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Wireless Aimesh nodes performance hit on main router?

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heywire

Senior Member
What performance hit - if any - will it have on the other clients connected to the main router if; lets say - 2 wireless Aimesh routers with 8 clients are connected to the main router; versus if those clients were connected directly to the main router?

The reason I'm asking is that I have an AC86 main router with one AC66B1 wired Aimesh node, and I’m wondering if I need to wire two extra Aimesh routers or if connecting them wirelessly is sufficient (wiring them is going to take quite a bit of work and a POW setup). The fiber internet connection that is going to be shared is 150mbit (possibly more in the future), so the uplink speed shouldn't be a limiting factor.

I understand that the Aimesh nodes and the clients that connect to it will have their bandwith cut in half unless they are 3x3 band routers - because the bandwith will be split between receive and (re)send.
But from the main-router perspective, wouldn’t the Aimesh nodes have about the same performance hit as another client connecting to the main router? (of course, the more clients that are connected to it, the higher the load, but it doesn’t require a splitting of the bands between receive and (re)send) from the main router perspective, just the Aimesh node itself?).
 
When both wireless routers are used (fully), the expected throughput will be 1/4 of what you're enjoying now. This hit will be on all wireless activities, including the main router, as long as the clients on the nodes are actively in use.

And by 'used fully', I mean when the node's client devices are fully utilizing the bandwidth available to them for a sustained period of time.

Repeater mode = wireless AiMesh

Wiring may be 'quite a bit of work', but you do it once and you don't have your wireless network take a hit either, no matter how the network is used.
 
Right, the link speed is cut in half, and then thouse Aimesh routers and their child-clients will be treated equally from a bandwitdh perspective as other clients connected directly to the router.

Part of the story here is also that I'm hoping the Aimesh technology will be smart enough to ensure that each of the two Aimesh nodes will connect to the closest wired point. Meaning that the AC86U and the wired AC66B1 will have one wireless Aimesh-node each connected to it, seeing as this reflects the distance and signal strength between the routers.

I'm a fan of laying down the labour and wire up when I'm first doing the work myself, but in this case, it requires quite a bit of extra work and visible wiring between two houses.
 
What performance hit - if any - will it have on the other clients connected to the main router if; lets say - 2 wireless Aimesh routers with 8 clients are connected to the main router; versus if those clients were connected directly to the main router?

The reason I'm asking is that I have an AC86 main router with one AC66B1 wired Aimesh node, and I’m wondering if I need to wire two extra Aimesh routers or if connecting them wirelessly is sufficient (wiring them is going to take quite a bit of work and a POW setup). The fiber internet connection that is going to be shared is 150mbit (possibly more in the future), so the uplink speed shouldn't be a limiting factor.

I understand that the Aimesh nodes and the clients that connect to it will have their bandwith cut in half unless they are 3x3 band routers - because the bandwith will be split between receive and (re)send.
But from the main-router perspective, wouldn’t the Aimesh nodes have about the same performance hit as another client connecting to the main router? (of course, the more clients that are connected to it, the higher the load, but it doesn’t require a splitting of the bands between receive and (re)send) from the main router perspective, just the Aimesh node itself?).

The strength of a shared wireless backhaul varies with distance/path/obstacles/humidity, the signal mode/power and processing power of the nodes on each end, the number of clients loading the WiFi, the number of neighboring clients sharing the radio spectrum, non-WiFi interference, etc.

A wireless backhaul is something you use when you can't wire it, and/or when it's good enough for your conditions... the only way to know for sure is to try it, imo.

OE
 
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Right, the link speed is cut in half, and then thouse Aimesh routers and their child-clients will be treated equally from a bandwitdh perspective as other clients connected directly to the router.

No, that is not true.

The link speed may be at the highest (theoretical) possible.

What gets cut in half (and then half of that again, hence the 1/4 speeds) is when the nodes are actively in use.

This is because WiFi is a (time) shared medium. No matter how fast the connection speed is, if you only get 1/4 of the time slice (vs. a single, main router), you will only get 1/4 (maximum) speeds too.


As for the point where the nodes connect, that depends on how well you place them. AiMesh is still 'dumb' in that regard (on its own).

AiMesh Ideal Placement
 

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