Tri band router for OpenWrt

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello mates,
I was searching for any tri band router which have supported OpenWrt firmware. Actually I want to make a mesh using WDS configuration including AP enabled. TP Link or D link would be better.

Thanks.

2

Tri band...or dual band?

  • 2.4 GHz
  • 5.4 GHz
  • ???
3

You can check Netgear R8000 AC3200.
This tri-band router seems to be supported by LEDE.

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4

2.4 GHz
5.4 GHz
5.4 Ghz

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5

"Tri-band" is a marketing term being used for splitting a band (802.11ac, from what I have seen) and using two radios on it for claimed higher throughput.

Some additional information at:

6

I guess so, but there are also TRUE tri band routers using the 60GHz band 802.11ad but I don't know if there's any support at all for these.

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7

Depending on the card used for 60GHz there could easily be support as there is upstreamed wil6210 driver for some qualcomm cards

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9

Yes, Tri Band. 5GHz frequency is divided into channels for two 5GHz wifi cards.

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10

Thank you rakesh. I am trying be confirm that the tri band really works with OpenWrt. Because tri band routers are a bit expensive.

11

You dont need on ath9k based wifi devices two cards for WDS. You can just run WDS for client AND master on the same wifi chip. It works fine with 2,4ghz and 5ghz.
In general you need two cards if the device DONT support WDS. Then you run one as client and the second as master. But with WDS enabled it works great for client+master from same wifi chip.

12

You don't need tri-band, but n order to avoid the repeater effect of halving your throughout oir the repeated signal you may want it anyways.

13

Or plug in a supported wireless dongle...

14

Not a good idea, I tried it for over a year (ath9k_htc/ ar9271+ar9285 in AP mode), while it technically works, it's horribly unreliable with lots of stalled connections. Repeater effect is a better trade off than dealing with this.

15

Why did you use the ath9k_htc usb device as AP? Use it as client and the normal build in ath9k wifi as AP.

16

Because I need the much better antennas of the internal wlan card to cover the range as WDS-client (which is also the reason why I can't use the 5 GHz band for the uplink), while range for the repeated AP signal doesn't matter (it just needs to pass and outer wall plus a ~2m radius; easy for 2.4 GHz, not possible with 5 GHz). I learned my lession, USB wireless isn't reliable enough for that (neither AP mode, nor permanent operations (heat)).