[Guide] Slate AX / Flint - 802.11k/v/r/s & Mesh Support

Technical Support for Routers
1

Tested FW version: 4.1.0-166

  1. Reset to factory defaults
  2. Never touch the Wi-Fi from the GL.iNet Wireless page, only use LuCI for Wi-Fi
  3. SSH to the router
  4. Type opkg update && opkg remove wpad-openssl && opkg install wpad-openssl --force-overwrite
  5. Configure mesh like you would from OpenWrt Wiki in LuCI.

My current mesh configuration to be used as an example with 802.11r and 802.11kv using usteer:

Slate AX is the mesh main

Command: opkg install usteer ; service usteer enable ; server usteer start

Content: /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/soc/c000000.wifi'
        option band '5g'
        option htmode 'HE80'
        option htmod 'HE80'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'
        option channel '161'
        option channels '36,40,44,48,149,153,157,161,165'
        option rts '500'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option ssid 'Example'
        option dtim_period '3'
        option key 'password'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'
        option rrm_neighbor_report '1'
        option rrm_beacon_report '1'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'
        option ft_over_ds '0'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/soc/c000000.wifi+1'
        option band '2g'
        option cell_density '0'
        option noscan '1'
        option channel '11'
        option htmode 'HE40'
        option rts '500'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Example-2.4G'
        option dtim_period '3'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option key 'password'
        option skip_inactivity_poll '1'
        option disassoc_low_ack '0'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'
        option rrm_neighbor_report '1'
        option rrm_beacon_report '1'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'
        option ft_over_ds '0'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'mesh'
        option encryption 'sae'
        option mesh_id 'Example-Mesh'
        option mesh_fwding '1'
        option mesh_rssi_threshold '0'
        option key 'password'
        option network 'lan'

Archer C7 v2 is the mesh peer

Command: opkg remove wpad-basic-wolfssl ; opkg install wpad-wolfssl
Command: opkg install usteer ; service usteer enable ; server usteer start

Content: /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0'
        option band '5g'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option cell_density '0'
        option channel '161'
        option rts '500'
        option beacon_int '100'
        option country 'US'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/ahb/18100000.wmac'
        option band '2g'
        option cell_density '0'
        option noscan '1'
        option htmode 'HT40'
        option disabled '0'
        option rts '500'
        option beacon_int '100'
        option channel '3'
        option country 'US'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet1'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Example'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option dtim_period '3'
        option key 'password'
        option network 'lan'
        option skip_inactivity_poll '1'
        option disassoc_low_ack '0'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option ft_over_ds '0'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
        option device 'radio1'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'Example-2.4G'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option dtim_period '3'
        option key 'password'
        option network 'lan'
        option skip_inactivity_poll '1'
        option disassoc_low_ack '0'
        option bss_transition '1'
        option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
        option time_advertisement '2'
        option time_zone 'GMT0'
        option ieee80211k '1'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option ft_over_ds '0'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet3'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'mesh'
        option encryption 'sae'
        option mesh_id 'Example-Mesh'
        option mesh_fwding '1'
        option mesh_rssi_threshold '0'
        option skip_inactivity_poll '1'
        option disassoc_low_ack '0'
        option key 'password'
        option network 'lan'

Extras:

  • usteer can also help certain devices to steer from 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz with equal SSID (requires configuration - not recommended)
  • Compared to WDS (fake bridging/L3) and “Extender” (proxy/relay ARP): with roaming the transition speed with mesh/802.11s is around 60ms, 130ms without, making 802.11r actually useful with mesh or wired back haul/dumb-AP, whereas it’s somewhat useless with repeaters and WDS as they take ~350ms on average when roaming. It is noticeable with VoWiFi calls silent periods and video calls reducing quality & taking a minute before restoring full bit rate.
  • Use FT-over-Air for roaming.
  • IPv6 is more stable with 802.11s than WDS/RA-relay from my tests.
  • 802.11k/v is only useful with Windows, Pixel + few Android phones, and modern Linux distros.You can skip usteer and k/v configuration.
  • usteer is needed for 802.11k/v , to check peering info ubus call usteer get_clients
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Performance tests with official OpenWrt builds (21.02.1):

Slate AX WDS to:

  • Atheros QCA9880: WDS 180Mbit down / 160Mbit up 15ms max, slows down to 90 after 12 hours
  • MediaTek MT7615N: WDS 150Mbit down / 70Mbit up with 400ms latency on load, stable speed

Notes

  1. Both cutoff randomly every few days requiring a restart.
  2. There is a noticeable packet loss on client connect/disconnect in simultaneous mode: AP and Client (WDS) a.k.a Repeater mode.

Slate AX Mesh/802.11s to:

  • Atheros QCA9880: 260Mbit down / 210 Mbit up 20ms max, stable for weeks
  • MediaTek MT7615N: 290Mbit down / 200 Mbit up 30ms max, no latency increase, stable for weeks
  • Unofficial OpenWrt build is doing ~400Mbit with Atheros QCA9880

To add more, including Slate AX to Flint and recent Mediatek (since they’re contributing to Linux mainline now)

3

Thank you for sharing.
One question, in the performance test, is Slate AX used as the main node(AP mode)?

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Yes it’s the main router. Both doing AP+Mesh (LAN bridge) and the Slate is the main gateway.

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Update for latest release (4.2), GL.iNet’s DAWN is outdated, start a fresh install and replace /etc/opkg/distfeeds.conf with:

src/gz glinet_core https://fw.gl-inet.com/releases/v21.02-SNAPSHOT/kmod-4.2.1/arm_cortex-a7/ip60xx
#src/gz glinet_gli_pub https://fw.gl-inet.com/releases/v21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages-4.1/arm_cortex-a7/glinet
#src/gz opnwrt_packages https://fw.gl-inet.com/releases/v21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages-4.0/arm_cortex-a7/packages

src/gz openwrt_base https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages/arm_cortex-a7/base
src/gz openwrt_luci https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages/arm_cortex-a7/luci
src/gz openwrt_packages https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages/arm_cortex-a7/packages
src/gz openwrt_routing https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages/arm_cortex-a7/routing
src/gz openwrt_telephony https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/packages/arm_cortex-a7/telephony

opkg update && opkg remove wpad-openssl --force-depends && opkg install wpad-openssl --force-overwrite

Then install and configure DAWN after enabling 802.11r in LuCI, you just need to check the box. Do not use WPA3 or sae-mixed.

Rename keyword radio0 and radio1 in /etc/config/wireless to anything else since the repeater app seems to overwrite changes.

With DAWN’s default kicking set to mode 3, reduce all APs transmission power to ~15dB for 5Ghz, 10dB for 2.4Ghz depending on your setup.
Note that DAWN may cause tiny latency spikes every 5 seconds for a duration of 30ms delaying packet by 100ms measured on Slate AX, this is caused by background scanning.

Mods: It may be useful to enable Wiki mode in Discourse, can’t edit original.

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