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Are there any routers that support using both 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz on the mesh.

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KD9KCK
Are there any routers that support using both 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz on the mesh.
I am looking into is there are routers that would be able to be both a 2.4ghz and 5.8 ghz node at the same time. I know many of them have dual band radio. But as see on the chat that doesn't mean you can actually use it on both bands for the mesh. 
AE6XE
AE6XE's picture
If there is a dual band
If there is a dual band device with both chipsets 802.11n, this could be selectable by band, and possibly both configured to work at the same time in mesh mode.   The known dual band devices are 802.11n on 2Ghz and 802.11ac chipset on 5Ghz.  the 802.11ac chipset doesn't yet have all the necessary features in the open source community to use yet.  The 802.11ac adhoc mode we use isn't stable yet, and 5/10 MHz channels aren't implemented, also part 97 channels.

Joe AE6XE
KD9KCK
 

 

GL-AR750 seems to have a chipset that can support 802.11ac/a/n. https://www.qualcomm.com/products/qca9887 https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar750 

It might be a go device to try and experiment on. If I can figure out how AREDN's source is even formated to try and do any deving on it. (Even for just try out some odd stuff with the mesh firmware)

K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
BaseBox5 with R11e-2HPnD card is dual band.
I haven't brought this up yet, but I've got my development BaseBox5 here (see photo below) with a R11e-2HPnD Mini-PCIe 'daughtercard' installed in it. I may start a separate post with this request, but I figure this would be a good interjection.

When you install the R11e-2HPnD card into a BaseBox5 you have a dual-band system with 4 RP-SMA's poking out of the top of your BaseBox. This would give you a dual-band system (30dBm/1 Watt each) with a single Ethernet port and single power input. The R11e-2HPnD is 30dBm 2.4GHz radio with AREDN-compatible chipset (AR9580) and should be 'AREDN-able' (I just made up a word). I don't think we can do this yet, but I'd be willing to ship Joe a R11e-2HPnD to kick it off (I assume you have a BB5 laying around). 

Here are the links to make a dual-band BaseBox: 

R11e-2HPnD MikroTik 802.11b/g/n High Power miniPCI-e card ($40)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-R11e-2HPnD-Mikrotik-802-11b-g-n-High-Power-...

Likewise any BaseBox2 can host this 5GHz Mini-PCIe card (but it only does 27dBm, so I use the BB5 as the host and R11e-2HPnD as the daughtercard):
MikroTik R11e-5HnD, High power 802.11a/n dual chain wireless card MiniPCI-e, 500mW
https://amazon.com/Mikrotik-R11e-5HnD-802-11a-wireless-miniPCI/dp/B00HX3...

The advantage that the dual-radio BaseBox has is that it has the smallest physical footprint, most efficient DC-power per bandwidth usage, and allows you to cut your PoE injectors and cables and mounts in half (cost savings). It also allows you to avoid a physical DtD connection.

-Damon K9CQB
 
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