Mesh mode - automatic cross-wifi as WAN config

Product Discussion Feature Requests
1

Hi,

In order to help the meshing of different WiFi as WAN compatible devices, it would interesting to have a fully secured WiFi as WAN deployment working as following:

In incontrol, activation of the request and level of security.

On devices:

create a specific wifi for meshing (with autogrenerated passwords etc)
configure the WiFi WAN to log on such SSID if found
update routing tables to allow the mesh as backup if cellular or local WAN are not sufficient

This would be highly useful for events or quick emergency response deployments

Please ask if anything is unclear.
Thx

2

Hi,

If I understand your request correctly, you need to mesh all the HD2 (for example) together under a same InControl2 group. Of course the configuration will be centralized manage by InControl2 with certain security level. Below is the connectivity which I can imagine. Do correct me if I am wrong.

Internet <— (Primary: Cellular) HD2 (Backup: Wifi WAN) —SSID Test–> (Wifi AP) HD2 (Wifi WAN) —SSID Test–> (Wifi AP) HD2 (Cellular) —> Internet

1 Like
3

I think you understood my requets. To be sure:

Let’s say I have 2 devices
HD2-A
HD2-B

Both broadcast the WiFi “WiFiBackup” as AP
Both have WiFi as WAN configured to connect to “WiFiBackup”

Internet <— (Primary: Cellular)| HD2-A | Backup: Wifi as WAN —SSID WiFiBackup–> (Wifi AP A)
Internet <— (Primary: Cellular)| HD2-B | Backup: Wifi as WAN —SSID WiFiBackup–> (Wifi AP B)

In case of HD2-A failure of cellular:

Internet <— (Primary: Cellular)| HD2-B | Backup: Wifi as WAN —SSID WiFiBackup–> (Wifi AP B) <— WiFi as WAN | HD2-A

Currently it creates a loop. The HD2-A connects to its own WiFi AP. His WiFi client mac address should be per default in his blacklist.

4

Hi PG,

I have a bit concern on the requirements. I assume you will used 4 sim cards in each HD2 with different ISP since internet availability is the priority. If you really in the worst situation that all ISPs are not available, I believe you will lost internet connectivity as well even HD2-A able to connect Wifi as WAN to HD2-B. Does this make sense?

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5

Well it depends on the zone covered.
If we deploy 5-6 HD2 in this scenario to cover a large zone, it can make sense. It also makes sense for BR1’s. The backup on WiFi as WAN goes faster than the switch to cellular 2.

Anyway it perfectly makes sense in the chain scenario where only one has cellular and the others are in WiFi AP -WiFi WAN mode.

6

Hi PG,

You are trying to deploy this in which environment?

Thank you.

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7

Events mainly but we would like to propose it to companies in order to cover large sites without putting cables all around. This could provide connectivity to electronic gates, cameras,…

I could implement it via one time config then configuration cloning on all deveices but I would still be missing the blacklisting of the Wifi as WAN client mac address on the Wifi AP for each individual device.

8

Hi PG,

I believe AP is more suitable for this environment. You may use WDS. Max series is not design for meshing. Fyi, the blacklisting of the Wifi as WAN client mac address is available on our AP. You may connect as this way.

Internet <— HD2 <— AP1 <–WDS-- AP2, AP3 <— Wifi devices

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9

Ok, I’m going to see with AP. Does InControl2 manage the deployment of this meshed structure or is manual configuration mandatory? I don’t see it when managing AP One mini.
For star deployments, manual config can be extensive.

10

Hi PG,

Unfortunately InControl2 doesn’t support WDS at the moment. Since this thread is under feature request, product team will review and take into consideration.

2 Likes
11

It’s been quite some time since this post has been updated. The Wifi market has evolved quite a bit and now most competitors do offer Mesh and even many consumer grade products have properly working Mesh systems with auto fail-over between wired or wireless backhaul. Are there any plans on supporting Mesh Wifi for all your Wifi enabled devices?

As Peplink already has a Wifi-as-WAN feature in some products this can be leveraged to get the same kind of process. But it should be possible to use on just the AP units.

Yes you will lose some performance using Mesh, but not all installations need the full performance of what Wifi can offer now. Especially with the AP-ONE-AX it is really interesting to be able to use a Mesh Wifi system as the throughput from AP to AP should be a lot higher.

In other enterprise/small business brands you can set a ‘Mesh-ID’ with an automatic generated password. The Mesh-ID network is hidden in broadcast. Combining the power of inControl you could make the Mesh system settable per specific tag, so you could have a unique Mesh network per site/customer. It would even help with the deployment of new Wifi AP’s on site, when the customer can do the physical installation themselves.