MLO connecting BE98 with BE88U

[Chonkie]

I’m trying to connect these two routers with the fastest speed possible. My guess is the the best way to do this is with MLO. I’ve setup MLO on the BE98, no problem and activated and setup a AP. However when I put the BE88U into media bridge mode and try to setup and activate MLO….

1) I first enable smart connect to merge 2.4 and 5 streams.

2) then I activate MLO

3) It then suggests to separate the two frequency again…? 2.4 and 5. I click ok and wait.

4) After landing back to the MLO page, I see the MLO never activated and the two frequencies are once again split?

has anyone had this issue before, what am I doing wrong to connect the two routers?

thanks

[jzchen]

Is there a reason you want to connect via bridge mode and not as an AiMesh node?  I'm kind of disappointed the instructions say "highest AC speed" but this is the official instructions updated July of this year:

https://www.asus.com/us/support/faq/1043884/

[Chonkie]

@jzchen thanks, however I have been able to get the bridge mode going, however the new BE88U doesn't have a 6 frequency, only wifi 7 through MLO. Therefore if I just connect via the bridge as per usual I get a speed of 1.2 Gig which is through the 5 frequency. Not nearly what is expect from connecting a Wifi 7 router with another Wifi 7 router. Hence im trying to setup MLO but it doesn't seem I can get it to work on the BE88U. Any help here would greatly be appreciated

[Chonkie]

this is the message I get on the BE88U just before I try and activate the MLO. There is a setting im missing on my wifi settings that is not allowing me to activate MLO.

[Saltgrass]

I am not sure you are understanding exactly what MLO is meant for.  I do not believe you can get two routers to connect using it.   In AiMesh mode, the second router would show as MLO compatible and allow multiple radio connections for something like a Wi-Fi 7 phone.

In order for the second router to be MLO capable, it needs to be in AiMesh configuration.

[Chonkie]

@Saltgrass , @jzchen 

So I think I have an idea of how the technology works for MLO, it uses both 2.4 and 5, 6 to channel multiple send and receive signals instead of just one. Hence the increase in speed.

So here is the dilemma. And the core of my question, how do I utilize WiFi 7 between the following two routers:

GT-BE98 - 2.4, 5 and 6

RT-88U - 2.4, 5

(Both brand new and WiFi 7 compatible)

lets take this scenario. My WAN is connect to the GT-BE98 with a 10gig fibre line. In my office I have the RT-BE88U, not connected to any WAN or Ethernet and purely replying on the WAN through WiFi from the GT-BE98. 
1) if I setup aiMesh between the two routers I’m assuming it’s not using MLO and instead the slow 5 channel, and therefore technically my BE88U max throughput from my BE98 is going to go through a single 5 channel.

My question is how does my WiFi 7, MLO or not, get the maximum throughput from the WAN between the two routers? Surely the two routers need to utilize MLO between themselves to ensure that the devices in the office connected to the BE88U gets the maximum out of the 10gig fibre coming from the BE98? Otherwise the connect between the two wireless routers becomes a massive bottleneck. Both these routers are expandable, surely Asus has thought about this…?

Hence my question, how does the guy with the WiFi 7 phone in my office not get bogged down with a slow single 5 channel across the two routers?

[Saltgrass]

My question is how does my WiFi 7, MLO or not, get the maximum throughput from the WAN between the two routers?My question is how does my WiFi 7, MLO or not, get the maximum throughput from the WAN between the two routers?

You probably don't want to do this, but Ethernet would be the fastest, if you had two 10 Gbps ports available.   I do not think MLO can be used between routers.  I am currently using a 6 GHz Backhaul for the Mesh node and both routers are the BE98 Pro version.

Hence my question, how does the guy with the WiFi 7 phone in my office not get bogged down with a slow single 5 channel across the two routers?

The Wi-Fi 7 phone can connect to any of the 6 radios (same SSID) on those two routers.  It would pick the best 2 or 3 radios and use those.  With the phone, it is not all about speed, but reliability of a connection so calls aren't dropped.

[jzchen]

If you click "Get Start" it will/should ask you for two SSIDs, one specific for MLO, the other for Legacy/IoT devices.  So ASUS' recommendation is to create a new MLO specific SSID and name the Legacy SSID as was your primary/main SSID, so all your preconfigured non-WiFi 7 devices automatically reconnect, and you'd just need to reconfigure the WiFi 7 clients.

To answer your concern, once you set these two up it should automatically adjust all settings necessary/missing/incorrect to the correct setting.  Does it not?

EDIT- On point #2 in your OP you activate MLO successfully?  Then when does #3 happen?  When you create the bridge?

I suggest you disconnect the BE88, hard reset it, go back to the BE98 and enable MLO, then try to create the bridge.  Is that when it asks you to separate 2.4 and 5 GHz?

[Chonkie]

@jzchen it seems like I physically cannot activate MLO on the BE88U in media bridge mode. I’ve tried absolutely everything. I can only activate MLO in wireless mode on the BE88U, but that is not the intention of this project. I need to setup the fastest speed across these routers as the BE88U is getting its 10gig fibre connectivity over WiFi. I know it won’t reach 10gig, I’m just trying to get it to be faster than a single 5 channel. 

This sounds like Asus doesn’t support this method yet and that I would need to get the older ax88u and set a single 6 channel between the two routers.

Any thoughts here would be appreciated 

[jzchen]

I checked the BE88U specs, and the 5 GHz can reach 5.7 Gbps throughput.  I suspect this should easily be a 2.85 Gbps uplink/PHY as an AiMesh node, depending on distance between the two routers.  I had an AXE11000 and AXE16000 backhaul at 4 Gbps one on my ground floor and other on the next floor up.  How far are they from each other, wall between or walls?