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Troubleshooting Mesh Communication between Access Points

In a mesh wireless network, gateway access points are wired directly to the network, while repeater access points rely on wireless mesh links to get network
connectivity. If a repeater AP goes down or has an unreliable connection, it will likely be unreachable from Dashboard. However, helpful troubleshooting
information can be gathered both on-site and from nearby nodes in Dashboard.

This document outlines steps to troubleshoot repeater connectivity from the perspective of its online mesh neighbors.

The following steps are recommended to troubleshoot problems with mesh connectivity:

1. Determining Dashboard status

2. Check for Mesh Neighbors

3. Check Mesh Routes

4. Check radio settings

5. Physical inspection

6. Packet captures

Determining Dashboard Status

During normal operation a repeater will appear as a green icon in Dashboard. In this state, a repeater will:

• Advertise SSIDs configured in Dashboard

• Allow clients to associate and pass traffic.

• Update Dashboard with statistics and download its configuration.

• Allow for full use of supported Live tools

Normal Operation

A working mesh connection is shown below. Repeater “Roberta” has a 1-hop route to reach the “Rosehill Pole” gateway AP. In this instance, both APs are mesh
neighbors because they share a common channel (channel 44 highlighted in yellow) and are within range of each other and are located in the same Dashboard
network.

The

Mesh Networking

and

Mesh Deployment Guide

discuss important concepts

which should be taken into account before using this troubleshooting guide.
Therefore, review those articles prior to using this guide.

Note:

Dashboard mesh stats are not updated in real-time. There can be considerable delay between what is happening in real-time and what is

reported in Dashboard. Furthermore, if a repeater cannot communicate with Dashboard, the information on its details page is likely stale.

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Summary of Contents for MERAKI MR66

Page 1: ... as a green icon in Dashboard In this state a repeater will Advertise SSIDs configured in Dashboard Allow clients to associate and pass traffic Update Dashboard with statistics and download its configuration Allow for full use of supported Live tools Normal Operation A working mesh connection is shown below Repeater Roberta has a 1 hop route to reach the Rosehill Pole gateway AP In this instance b...

Page 2: ...ng APs operating on channel 44 Figure 2 The repeater as listed in the mesh neighbors table of the gateway Figure 3 The repeater listing its 1 hop route to the gateway showing the gateway in its mesh neighbors table 2 ...

Page 3: ...a repeater can be seen by toggling the Connectivity graph on the AP details page Place the mouse pointer over the colored lines on the graph to view the timeframe of mesh connectivity status changes Check for Mesh Neighbors If two APs operate on the same channel and are within range of each other they can become mesh neighbors Mesh neighbors exchange mesh route information allowing repeaters to di...

Page 4: ...sh connectivity issues check the mesh route table on that AP s details page under Wireless Monitor Access points The repeater experiencing issues in Dashboard For each route reported there should be a mesh neighbor one hop away Since the repeater will communicate directly with those APs to get online it is important to ensure that those routes are healthy After determining which AP is the repeater...

Page 5: ...t provides an example of how to compare the channel information using the details page of both APs Additionally the channel and transmit power configuration on the Radio settings page should be also be verified Figure 8 Two APs each AP is set to a different 2 4GHz channel and the transmit power is off These devices will not mesh Figure 9 Two APs manually configured to use channel 36 with a transmi...

Page 6: ... spectrum Check this page to find any indications of high channel utilization If there is high utilization on certain channels a manual channel adjustment may be necessary Physical Inspection If an offline repeater is not showing up as a mesh neighbor of nearby APs there may be a physical issue that requires on site troubleshooting In particular it may be necessary to spot check mesh APs for signs...

Page 7: ...s used verify it is at the correct elevation Packet Captures When troubleshooting a mesh link packet captures may be required in order to analyze traffic between APs These promiscuous mode packet captures must be taken using external monitoring stations to effectively capture all nearby wireless traffic A monitor should be placed near each AP and configured to capture packets on the channels being...

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