Guys, I’m wondering what tech the mesh is using, is it a mesh protocol or just bridging/rtsp or what?
And along those lines, if making a ‘ring’ how is directionallity and loop avoidance handled? RSTP on the switch ports?
ie, switch1>AP1>AP2>AP3>AP4>AP5>switch1. Which direction does AP3 data go? I’m not finding this info anywhere.
I have a need to build a hybrid distribution with some nodes wired and some mesh links.
Hi @danden! We use a proprietary uplink system, and it takes into account signal strengths, how many hops to the wired network, etc. So it depends where AP3 would connect, it could connect to AP1 or AP2, etc.
There are a lot of variables 
how fast is it though, if it has to switch directions what kind of delay and/or drop in comms is to be expected?
@Alta-MattH - I’m back in need of building an outdoor mesh and Unifi isn’t cutting it.
Is there a hard limit on the number of mesh hops (not practical limit, just a fixed limit)
Can multiple Alta 6 outdoor units be ‘mesh gateways’. ie, if I have a high capacity backbone and want to put 4 alta outdoor 6 in 4 spots, will that be one mesh and clients can take the best route ‘off theme mesh’
how quickly does the AP pick a new direction?
I’m comparing directly to the Eero 7 Outdoor for this project, which uses Eeros proprietary mesh tech. it handles these things pretty well, but Eero isn’t a great partner for these things and lacks some key components.
ie, I want to use the PPSK feature, and set channels, and I like the AP6 Pro Outdoor as a nicer piece of hardware. And it’s 4x4.
Each successive hop is going to diminish your throughput at that AP by roughly half on any wireless AP you use which doesn’t have a dedicated mesh uplink radio.
In my testing, our devices tend to search pretty hard for a wired AP to parent themselves to. If you were to centralize an AP and then add a ring of APs within range of that home AP, you could probably get a decent mesh going. I would not recommend trying to daisy chain your mesh uplinks together.
Additionally, I want to stress that mesh networks are first and foremost a fallback in case the wired connection fails. It is not a great technology for serving high bandwidth needs or permanent installations if it can be avoided.