Users Guide

Table Of Contents
Dell PowerConnect ArubaOS 5.0 | User Guide Secure Enterprise Mesh | 191
points that facilitate wireless communication between wired LANs. Mesh portals in a mesh cluster do not need to
be on the same VLAN. Figure 33 shows two mesh clusters and their relationship to the controller.
Figure 33 Sample Mesh Clusters
Mesh Links
In simple terms, the mesh link is the data link between a mesh point and its parent. A mesh point uses the
parameters defined in the mesh cluster, specifically the mesh cluster profile, to establish a mesh link with a
neighboring mesh point. The mesh link uses a series of metrics to establish the best path to the mesh portal.
The following list describes how mesh links are created.
z Creating the initial mesh link
When creating the initial mesh link, mesh points look for others advertising the same MSSID as the one
contained in its mesh cluster profile. The mesh point scans the channels in its provisioned band of operation
to identify a list of neighbors that match its mesh cluster profile. The mesh point then selects the from
highest priority neighbors based on the least expected path cost.
If no provisioned mesh cluster profile is unavailable, mesh points use the recovery profile to establish an
uplink. If multiple cluster profiles are configured. mesh points search in order of priority their list of
provisioned backup mesh cluster profiles to establish an uplink. If the configured profiles are unavailable after
searching for 5 minutes, the recovery profile is used.
z Moving to a better mesh link
If the existing uplink quality degrades below the configured threshold, and a lower cost or more preferable
uplink is available on the same channel and cluster, the mesh point reselects that link without re-scanning. In
some cases, this invalidates all of the entries that have this mesh point as a next hop to the destination and
triggers new learning of the bridge tables.
cluster one
cluster two
mesh portal
mesh point
mesh portal
mesh point
controller
Note: Through out the rest of this chapter, the term “uplink” is also used to distinguish the active association between a mesh
point and its parent.