What performance you can expect in a Mesh network

Contents

Objective

Requirements

Introduction

What performance should you expect in a Mesh Network

How to optimize your Mesh Network

Conclusion

Objective

This article introduces what is Mesh Network, what performance you can expect and how to optimize it.

Requirements

• Omada Controller (Software Controller / Hardware Controller / CBC, v5.9 and above)
• Omada AP

Introduction

What is a Mesh network? A mesh network is a way to transmit data and control instructions between network nodes through dynamic routing. This type of network can maintain the integrity of connections between each node, and when a node in the network topology fails or is unable to serve, this architecture allows the use of a "hop" method to form a new route and deliver the message to the transmission destination.

Omada Mesh enables wireless connections between APs, and can expand the wireless network range without additional Ethernet cables, making wireless deployment more flexible and convenient.

What performance should you expect in a Mesh Network

• Family usage scenarios
• Transmission rate: For general household daily online internet access, video, and gaming applications, if it can stably achieve a download rate of 100 - 300 Mbps in the main usage area, it usually can meet basic requirements. If you have needs such as 4K video playback, high-definition online gaming, etc., it may require a rate of 300 - 500 Mbps or even higher.
• Coverage: It can fully cover your home space, including common activity areas such as each room, balcony, garage, and the signal strength remains above -60 dBm to ensure stable connections.
• Latency: The average latency is within 20 - 50 milliseconds. For most ordinary household applications, such as web browsing, video playback, etc., there will not be a significant sense of lag. If it’s used for online gaming, the latency is preferably controlled within 20 milliseconds.
• Small office scenarios
• Transmission rate: At each position in the office area, the device's connection to the network can achieve a download rate of 200 - 500 Mbps to support needs such as file transfers, video conferences, and multiple people simultaneously accessing the internet for work.
• Coverage: Comprehensively cover workplaces such as the office, conference room, and rest area, with a signal strength above -65 dBm.
• Latency: The average latency is controlled within 10 - 30 milliseconds, ensuring fluidity for applications such as video conferences and real-time collaboration.
• Large commercial or public places
• Transmission rate: In densely populated areas, such as shopping malls, airports, train stations, etc., user devices can reach a download rate of 100 - 200 Mbps to support the network access needs of a large number of users.
• Coverage: Achieve full coverage of the entire place, with a signal strength not less than -70 dBm.
• Latency: The average latency is within 30 - 60 milliseconds to ensure a basic network application experience.

How to optimize your Mesh Network

• Ensure that your expectations are in line with the actual situation: check the purchased Internet package. Purchasing a 1Gbps Internet does not mean that a 1Gbps rate can be obtained through Wifi. The actual rate may be between 150-250Mbps, and each wireless connection in the Mesh network will further reduce the rate.
• Ensure that the Omada Controller is turned on and running: If the Omada Controller is accidentally turned off, as long as the Mesh relationship between the Mesh APs is not changed, the Mesh network can maintain a basic Wi-Fi coverage, but it cannot be managed or changed, and automatic fault switching / fast roaming and most advanced features will also not be available.
• Minimize the number of wireless hops as much as possible: although a wireless AP can be linked upstream to another wireless AP, it is not recommended to do so. Due to the half-duplex characteristic of wireless communication and signal loss during the transmission process, the wireless performance of the Mesh network will inevitably decrease as the number of hops increases, and each wireless "hop" starting from the wired main AP will reduce stability and result in a performance degradation of about 50%. Therefore, we recommend that a wireless access point can have at most two "hops."
• Mesh APs only serve as network complementary devices: to obtain the best performance and stability, it is best to hard-connect the devices to the central router/gateway. This is because the mesh network is greatly affected by the environment. Too much radio frequency (RF) noise may cause the client or AP to disconnect.
• Use star topology as much as possible instead of chain topology: compared with the chain topology structure, the star topology with fewer hops usually has better wireless performance.

• Ensure that wireless clients are connected to the root AP or 1-hop AP as much as possible: root AP and 1-hop mesh AP usually have better wireless performance than 2-hop or 3-hop APs. Therefore, when choosing the location to deploy Root AP and 1-hop AP, please choose a location that can cover most wireless clients.

• Minimize the number of APs connected to the same upstream link "Uplink AP": although multiple wireless APs can be meshed connected to the same upstream AP, it is not recommended to do so. This will generate a lot of interference and bring a high load to the Uplink AP, thereby reducing the speed and connection stability.
• Ensure that there is a strong signal between the wireless Mesh AP and the Uplink AP: it is recommended that the signal strength between the wireless AP and its wired upstream link AP be at least -60dBm. A weaker signal strength may lead to performance and stability issues. Moving the wireless access point closer to the wired upstream link can improve this problem. In addition, try to keep as few obstructions as possible between the APs.

Conclusion

The above is the expected mesh network performance and how to optimize your Omada mesh Network .

Get to know more details of each function and configuration please go to Download Center to download the manual of your product.