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Forum Discussion
Orbi - why can't we change channels on satellites?
Wireless design best practice when installing multiple access points in an area is to have non-overlapping channels. So if you have 3 APs (RBR50, 2-RBS50) in an area, for 2.4 GHz, one AP would be cha...
It has been suggested on this thread that Mesh networks by definition share the same channels for satellites, that is simply not true. The Google Wifi mesh network negotiates channels amongst the satellites and each can be on its own channel to avoid interference.
I see that people have asked for manually setting the channel, I would much rather that Orbi was smart and picked optimal channels for each and every satellite. To be honest, I niavely assumed that Orbi did just that and have some regret about not discovering the limitation before my purchase.
As someone mentioned, the only advantage is more seamless low-latency switching between access points. However, in my home the latency is hardly an issue when compared say to cellular tower switching.
I certainly hope a software update might add channel optimization !
markalan wrote:
It has been suggested on this thread that Mesh networks by definition share the same channels for satellites, that is simply not true.
This idea in people head comes from very basic designs where mesh and client make use of the same radio.
markalan wrote:
I see that people have asked for manually setting the channel, I would much rather that Orbi was smart and picked optimal channels for each and every satellite. To be honest, I niavely assumed that Orbi did just that and have some regret about not discovering the limitation before my purchase.
Agree. Critical point is that many legislation require using a DFS process (to avoid collisions with weather radar systems) before using the higher bands of the 5 GHz network - what can require more than one minute wait before actively sending would be allowed.
markalan wrote:
As someone mentioned, the only advantage is more seamless low-latency switching between access points. However, in my home the latency is hardly an issue when compared say to cellular tower switching.
There is no problem - roaming does happen anyway, and using the same process, same standard, regardless of the next AP radio channel. However I doubt it's smart to have heavily overlapping wireless range from routers and satellites on the same channels for the obvious reasons.