Troubleshooting guide of Omada AP Mesh network

Contents

Objective

Requirements

Introduction

Troubleshooting

Case 1: Fail to discover Mesh AP

Case 2: Unstable/disconnected Mesh AP

Case 3: Clients get slow speed with Mesh network

Conclusion

Objective

The article introduces various ways to troubleshoot in Omada AP mesh Network.

Requirements

• Omada Controller (Software Controller / Hardware Controller / CBC)
• Omada AP

Introduction

This article applies to: Omada Mesh Devices

Mesh is used to establish a wireless network or expand a wired network through a wireless connection on the 5GHz & 6GHz radio band. We can use Omada AP products to build a mesh network for indoor and outdoor places together.

Here are the instructions on how to setup mesh with different management methods:

Omada Controller: How to Build a Mesh Network via Omada EAP in Controller Mode

Omada APP: How to Configure your Omada EAP into a Mesh Network Using the Omada App

Sometimes you may fail to setup mesh at once or meet performance issue after configuration, here are some troubleshooting suggestions for your reference. The two key concepts are described below:

Root AP: In a mesh topology, APs in the Omada Controller network are accessed via wired Ethernet.

Mesh AP: In a mesh network, APs managed via wireless uplink

Troubleshooting

Case 1: Fail to discover Mesh AP

Step 1. Log in Controller, go to Settings>Site>Wireless Features to confirm that Mesh and Auto Failover are both enabled.

Step 2. Confirm that the Mesh AP is not wired connected to the gateway or switch or the other APs, that is, it is just be powered and in the isolated state, and then observe whether the LED of the AP is in a slow flashing state (on for 4.2s and off for 0.8s)

Step 3. Make sure the Mesh AP is within the coverage of Root AP and try to place them on the same room for the first installation.

Step 4. If the Root AP's 5G band is set to DFS channel, it is normal that the Mesh AP cannot be discovered in the 5GHz band during CAC time.

Step 5. Confirm that the Root AP is currently working on a channel that is also supported by the Mesh AP. It is recommended to deploy the Root AP to band 1 first.

Step 6. Try to change another AP to be Root AP and try to discover the Mesh AP again.

Step 7. Hard reset the APs and try again.

Case 2: Unstable/disconnected Mesh AP

Step 1. Perform a ping test on the computer where the Root AP is located. If the Mesh AP cannot be pinged continuously, it is recommended to troubleshoot according to the steps in Case 1.

Step 2. If the Mesh AP can be pinged successfully, but the ping packet dropped rate or the ping delay is very high, it is likely that the mesh connection is unstable. You need to confirm which hop the Mesh AP is in. Currently, Omada APs support up to 3-hop mesh. The larger the number of the hop, the greater the interference or loss of the mesh connection. You can reduce its hop for better user experience.

Step 3. Confirm whether the channel utilization of the band where the mesh is located is too high. If so, please adjust it to a bandwidth and channel with less interference.

Step 4. Modify the transmit power of the Root AP

Log in Controller, go to Devices> Config > Radios > Tx Power to adjust it to a proper value. For example, a larger Tx power means more interference to the adjacent APs, so we can try to decrease the Tx power a little bit every time until the connection gets steadier.

Step 5. If the Mesh AP can automatically come back online, please check the signal strength on Omada Controller, tap that Mesh AP, and you can see the signal between it and its uplink AP.

Basically, -30dBm means good signal, -60dBm means normal and - 80dBm is worse. If the signal is bad, please move Mesh AP closer to the Root AP or change to another uplink AP.

Step 6. If the disconnected AP won't get back online after all these steps, please forget it on the Controller, or hard reset it and try to add it again.

Case 3: Clients get slow speed with Mesh network

Step 1. If the client connects to the Root AP and gets slow speed, please refer to the following steps:

• PC directly connects the front router/ switch and check whether the wired speed is normal.
• Confirm if there are settings such as bandwidth control set up on the router/ switch.
• Confirm if there is rate limit setup on the AP.
• Change Ethernet cable from AP to the front router/switch.
• Check the signal strength and the distance from the client to the AP during speed test.
• Check if there are any obstacles between AP and the client or is the speed normal when client is closer to the AP.
• Confirm if there are located multiple APs together.

50. Check if the channel utilization is high: Change channel, channel width and TX power, then test the speed again.

• Confirm if the Multicast-to-Unicast Conversion function is enabled.

• Make sure the AP’s firmware is the latest. Reset AP and create a new SSID (or keep the default SSID) for speed test.

Step 2. If the client connects to the Mesh AP and gets slow speed, please refer to the following steps:

It should be noted that due to the competition between the mesh backhaul (the wireless link between the Root AP and Mesh AP) and wireless client, the performance of wireless clients linked to the Mesh AP may be worse than that of wireless clients linked to the root AP. On this basis, the speed might be tested low. You can check the reasons in the following:

• Confirm which hop the Mesh AP is located. The larger the number of hops, the greater the interference or loss of the mesh connection, which will also affect the speed test results. You can reduce the hops for better user experience.
• Check the signal strength of the associated clients. If the RSSI associated with the client is less than -75dBm, it may result in a low negotiation rate. Check whether the client and the AP are too far apart, and confirm whether there is any obstruction between them.
• Confirm if there are located multiple APs together.
• Check if the channel utilization is high, please change the channel/channel width/TX power, then test the speed again.

• Confirm if the Multicast-to-Unicast Conversion function is enabled.

• Make sure the AP’s firmware is the latest. Reset AP and create a new SSID (or keep the default SSID) for speed test.

Conclusion

If the problem still exists after trying the above operations, please contact TP-Link technical support for the further help.

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