mixed AC / AX nodes and client connection issues

[jata]

I have 2 AX58U as primary nodes (wifi backhaul) at front and back of my house. Recently I added a AC68U (ethernet backhaul) to my garage. The AC68U node backhaul connection is slow but very stable - consistent at 13-15MB/s wired directly to my main router (powerline not proper ethernet - that is why its only 15MB/s)

I have a wifi security camera (2.4g) near the garage and this is binded to the node but I have issues with the camera disconnecting occasionally. No idea why but I think it is trying to bind to my AX node that is also in range. If I unbind the camera it connects to my AX node and works fine.

Same issue with the wifi garage door opener (2.4g) - more stable connection when connecting to my AX node that is a long way from the garage...

What's going on here? surely these clients should be happy connecting to the node with a really strong connection on this node together with a solid 13MB/s backhaul link to my router.

Second question... What is the lowest 2.4g connection quality/speed before I start getting issues with these clients connecting to the AX node?

Pool Filter/Solar = -67dBm (not doing much - sending info to an iphone app on status and temperature etc.)
Security Camera = -72dBm (this one is streaming secure video to homekit devices and icloud)
Garage Door = -77dBm (this one only needs to send/receive open/close command)

 

[thiggins]

Your clients could be selecting the connection with lower latency and/or higher bandwidth. Signal strength isn't the only thing clients use when deciding to roam.

One of the misleading things about mesh systems is that devices connected to leaf nodes can have strong signal levels, but low bandwidth due to low backhaul bandwidth.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have 2 AX58U as primary nodes (wifi backhaul) at front and back of my house. Recently I added a AC68U (ethernet backhaul) to my garage. The AC68U node backhaul connection is slow but very stable - consistent at 13-15MB/s wired directly to my main router (powerline not proper ethernet - that is why its only 15MB/s)

I have a wifi security camera (2.4g) near the garage and this is binded to the node but I have issues with the camera disconnecting occasionally. No idea why but I think it is trying to bind to my AX node that is also in range. If I unbind the camera it connects to my AX node and works fine.

Same issue with the wifi garage door opener (2.4g) - more stable connection when connecting to my AX node that is a long way from the garage...

What's going on here? surely these clients should be happy connecting to the node with a really strong connection on this node together with a solid 13MB/s backhaul link to my router.

Second question... What is the lowest 2.4g connection quality/speed before I start getting issues with these clients connecting to the AX node?

Pool Filter/Solar = -67dBm (not doing much - sending info to an iphone app on status and temperature etc.)
Security Camera = -72dBm (this one is streaming secure video to homekit devices and icloud)
Garage Door = -77dBm (this one only needs to send/receive open/close command)

Are you using Smart Connect/same SSIDs on the AX58Us? Are you using Roaming Assistant? About how far apart are your 3 nodes?

What are your AX58U 2.4 bandwidth and channel settings?

I suspect those IoT devices will work ok at those signal levels... do they?

OE

 

[jata]

Thanks for the input and assistance.

I thought it might be the backhaul bandwidth impacting the roaming. The strange thing is that one of the 'garage' clients is disconnecting altogether from the network when I bind it. I haven't seen this before (on my AX nodes) where the client would always revert back to the correct node.

I am using smart connect and have done for the last year and it is has been working well.

Roam assist is off as i'm happy with how smart connect is working and I was not seeing any benefits of having roam assist on.

I use fixed channel settings (1/20 on 2.4g and 36/80 on 5g) - used this for years and I live in a area with zero wifi congestion.

On a positive - everything is working well with the clients connecting to my AX node at low signal levels so i'm really looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

I guess I'm interested in getting to the bottom of this issue to understand things better. I have a theory that it's the firmware on the AC68U node so I will wait for a new stock to be released then try again.