Linksys MR9600 Wifi6 Introduction

[chadster766]

The MR9600 is a Mesh Wifi6 router which is designed to work with the Linksys Velop Mesh system as either a primary node (router) or as a secondary node in an existing Velop system.

I've only tested the MR9600 with the Velop MX5300 Wifi6 system but plan to test compatibility with an older Velop system.

The MR9600 has an Internet\WAN port, four 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports and two USB3.0 ports.

Primary MR9600 Node WAN to LAN (Ethernet) throughput test:
Topology: WRT3200ACM (McDebian) 192.168.1.1 => Primary MR9600 (10.66.1.1) => WRT3200ACM (McDebian) 10.66.1.196

root@MCDEBIAN:~# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.1 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.1.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.1.1 is sending
[  5] local 10.66.1.196 port 45008 connected to 192.168.1.1 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   111 MBytes   935 Mbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec   112 MBytes   936 Mbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec   112 MBytes   936 Mbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec   112 MBytes   937 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   939 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  1.09 GBytes   937 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Primary MR9600 Node WAN to WLAN (5Ghz, WPA3, Wifi6, strong signal) throughput test:
Topology: WRT3200ACM (McDebian) 192.168.1.1 => Primary MR9600 (10.66.1.1) => Samsung Galaxy S20 10.66.1.34

 

[chadster766]

I hope you enjoyed this introduction of the MR9600 Wifi6 mesh router.

 

[psychopomp1]

Any particular reason why the MR9600 only supports 160mhz channel width on the DFS channels?

 

[chadster766]

Any particular reason why the MR9600 only supports 160mhz channel width on the DFS channels?

Interesting I haven't looked at the MR9600 channel width yet but I will now

If the MR9600 is using 160Mhz channel width then according to 802.11ax specs the speeds would be off the charts.

Is it causing any issues for you?

 

[chadster766]

Below are some of my standard Velop setup recommendations:

• 5Ghz doesn't pass through building materials very well so I wouldn't worry about a strong outside 5Ghz interference too much.
• According to my previous Velop testing Bridge Mode will provide the most performance since the Velop won't be doing NAT and firewalling.
• Use your sysinfo.cgi bh_report to maximize your coverage by keeping the AP\STA signal strengths to approx -65 between nodes. This will also help your wireless client roaming between nodes.
• Disable Prioritization, Node and Client Steering.
• Set Prioritization speeds manually to 1024mbps for both download and upload even though it's disabled
• Have separate SSIDs for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.
• Try to get a hub and spoke topology instead of a daisy chain.

Instructions to get the Velop sysinfo.cgi report:

1. Linksys App => Velop Administration => Click on first node in list
2. LAN => IP Address
3. Use the LAN IP Address of the node in the below URL
4. http://<your node ip address>/sysinfo.cgi
5. Login using your Velop system password and username of "admin"
6. The report will display in browser, search for "bh_report" to find the backhaul report section

The output should look like this:

bh_report
  Node (MAC)  NODE IP          PARENT IP        Intf.  Chan.   RSSI(AP/STA)      Speed  State Timestamp  
------------  ---------------  ---------------  -----  -----   ------------  ---------  ----- ------------
149182854304  192.168.200.107  192.168.200.131    5GH  161          -70/-59  155.89500     up 1581717301

If you have wired nodes disconnect the Ethernet cable, wait 5 minutes and re-run the report to make sure those nodes are placed properly as well.

 

[chadster766]

I've change my recommended signal strength between nodes from -70 to -65.