How does the mesh network work?

[whitenack]

Does each unit need to be hardwired to each other to maintain network performance, or do the connect with each other wirelessly? If they connect wirelessly, do they suffer performance troubles like wifi repeaters do?

Also, I don't see power over ethernet mentioned anywhere. I'm assuming it's not included? (not complaining, just checking).

 

[kmaxima]

They do not have to be hardwired, the mesh network is achieved through wifi. As for performance, that's probably a bit of an unknown until some people get their hands on the system and try it out. Might suggest looking at some reviews for Eero if you are interesting in seeing the general technology and how it performs as it is essentially the same thing.

As for power over ethernet, I doubt it as it is not mentioned and each unit comes with a power adapter.

 

[srkmagnus]

Does each unit need to be hardwired to each other to maintain network performance, or do the connect with each other wirelessly? If they connect wirelessly, do they suffer performance troubles like wifi repeaters do?

Also, I don't see power over ethernet mentioned anywhere. I'm assuming it's not included? (not complaining, just checking).

Here is some information on mesh networking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network

It looks like the WiFi points connect wirelessly to expand the signal, kind of like a repeater. It performs a little different in that the WiFi units will choose the best band for your device so that you can receive the best possible data signal while using that particular device. It's a little more technical than that, but that's what I gather from the materials I've seen posted. Here's a post on their Blog: https://blog.google/products/google-wifi/introducing-new-kind-wi-fi-system/

Edit: I was sitting on this before posting it, and got beat by kmaxima .

 

[Rocky5000100]

Mesh network WiFi has been implemented successfully in business for years. My company has been running Cisco routers that do this for 8+ years now. They hand you off to the next router. I'm sure Google WiFi will have some advancements in this technology with faster handoff, considering it's much newer.

Google WiFi is the easy to use mesh network I've been waiting for at my home, allowing for easy setup through the app. The features, such as "pausing" a child's network connection on his/her phone, are appealing. The Cisco one we use at work is obviously much more complex and requires good networking knowledge.

 

[PhiPsi32]

I have similar questions as OP. My grandparents live in a ranch style house, single story, U shaped. WiFi signal degrades very quickly. Such that the router on one wing of the house does not reach the other wing. So a three pack would work pretty well (one in the middle of each leg of the house) provided they can reach each other. That's my dilemma, what are the optimal distances these units will work under "typical" conditions? I know its context dependent, but has anyone tried to measure this?

 

[jam4775]

Mesh network WiFi has been implemented successfully in business for years. My company has been running Cisco routers that do this for 8+ years now. They hand you off to the next router. I'm sure Google WiFi will have some advancements in this technology with faster handoff, considering it's much newer.

Google WiFi is the easy to use mesh network I've been waiting for at my home, allowing for easy setup through the app. The features, such as "pausing" a child's network connection on his/her phone, are appealing. The Cisco one we use at work is obviously much more complex and requires good networking knowledge.

Your work most likely is not the same kind of mesh network talked about here... most large Cisco Wi-Fi networks use lightweight AP's (Access Points) with a wireless controller... in these types of environments all of the AP's are hardwired and all of the network traffic from wireless clients are routed directly back to the wireless controller over the Ethernet cable from the AP and then dumped onto the rest of the network... in environments like this you typically don't see AP's connecting to the network wirelessly back to a primary AP, as performance would suffer because there would be far too many wireless hops back to a primary AP.

Now the Google Wi-Fi devices do connect to the network wirelessly back to the primary AP so you don't need a network cable. In home a network you most likely will not see more than 1 or 2 hops from the Primary AP so you shouldn't see much if any performance decrease from hardwired AP's unless you have your AP's too far apart.

So that brings me to my question... are the 2nd and 3rd Google Wi-Fi devices also able to be hardwired to the network... as in passing network traffic from clients back to the primary AP/Router over the ethernet cable. I know there's a couple network ports on them but are they just for clients to connect to or can you connect back to the primary AP/Router with it too.

The reason I ask is there's some situations where you can't create a fully wireless mesh network because you can't get AP's close enough to each other to create a good wireless link between them. I have a second garage that's too far away from my house to be able to create a good link wirelessly... although currently I have network already hardwired out there with a second AP for wireless out there... but what sucks is my 2 AP's have to be managed separately. I'd like to have 2 Google Wi-Fi devices setup in my house (one upstairs and one downstairs) and then a 3rd hardwired to the network in the second garage... and then be able to manage them all of the Google app.

If these Google Wi-Fi AP's are NOT designed to be linked to each other via hardwire and you try to do this you'll quickly create an ARP loop/broadcast storm and crash your network... that's why I'm asking.

 

[PhiPsi32]

So that brings me to my question... are the 2nd and 3rd Google Wi-Fi devices also able to be hardwired to the network... as in passing network traffic from clients back to the primary AP/Router over the ethernet cable. I know there's a couple network ports on them but are they just for clients to connect to or can you connect back to the primary AP/Router with it too.

Also wondering this.

 

[whitenack]

If they aren't able to, that's a dealbreaker in my opinion. Otherwise, what's the difference with these and just a simple repeater? It is my understanding that a repeater cuts your network speed in half in the best of circumstances.

 

[lindseybp]

Also wondering this.

Go ask on the amazon page. Google seems to be answering a lot of questions like this on the product page there.

