Mesh Speeds Inaccurate Between Different Firmware Versions

Scope

This article describes an incompatibility between certain versions of Access Point firmware which can cause mesh speeds to report as very slow or "N/A N/A."

Overview

As a result of unavoidable changes in the low-level mesh components within Firmware 6.2 and above, mesh speed reporting is no longer accurate when meshing with access points on earlier firmware versions. As a result, meshing an access point on older firmware with an access point running Firmware 6.2 or above will result in the device with the older firmware acting as a repeater. It will report mesh speeds as very slow or N/A N/A, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Mesh speeds reporting as very slow and as N/A N/A.

Figure 2: Poor mesh speeds indicator

The repeater will also display a red light, indicating poor mesh speeds. Actual mesh speeds will be much higher than reported.

Solution

For mesh speed to report correctly, all access points must run firmware releases that have compatible mesh speed reporting components. Firmware releases of 6.1.2 and earlier are compatible with each other, while firmware releases of 6.2 and later are compatible with each other.

NOTE: Some versions of the original OM2P are limited to firmware 590 or 6.1.2, and cannot be upgraded to 6.2+ firmware. The OM2Pv2 and later do not have this limit.