Product Recommendation, WDS Network

Technical Support for Routers
1

Looking for a product recommendation to set up a WDS network.

I live out in the desert, LTE is our only option for internet and would like to distribute a single internet feed across a few villas.

Initial configuration based on a daisy chain topology using an iPhone as the modem:
iPhone*—(USB)—Router[1]—(Eth)—Router[2]—(Eth)—*Router[3]

Notes / Questions:

  1. I understand that keeping the routing hardware the same simplifies WDS stability (same same driver).

  2. Mesh not an option due to distances between routers (~100’ [30 m]) therefore WDS over ethernet.

  3. Special features not required (VPN, SD card, large onboard storage, WIFI 6 etc)

  4. Primary use cases are browsing and video streaming (IPTV, Netflix, Youtube etc), no gaming.

  5. Priorities are (in order):
    a. Stability (no time to tinker and maintain)
    b. Tethering throughput (need to maximize)
    c. Wireless strength
    d. Price to allow for future expansion.

  6. I have an AR750 Creta therefore reasonably familiar with GLiNet travel routers.

  7. In a WDS set up, is routing handled at the primary router only? i.e. does the primary router need to be specified to handle the total connected clients?

  8. If successful, I plan to expand to a total of 6 routers (2 branches of the main) bandwidth permitting.

My initial thoughts are:
GL-AR300M16-Ext Shadow -->Low cost, external antennas, upgradable antenna, but single band wifi and daisy chain only due to limited ethernet ports. Single band 2.4 GHz wifi is ok assuming enough clients can be managed. Expansion costs are low.

GL-SFT1200 Opal → Low cost, lots of ethernet, external antennas but end of life support for updates due to sunflower chip. Don’t really care about this as long as the goals are met.

GL-AR750S-Ext Slate → Forums suggests it is considered very stable (mature), best all round bang for the buck in the travel router line.

I look forward to your recommendations.

Best regards,
ZC

2

To set up WDS, you can use AR750, AR300M16 or AR750s. These three routers use the same driver so they can wds connect to each other. It just depends on if you need 5G or only 2.4G.

Using 5G is much stable, though distance may not be as far as 2.4G. But in my experience you should use 5G anyway.

Only the main router handle NAT.

Please note, you should have a main node and connect all other nodes to the main node. You should not create the router in wds like a chain. It does not work very well.

3

Thank you for the reply Alzhao.

Noted regarding daisy chaining. I presume that having a ethernet switch hanging off the main node would be fine to expand the number of slave nodes?

Also, is there any performance differences regarding tethering between the three routers mentioned?

4

AR750s has more powerful CPU than AR750 and AR300M16.
AR750 and AR300M16 only differ in with/without 5G wifi.