OT: whole home wifi mesh recommendations

[David Fylstra]

Hi Dee Dee,

Now, specifically about mesh Wi-Fi systems. I would caution against using the older Wi-Fi extender devices. Most of them listen for Wi-Fi frames and then repeat them onward to clients, or back to the router. The problem with this is that each Wi-Fi frame occupies a finite amount of “airtime” which blocks every other device during transmission. The reception time plus the forwarding time of the frame thus doubles the amount of airtime blocking the network — which reduces overall network bandwidth available to the clients by 50%.

The newer “mesh” Wi-Fi systems use a different approach. This category of routers is misnamed because they are not true mesh networks (unlike Z-Wave and Zigbee, which are mesh networks). Instead, they are really a star network where there is a central router node and one or more satellite nodes spread throughout the house that forward back to the central node. The key difference is that they use a dedicated “back-haul” radio to communicate between the satellite nodes and the central node. There are usually 3 radios in each node: two “front-haul” radios for clients on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and third radio on 5GHz on a SEPARATE CHANNEL to avoid congestion with the 5GHz front-haul channel. The packets are still forwarded from the satellite to the central node, but at a much faster rate (11ac aka Wi-Fi 5 or 11ax aka Wi-Fi 6), on the normally less congested 5GHz band, and they are not stealing airtime from the front-haul links, unlike the Wi-Fi extenders.

Generally these newer “mesh” systems achieve superior performance and, with enough satellite nodes sprinkled around, better elimination of dead spots. But this only works if you can get good 5GHz connectivity from each satellite to the central node. That depends on various factors like distance, 5GHz interference, and the types of walls/obstacles in the way in your specific situation. And you pay 2 or 3 times more than you would for a conventional router. Which is why the Wi-Fi industry loves to sell mesh solutions.

The last time I worked on this (4+ years ago), the Netgear Orbi mesh system was the performance leader. The other brands used similar technology and were very competitive. An excellent resource is Tim Higgin’s website, https://www.smallnetbuilder.com <https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/>. He publishes thorough reviews including teardowns, feature summaries, and standardized “rate vs. range” performance metrics. Click on the three “Mesh System” tabs to drill down for more detail and compare the products.

Before you buy into mesh, the first thing to do is to (a) position your main router high and central in your house, (b) run lots of Ethernet and move every stationary device to Ethernet, and (c) dedicate Wi-Fi for mobile devices and smart plugs only. This approach will minimize Wi-Fi congestion and give best service to your stationary devices.

HTH,
Dave Fylstra

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