mesh/repeater can pass, at most, only as much bandwidth as it receives. So let's way the bandwidth on a 5 GHz link between the nodes is 500 Mbps. If a client connects to the second node on the 2.4 GHz band, it could potentially access all this bandwidth, minus some overhead. But it would not be 50% since there would be no repeating.

If the client connects to the second node on 5 GHz, there could be up to a 50% throughput loss since each packet needs to be received and retransmitted. Whether the client can access all the available bandwidth depends on its signal level and capabilities. A two stream AC or AX client with strong signal level should be able to pull 250 Mbps.

Does that help?

Thank you, but I knew all of this. Still useful information to put out there.

I like how you basically opened with -- let's just ignore your question and talk about something else LOL. My question was about spatial streams on the same (repeater) band. But I think it's been answered now, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was kind of dumb. Of course an AP can move data across bands, spatial streams, ethernet, etc, otherwise it wouldn't be able to handle multiple clients, MU-MIMO, etc. So... it was a dumb question and because it's kind of difficult to understand what I'm even asking, I'll probably get a lot of generic replies. But... it's a good broad topic nevertheless.

 

[thiggins]

I like how you basically opened with -- let's just ignore your question and talk about something else LOL.

That was not my intent.

 

[Qbcd]

That was not my intent.

Fair enough, no worries.