Wifi - Mesh & Ethernet backhaul questions

[elfensky]

I'm moving to a new place soon and am currently planning out the networking, and I have a few questions:

• is mesh really just a (marketing?) term for wireless backhaul?

ie, if I have ethernet available, can I just add a bunch of Access Points with the same SSID/Password, and they'll behave in the same way as a mesh would?
As I understand it, clients migrating between APs is actually part of the WiFi spec, not the wireless backhaul.
Or is there some additional handing off/beamforming/whatever going on?

• I currently have a bunch of gen1 Google Wifis in mesh mode. Since then new place is going to get wired up all over the place, I'd like to get a ubiquiti dream machine pro as a router, and use my Google Wifi's in AP mode with it - is that possible?

The plan is to eventually replace them with Wifi 7 ubiquiti APs, but there aint any out yet + upfront cost too much.

edit: I am apparently mixing some terms (clarified below), but my questions remain

• wireless backhaul = ethernet over point to point wireless
• network roaming = clients automatically move from weak (or disconnected) base station to new base station
• mesh = it isn't actually standardized?

 

[ToboRobot]

Essentially yes mesh is wireless backhaul, so if you have the option of wiring the APs, that will be best.

[Skiiwee29]

Quote

 

I'm moving to a new place soon and am currently planning out the networking, and I have a few questions:

is mesh really just a (marketing?) term for wireless backhaul?

 

 

Essentially, yes. Just extending the range at which clients can connect back to the main hub/controller/router.

 

 

Quote

ie, if I have ethernet available, can I just add a bunch of Access Points with the same SSID/Password, and they'll behave in the same way as a mesh would?
As I understand it, clients migrating between APs is actually part of the WiFi spec, not the wireless backhaul.
Or is there some additional handing off/beamforming/whatever going on?

I currently have a bunch of gen1 Google Wifis in mesh mode. Since then new place is going to get wired up all over the place, I'd like to get a ubiquiti dream machine pro as a router, and use my Google Wifi's in AP mode with it - is that possible?

 

For SSID/Password hand off to work, the APs need to support the 802.11r standard, which is what allows devices to seamlessly pass between one AP to another. This would need to be configured and controlled with a controller of some sort. If you just had a bunch of APs that did not support this standard, then devices would disconnect and reconnect to the network and you would have a ton of problems with clients connecting and maintaining connection. 

[elfensky]

10 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

For SSID/Password hand off to work, the APs need to support the 802.11r standard,

 

It's not "R" but it mentions client roaming. Is this similar? 

Or would this feature only work if one of the Pucks was also the router? Eg it wont work if they're in AP mode instead of Mesh mode?

[Skiiwee29]

3 minutes ago, elfensky said:

 

It's not "R" but it mentions client roaming. Is this similar? 

Or would this feature only work if one of the Pucks was also the router? Eg it wont work if they're in AP mode instead of Mesh mode?

802.11k is totally fine too. Guess I didn't look long enough when I did some quick searching.