 

[whitenack]

Found this image on the Best Buy website (currently having a Black Friday sale [along with other retailers]). Looks like there is a WAN port and LAN port (check the different Icons).

 

[PhiPsi32]

From Amazon:

Question
"If I have wired Ethernet throughout my house, can I physically plug in each unit to the network and have them function as one mesh wifi this way?"

Answer
"If you hardwire the units, you will still get a single Wi-Fi network throughout your house. The points will use Ethernet for connectivity between the points. "

 

[robber]

If they aren't able to, that's a dealbreaker in my opinion. Otherwise, what's the difference with these and just a simple repeater? It is my understanding that a repeater cuts your network speed in half in the best of circumstances.

A repeater is not mesh, each ap is separate and they do not hand off devices to each other. In most cases, you will have two ssids and need to manually switch between them.

New repeaters are getting better about halving speeds, I have one set up to extend a 2.4ghz network. It wirelessly backhauls to my main router on the 5 ghz band. This allows 2.4 to not see a performance decrease. I would imagine that google is doing similar, and might even be making decisions in real time and adjusting/ auto routing traffic across bands.

 

[PhiPsi32]

I finally got around to setting these up. It appears that the additional access points each need to be in range of the primary access point for wireless. To get around this, I used a power line adapter to wire the outlying access point to the hub. The mesh test rates this wifi point as "Fair", but the speed tests are nominal. Overall, it works well. No complaints so far.

 

[RockMe34]

I have a three pack setup in my home since initial release date. Replaced my Verizon FIOS router and two repeaters. System works great and I have no dead spots. Just download the phone app "Google Wifi "" and follow the instructions. Set up the system wirelessly first. 30 to 40ft between units should give a strong or " good " system check. Mesh network is now established (wirelessly). Then, if desired and able, you can hardwire the 2nd and 3rd units back to the primary wifi point and move units farther apart while maintaining strong mesh single. My hardwired setup: Verizon router --> primary google unit --> 16 port netgear switch --> everything else which includes 10-15 wired devices, switches, 2nd and 3rd google wifi units. I have FIOS 80mbps up/down. I have walked around my house (30ft away) streaming video w/ no stuttering. I think it is a good system for average home owner w/ minimal knowledge of configuring routers. Phone app is great w/ lots of info and control. Network geeks will want a router that's more configurable over the internet (instead of phone app).

 

[Wildo6882]

I'm really curious as to if this would work for me, too.

I have a roughly 2700 sq ft house. It's one story and makes almost a zig zag shape. The modem and router I have now are in the living room. You get 60-75 Mbps in the living room. It drops down to about 20-35 in the last bedroom which is at the other end of the house. It's probably about a 30 foot walk down the hall from the living room to the master. But it's only about 15 feet from the windows in the living room to the master (if that makes sense).

Does everyone think I could hardwire the main access point to my modem in the living room and then put another access point in the master and have a good mesh network connection?

 

[PhiPsi32]

Generally speaking, yes, 30ft is doable. YMMV based on building construction and other obstacles in between. If your attic is contiguous, you may consider running a network cable up to the attic across to the bedroom(s) and then fish it down to create a wired connection.

 

[jam4775]

So that brings me to my question... are the 2nd and 3rd Google Wi-Fi devices also able to be hardwired to the network... as in passing network traffic from clients back to the primary AP/Router over the ethernet cable. I know there's a couple network ports on them but are they just for clients to connect to or can you connect back to the primary AP/Router with it too.

A couple months ago I pick up a 3 pack of Google Wi-Fi and so far they have been great. You can definitely hardware each of these units. There is no setting changes required to hardware them, it will automatically detect whether you are hardwared or not. Although you will need to initially set them up using wireless... I recommend you have them next to each other for the initial setup, then once setup put them where you want them and plug in the network cables.

These devices are only 2x2 and they will use one of the radios for Backhaul traffic. Because of this performance will be slower on the non-primary points if you are using wireless backhaul. Most people will not notice this reduced speed for internet traffic because you'll still see 250Mbs speed on the secondary points. But for me since I have Gigabit internet service I want to hardwire my points. Currently I am getting around 400Mbs download speeds across all of my points. I am perfectly happy with this.

There other systems out there that are faster like the Linksys Velop... But at $500 for the Velop system I could not justify the price. And I don't really have any devices that take advantage of the faster speeds of the Velop. At $260 for the 3 pack of Google Wi-Fi it was a much better buy for me.

I can't express enough how much better a system like this is than a range extender. This system is sooo much easier to setup and manage than a range extender and you have a single wireless network/SSID. And a single place to manage it all. It's the same feeling I got at work when I switched my 30 autonomous APs over to lightweight APs and controller.

 

[tomasz1984]

Mesh nеtwоrking iѕ a tуре оf nеtwоrk topology, or layout, in which a device, or the technical term is node, trаnѕmitѕ itѕ оwn dаtа as wеll аѕ ѕеrvеѕ аѕ a rеlау fоr оthеr nоdеѕ.

In thе еvеnt оf a hаrdwаrе failure, mаnу rоutеѕ are available tо соntinuе thе nеtwоrk соmmuniсаtiоn process. Exciting

According to:
https://www.smarthomegeeks.co.uk/what-is/mesh-network/