I have an R190W as my router and it feeds an ePMP1000 with a Cat5e cable.
I want all 4 of the 2.4Ghz ePMP1000 Hotspots to have the same SSID "MaizeWIFI".
My intent is to repeat and or mesh the signal that originates at ePMP1000 Hotspot #1 to #2 & #3 and they will repeat the signal and then #4 will pickup and repeat the signal also. I have devices that need to connect via WiFi at each Hotspot.
I do not want multiple SSIDs, we have iPads that users are mobile with around the complex and we want them to seemlessly move around and stay connected. Is this the function of a MESH or am I misunderstanding the technology? Should I find repeaters instead? I like the ePMP 1000 Hotspots because of cnMaestro.
To answer your first question, YES you can use the same SSID for each radio. In regards to mesh... Cambium WiFi units support a mesh-like system called WDS or wireless distribution system. While you can use WDS on the R190 and ePMP 1000 hot spots, there are some performance limitiations to consider due to how many hops you want to use in the system and the fact that these are only 1 carrier radios. This is an excerpt from the WIKI article for WDS:
"
The maximum wireless effective throughput may be halved after the first retransmission (hop) being made. For example, in the case of two APs connected via WDS, and communication is made between a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP A and a laptop which is connected wirelessly to AP B. The throughput is halved, because AP B has to retransmit the information during the communication of the two sides. However, in the case of communications between a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP A and a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP B, the throughput is not halved since there is no need to retransmit the information. Dual band/radio APs may avoid this problem, by connecting to clients on one band/radio, and making a WDS network link with the other."
You should read that WIKI entry, along with all the mesh related KB articles in the Cambium forum located HERE.
I don’t plan on including the R190W in the WiFi, it’s just the router. I don’t/won’t run Cat5 cables to each ePMP1000 hotspot for internet. I want them to be repeaters with the same ssid as they will overlap each other. I assumed this was the value of these devices as I already did this with “open mesh” products but they were kind of cheaply built.
