As Wi-Fi becomes an essential part of our daily lives, ensuring that every corner of your home or business has strong, reliable coverage is more important than ever. Traditional Wi-Fi networks, with a single router or access point, often struggle to provide seamless coverage in larger spaces or areas with obstacles like walls or floors. This is where mesh networks come into play. UniFi, Ubiquiti’s line of networking products, offers powerful mesh networking capabilities that can help you extend your Wi-Fi coverage and ensure consistent performance across your entire space. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about setting up a UniFi mesh network.

What is a Mesh Network?

A mesh network consists of access points (APs) that are wirelessly connected to each other, with client devices connected wirelessly to them, as opposed to everything being hardwired to your network. This setup enables you to minimize dead zones and create a continuous wireless network, especially when it is difficult to run cables to certain locations.

In a UniFi mesh network, each node is typically a UniFi access point (AP), and these APs work together to blanket your home, office, or campus with strong Wi-Fi coverage. If one node is too far from the others or experiences interference, the mesh network can reroute traffic through another node, maintaining a stable connection.

Note: Wireless meshing must be enabled in your Network Application settings.

Benefits of a UniFi Mesh Network

1. Seamless Coverage: Mesh networks eliminate dead zones by providing consistent coverage across large areas, including multi-story homes, offices, or outdoor spaces.
2. Scalability: UniFi mesh networks are highly scalable. You can start with just a few nodes and add more as your needs grow, ensuring that your network can expand without major disruptions.
3. Easy Management: The UniFi Controller provides a centralized interface for managing all your APs. You can monitor performance, adjust settings, and deploy updates across your entire network from a single dashboard.
4. Automatic Routing: Mesh networks automatically reroute traffic through the most efficient paths, ensuring that your devices always have the best possible connection.
5. Flexibility: UniFi offers a variety of APs, including indoor and outdoor models, allowing you to customize your mesh network to suit your specific environment and coverage needs.

Considerations for Optimal Wireless Mesh Networks

While mesh networks offer many advantages, it’s important to understand that they should be used as a supplement rather than a replacement for a wired network. Here are some key considerations for optimizing your wireless mesh network:

1. Mesh Networks Should Only Be Supplemental: It is always preferable to hardwire your equipment to your central router/gateway for optimal performance and stability. This is because meshed networks are heavily impacted by their environments. Too much radio frequency (RF) noise may result in client or AP disconnections.
2. Minimize the Number of Wireless Hops: Although you can uplink one wireless AP to another wireless AP, this is not recommended. Each wireless ‘hop’ from its internet source will reduce stability and result in nearly a 50% performance decrease. Due to this, we recommend a maximum of only two hops for a wireless AP.
3. Minimize the Number of APs Connected to the Same Uplink Parent: Although multiple wireless APs can mesh to the same uplink, this is not recommended. This creates large amounts of interference and puts an abnormally high load on the parent AP, which will degrade speed and connection stability.
4. Ensure Strong Signal Between Your Wirelessly Meshed APs: We recommend having a signal strength of at least -60 dBm between your wireless AP and its wired uplink. Lesser signal strengths may result in performance and stability issues. This can be improved by moving your wireless AP closer to its wired uplink. Also, try to keep a clear line of sight, minimizing obstruction from walls and other large objects.
5. Use Default Settings for Most Users: UniFi will automatically pick the best AP to uplink to, as well as the channel on which the APs are wirelessly connected. Although you can set these parameters manually, we advise most users to remain on the default settings because an incorrect configuration has the potential to completely break your meshed network.

Note: Both APs must use the same channel, or else you risk breaking your meshed connection.

6. Ensure a Suitable RF Environment: UniFi APs mesh over their 5 GHz frequency. A congested RF environment may degrade or completely disrupt this connectivity. You can refer to best practices for optimizing wireless client connectivity to improve this.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up a UniFi Mesh Network

1. Plan Your Network Layout

• Before setting up your mesh network, plan where you will place your APs. Consider the size and layout of your space, the number of floors, and any potential obstacles like thick walls or large furniture that could interfere with the signal. Ideally, APs should be placed in central locations to maximize coverage.

1. Install the UniFi Controller

• If you haven’t already, install the UniFi Controller software. You can download it from Ubiquiti’s website and install it on a computer or server. Alternatively, you can use a UniFi Cloud Key or host the controller in the cloud.
• Launch the UniFi Controller and follow the setup wizard to configure the basic settings of your network, including the SSID (network name) and password.

1. Connect Your APs

• Wired Connection: If possible, connect your APs to the network via Ethernet cables. This ensures the best possible performance and allows the APs to communicate directly with the UniFi Controller.
• Wireless Uplink: If running Ethernet cables is not feasible, you can connect some APs wirelessly to other APs that have a wired connection. This feature, called wireless uplink, is what makes the network a mesh, allowing APs to connect to each other wirelessly while still providing network access.

1. Adopt the APs into Your Network

• Once your APs are connected, they should appear in the UniFi Controller under the Devices section. From here, you can “adopt” each AP into your network, allowing the controller to manage it.
• Click on each AP and select Adopt. The controller will configure the AP with the network settings you specified during setup.

1. Configure Mesh Settings

• In the UniFi Controller, navigate to the Settings section and select Wireless Networks. Here, you can fine-tune the settings for your mesh network, including enabling wireless uplink if you’re using wireless connections between APs.

1. Test Your Network

• After your APs are adopted and configured, walk around your space with a connected device to test the coverage. Ensure that the device smoothly transitions between APs without dropping the connection. You can monitor the performance of each AP in real-time using the UniFi Controller.

1. Optimize Placement and Settings

• Based on your testing, you may need to adjust the placement of your APs or tweak the settings in the UniFi Controller. For example, if you notice weak spots in your coverage, try relocating an AP or adding an additional AP to the network.

1. Monitor and Maintain Your Network

• The UniFi Controller provides a wealth of data about your network’s performance, including device connections, traffic statistics, and potential issues. Regularly check the controller to ensure that your mesh network is performing optimally and update your APs’ firmware when necessary.

Best Practices for UniFi Mesh Networks

1. Use Wired Backhaul When Possible: While wireless uplink is convenient, using Ethernet cables to connect your APs will always provide better performance and reliability.
2. Limit the Number of Wireless Hops: Each wireless hop between APs can reduce the overall bandwidth available to connected devices. Try to minimize the number of hops by placing APs within range of a wired connection or each other.
3. Avoid Overlapping Channels: In the UniFi Controller, ensure that your APs are operating on non-overlapping channels to reduce interference, especially in the 2.4 GHz band.
4. Regularly Update Firmware: Ubiquiti frequently releases firmware updates that can improve the performance and stability of your APs. Keep your devices up to date to benefit from these improvements.
5. Monitor and Adjust: Wi-Fi environments can change over time as new devices are added or physical environments shift. Regularly monitor your network’s performance and be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

Conclusion

Setting up a UniFi mesh network is an excellent way to ensure comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage across large or complex environments. By strategically placing access points and configuring the network through the UniFi Controller, you can create a seamless, high-performance Wi-Fi experience that meets the needs of all your devices. Whether you’re covering a sprawling office, a multi-story home, or an outdoor space, following the steps and best practices outlined in this guide will help you build a reliable and scalable mesh network tailored to your specific needs.