Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point.
Not sure how you would send data by not
sharing uplink radio with clients. Isn’t that
what a cable does? Share the uplink?
What makes a mesh is the ability to uplink
wirelessly. You can connect from Main to
Mesh to Mesh. The wireless uplink takes
the place of the “cable”.
You can’t do that with extenders, you can
only connect one “hop”. From Main to Mesh.
On some wireless mesh networks, the AP<->AP links consume half the available bandwidth. Others have dedicated radios for those links and don’t suffer from that problem.
All devices wired. TV, Gaming Consoles, Apple TV, Tivo, Roku etc
Only, Macbook and iOS device on wireless.
Every room has wired Ethernet ports.
5 Eeros connected to Ethernet. 2 on main level, 2 upstairs and 1 in basement.
From anywhere around the house I get 90% and above.
I’m sensitive to appearing argumentative, that is
not my intent. Simply trying to help eliminate some
confusion regarding mesh and extenders.
Devices that consume half of available bandwidth
are extenders, as they re-broadcast existing signal.
By definition, mesh provides for a wireless uplink,
which extenders do not.
To your point, it is dependent upon the number of
“radios” as to the efficacy of the mesh. One radio,
link and data have one path. Two radios provides
for separation. Three radios, separation and a
dedicated “heartbeat”. If you have a 2.4Ghz
and 5Ghz AP you have at least 2 radios.
A quick look with a packet sniffer will illustrate.
This is not a mesh 
This is a classic “star” network, as all
wireless devices backhaul with ethernet
to your router.
If you did NOT have the ethernet connections,
the Eero ARE capable of providing a wireless
uplink. It really comes done to network “hops”
Mesh allows you to provide for multi hop wireless
connections.
By all means, be argumentative My experience with wireless networks is relatively limited (the largest that I’ve built had only a few hundred APs) so I realize that there are many people with much more knowledge of this aspect of networking than I have.
I was just thinking back to a time when I was considering the design for outdoor WiFi coverage in places where wired backhaul would have been impractical. This was back in the days when autonomous APs were still widely used and pre 802.11n, which is dating me a bit. The Cisco SE working with me proposed a “mesh” design (multi-link, multi-path wireless hops, but not, I believe self-organizing) with the caveat that each hop away from an uplink node would see its client-available bandwidth halved.
If I recall correctly, we could have dedicated (or maybe even had to dedicate) either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio in each AP for mesh link traffic.
A single SSID does not determine a mesh.
If all the Eeros are wired back to a common
location, then you have a network with a lot
of access points There is no need for them
to “communicate” with each other. They are
essentially wired together
Well I’m not going to say “thousands” but this is not my first
time either. That Cisco SE might have worked for me
More seriously though, obviously if you are deploying hundreds of
APs, it would be prudent to have some notion of a control channel.
For the most part, this is done with VLANs today.
Today with the advent of MIMO et. al, we have moved beyond
the rudimentary extender technology and “losing half” is no
longer the case, and is not the overhead of a wireless uplink.
Deployment (and configuration) are always key.
Do you know what the older technologies are that UniFi uses?
I am now nervous about my decision that I made several months ago. I removed the Netgear Nighthawk Router in my house and replaced with all a Unifi System. Any recommended settings?
Also…(not sure if this should be a new thread)
What’s everyone’s preference on SSID (2.4 and 5) - Separate or the same?
Perhaps you are thinking of MU-MIMO? To your point
only the Unifi HD AP includes that. HD - High Density.
This device is rated for 350 maximum users.
However MU-MIMO is a protocol and “could” be
added to existing (Wave 2) hardware. I don’t think
it ever will be with the emergence of OFDMA in
WiFi 6. I think you will see them combined as
they are complimentary.
As mentioned above, yes there is overhead, but
this IS ethernet (CSMA/CD anyone?) and it is
not half. Any sniffer will verify.
IMHO it depends on how much networking you want in your life.
While yes, the Nighthawk has some level of “customization”,
the Unifi products are a SDN. You can’t use them without having
a “controller” that you (can) program with EACH and EVERY
setting. In fact, the truly intrepid can edit the underlying .json
files, but that is frowned upon.
As you have seen from previous posts, folks deploy UniFi in
enterprise settings with much more sophisticated topologies
then even the most hardened Mac Power User. TANSTAAFL.
WRT SSID, what’s your use case? You can make it all one
big happy family, you can segregate, you can turn off specific
radios, you can lower the power of access points, you can
shape traffic, you can block clients, you can…
In my homes I use one SSID and all the APs are backhauled
with ethernet. Even though these are mesh units, I am not
using them as mesh, as I have no need for a wireless uplink
I am hardwired. Indeed, you need to purposely enable the
wireless uplink feature in the unifi controller.
Be more than happy to discuss your specific use case.
While I am often wrong, I am seldom uncertain.
Scratching my head as how a device would be SSID sensitive?
Irrespective. If you know how to use it, you can control every aspect
of the network through the controller and underlying control files
Clearly we have different experiences and perspectives, but that’s
what makes this domain so compelling.
I understand your point now, and yes I have seen that with
some (usually cheaper devices). I just turn off the 5Ghz radio
(it’s a mouse click) until provisioned, and then turn it back on.
In my opinion IoT is the biggest fraud ever perpetuated
on the consumer. You know that old joke, “What does
IoT stand for?” “The S is for security!”
Once bitten, Twice shy