Poor Mesh performance

Hello,

I am currently in the process of deploying over 20 E500's to an industrial site, the majority of these devices are hardwired back and behave as access points (2.4) to roaming forklifts. This is generally working no problem

However in some harder to reach areas I am using the mesh/client option but getting poor performance. Inital testing on eariler firmwares saw results of around 300mbit but this was not able to be reproduced since deploying the devices.

The mesh is 5Ghz on a site with no other existing 5Ghz devices.

Some E500s are installed into production have a clear line of sight but are spaced 200 metres apart and they are getting RSSI of -70 with SNR of around 20. Throughput results of this mesh is only able to recieve up to 10mbits.

The secondary ETH2 on the mesh client is used to connect devices on the other end.

Firmware is 3.2.1-r6, does anyone else experience issues like this or know if what I am doing with the E500 is supported?

Based on the inputs you have shared, following are my observations:

  • Mesh link at a distance of 200m is not recommended
  • SNR seems to be 20, which is too bad.

Please follow below recommendations for a Mesh link:

  • RF Recommendations:
    • Mesh device should be visible at a RSSI value of -65dBm or SNR of 30dB and more.
    • Do outdoor Wi-Fi site survey.
      • Air-magnet site survey pro or Ekahau 8.7.0 are recommended tools for Wi-Fi site survey
  • Deployment Recommendations:
    • Mesh devices should be deployed at same height from the ground and Line of Sight [LOS]
    • Do not mount the devices on a metal pole blocking entire antenna.
    • Mesh devices, which are in access mode are mounted at a height 20 feet from the ground and can extend upto maximum of 25 feet.
  • Technical Recommendations:
1 Like

Hello,

Thank you for the prompt reply. You say that the mesh distance of 200 metres is not recommended but that 600 feet, which equates to about 20 metres over the maximum.

Would you really expect to see such a sudden drop off in performance being just a bit over distance? When we first looked at the E500 it was noted in one of the configuration guides the maxiumum support distance was 270 metres.

I am trying to debug this furthur using built in WifiPerf service. I can do this via an android application SpeedFlex but it seems impossible to find anything that be installed onto linux or windows to test from a hardwired connection. Is this anything you can help with?

Cheers

R

Hi,

  • Could you please share the document or link which was referring to 270m mesh link.
  • Its not about the 20m difference, but SNR is so low [20dB], device cannot transmit at higher data rates.
  • May be if possible, configure wireless access profile on Mesh client and connect a client to it and do an iPerf between wireless client and wired pc/laptop.

Please let me know if you have any queries.