Advanced Configuration Profile and Mesh Device Settings

After you have configured a device group for the non-root APs and a device group for the root AP, configure the Profile settings:
  • Verify configuration Profile Advanced settings.
  • Configure Profile Edit Mesh Device Settings.

Profile Advanced Settings

Verify configuration Profile Advanced settings:

  1. Go to Configure > Sites and select a site.
  2. Select Device Groups.
  3. Next to the Profile field, select .
  4. Select Advanced.
    • A single mesh point is supported on multiple radios for a single AP. You can use different channels for each hop of a multiple hop mesh network. This can improve air time utilization and possibly increase throughput. However, multiple hops do not improve latency, so a best practice is to keep the number of hops less than two.
    • Radio settings for the root-AP and non-root APs must match.
    • When you add or remove a mesh point from a radio, the AP will reboot.
    • Dual-band support is available with Mesh Point. When one radio is configured for Mesh Point, both radios can provide service.
    • The recommended Poll Timeout setting for non-root APs is 60 seconds.
    • Transparent Bridge — To configure a Transparent Bridge, from the GE2 Port Function field select Bridge.

Edit Mesh Device Settings

Configure Profile Edit Mesh Device Settings. The Edit Mesh Device Settings depend on the device group AP model: Wi-Fi 6 or AP39xx.
Note

Note

Configuration parameters you set from the configuration Profile Mesh Points tab apply to all APs in a device group. To override settings for a specific AP, see the AP Advanced Overrides. For more information, see the ExtremeCloud IQ Controller User Guide.
  1. On the Profile Mesh Points tab, select a mesh network from the AP radio drop-down list.
    Note

    Note

    The access points are limited to one mesh point. Multiple radios can be configured for a single mesh point.
  2. Select Advanced.
    The Edit Mesh Device Settings dialog opens.
  3. Configure the following settings:
    Table 1. Mesh Device Settings
    AP Model Option AP Behavior
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Root
    Note: Wi-Fi 6 access points can be part of the same mesh network, but they cannot participate in a mesh network with AP39xx. AP39xx access points must be a separate mesh network from the Wi-Fi 6 APs.
    		 A root mesh point is defined as a mesh point that is connected to the WAN and provides a wired backhaul to the network. Select the root behavior of this mesh point.
    • Yes — Mesh point is root node for this mesh network.
    • No — Mesh point is not a root node for this mesh network. (Additional settings display.)
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Monitor Primary Port Link (Available for root APs) With Monitor Primary Port Link enabled, if a root AP loses connection to the backhaul, the non-root APs scan for a new root AP and the original root performs service as a non-root AP. When the original root AP restores connectivity, it resumes the role of root AP. Through the use of Automatic Channel Selection (ACS), the optimum path is restored.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Preferred Neighbor (Available for non-root APs) Select the preferred Neighbor (AP name and radio) from a list of APs with a root or non-root mesh radio.

    When a non-root AP can see mesh beacons from more than one neighbor, this setting configures the AP to prefer one beacon over all others when choosing a path back to the root.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Preferred Root (Available for non-root APs) Select the preferred root AP from a list of APs with a root mesh radio. Use this setting to balance the number of mesh points reporting to a specific root AP.
    Radio Settings
    Note: Dual-band support is available with Mesh Point. When one radio is configured for Mesh Point, both radios can provide service.
    		 Radio settings for the root-AP and non-root APs must match.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Channel Width Represents the desired channel width. The channel width is set for all APs in a device group. Available options include:
    • Auto – Channel width is calculated automatically by the AP. It is displayed in the user interface for informational purposes only.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Channel Plan Non-root APs are configured with Mesh ACS (Automatic Channel Selection). This allows the non-root AP to follow the channel and width of the uplink AP. The non-root AP scans channels to find the best path to a root AP. Preferred Root and Preferred Neighbor settings influence the path to the root AP.

    For APs that support 6 GHz, PSC Channel is an option. Because numerous channels are offered on the 6 GHz band, it is a best practice to configure the Preferred Scanning Channel (PSC) so that the amount of probing is kept to a minimum. Preferred channels function as primary channels at each channel width: 20, 40, 80, and 160 MHz.

    Note: Upon upgrade from earlier revisions, non-root APs in a mesh network are converted to Mesh ACS to determine the best channel.
    Note: Path Minimum and Path Threshold are settings that refer to values in the Mesh Route Table. They are metric values determined by an algorithm that indicate when ACS scans for a better mesh point radio channel.

    The best route path algorithm includes elements such as hop count, data rates, RSSI, and loss rate. A perfect score is 1179.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Path Minimum The minimum root path metric value is used to evaluate the channel during the Mesh ACS scan process. Only the mesh point with a root path metric less than the minimum root path is considered a candidate mesh point that can hop to the mesh point root.

    Valid values are 100-20000. Default value is 1000. The lower metric value indicates a better quality mesh link to the root.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Path Threshold The maximum root path metric value that determines when to evaluate the mesh point radio channel for a better path to the gateway. When the current path metric value exceeds this threshold, an ACS scan is triggered on the mesh point. Valid values are 800-65535. Default value is 1500. Setting this value below 1500 will result in more frequent channel scans.
    Wi-Fi 6 AP models Tolerance Period

    This is a buffer period (in seconds) between when the metric value exceeds the Path Threshold and the scan begins. Set the number of seconds to allow the root path metric to recover before a scan begins.

    Valid values are 10-600. Default value is 60.
    AP39xx Root
    • Yes - Mesh point is root node for this mesh network.
    • No - Mesh point is not a root node for this mesh network.
    AP39xx Only Path Selection Method Select the method used for path selection in a mesh network. Available options include:
    • Uniform – The path selection method is uniform (two paths are considered equivalent if the average value is the same for these paths). Use this method for regular infrastructure meshing.
    • SNR-Leaf – Use this method in special infrastructure cases when it is more desirable to make path decisions based on SNR than on metric values.
    AP39xx Only Hysteresis Minimum Threshold This is the minimum SNR value to consider a candidate for the next hop in a dynamic mesh network. For the AP39xx, this value maps to the Roaming Threshold value.
    • 100dB to 85dB maps to Low
    • 84dB to 70dB maps to Medium
    • 69dB to 0dB maps to High
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