Administrator Guide

to carry mesh-backhaul traffic only. Additionally, a mesh point can provide LAN-to-LAN Ethernet bridging by
sending tagged/untagged VLAN traffic across a mesh backhaul/network to a mesh portal.
Mesh points use one of their wireless interfaces to carry traffic and reach the controller. Mesh points are also
aware of potential neighbors, and can form new mesh links if the current mesh link is no longer preferred or
available.
Mesh Clusters
Mesh clusters are similar to an Extended-Service Set (ESS) in a WLAN infrastructure. A mesh cluster is a logical
set of mesh nodes that share the common connection and security parameters required to create mesh links.
Mesh clusters are grouped and defined by a mesh cluster profile, as described in “Mesh Cluster Profile”.
Mesh clusters may enforce predictability in mesh networking by limiting the amount of concurrent mesh
points, hop counts, and bandwidth used in the mesh network. A mesh cluster can have multiple mesh portals
and mesh points that facilitate wireless communication between wired LANs. Mesh portals in a mesh cluster do
not need to be on the same VLAN. Figure 73 shows two mesh clusters and their relationship to the controller.
Figure 73 Sample Mesh Clusters
Understanding Mesh Links
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 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.
Throughout the rest of this chapter, the term “uplink” is used to distinguish the active association between a mesh
point and its parent.
The following list describes how mesh links are created:
l 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.
Dell Networking W-Series ArubaOS 6.4.x | User Guide Secure Enterprise Mesh | 624