@dadidag Mesh is not about the SSID name, for home-use marketing teams have co-opted that name for multipule technologies bundled into "one system" name.  The basicis of mesh is the use of wifi to interconnect APs without the data transfer being obvious to the AP clients.  This is done by compressing and encrypting the data sent between AP nodes, but otherwise mesh is really just fancy wifi extenders.

If you can use a wired connection for your AP that is alwasy best.

You can still have all the APs with the same SSID/password with or without mesh, and that is true even for home systems with different brand equipment.

The radiation pattern for the ceiling mounted APs is around and "downward" when mounted on the ceiling.  So you could loose some range with it mounted on a wall, but if it is an outer wall with no need for coverage outside, then you will have no issue.  A note on the EAP653, it is a lot lower broadcast power than the EAP650.

  @dadidag 

Hey and Welcome!

Hopefully some answer for you :)

my understanding is that building a mesh uses one (hardwired) Root-AP and ode or more (WiFi backhauled) Satellite-APs.

If the satellite-APs can also be hardwired to the network, makes it sense to still use mesh setup or would it be better to use the same SSID for all APs?

OK so dont mix up the Same SSID and Mesh as they are very different things.   If you are going to use the same SSID for all APs then you should really use a controller (OC200 for example).  This will allow all the APs to work as one larger network, as you move around it will roam you from AP to AP without disconnecting.   If you are just thinking of giving each AP the same SSID and Password.. you can do this but it wont work well.   The whole point of the controller is to tell the connected device to move from AP1 to AP2 when it will get a better signal, if you leave this to the device... in short its awful at it and wont move, they prefer to stick to what they know until it dies.. then disconnect / reconnect..    This is all known as Seamless Roaming (or fast roaming) and requires a controller.

Mesh is simply HOW the APs are connected together to handle fast roaming, Mesh means they talk over the WiFi rather than over a cable.  Note this will be slower as WiFi is slower than cable at all times.   If all APs are cabled then MESH is no advantage to you and I would disable it on your controller.   You do need a controller for MESH to work.

(2)

The EAP653 is supposed to be installed at the ceiling. If I install it on the wall will the wifi-range be reduced?

Not at all..  I have mixed ceiling and wall mounted with no hassles.    If you really really need every drop of signal, the ceiling is better, however, the difference is so minute its not worth worrying about! 

dadidag wrote

Hi community,

 

(1)

my understanding is that building a mesh uses one (hardwired) Root-AP and ode or more (WiFi backhauled) Satellite-APs.

 

If the satellite-APs can also be hardwired to the network, makes it sense to still use mesh setup or would it be better to use the same SSID for all APs?

 

Unless I am missing something, if all the APs are wired you cannot MESH them. With my experience at least, when I wired 2 of our 5 APs, one central and on additional, the additional AP that was wired did not give me the option to MESH it. You could however MESH other wireless APs to either of the wired root APs.

  @RickJamesBish 

Unless I am missing something, if all the APs are wired you cannot MESH them. With my experience at least, when I wired 2 of our 5 APs, one central and on additional, the additional AP that was wired did not give me a MESH option.

That would be correct, a Wired AP will always prefer / choose the cable connection and ignore the MESH.  

However.. should you have all your APs cabled in and MESH enabled, if one of the APs was to lose connection to the controller somehow (break in cable, switch failure etc) then it could use the MESH mode to re-establsh a connection until the LAN cable was fixed.  Once the LAN cable is fixed however it would leave the MESH and go back to cable connection.

In short you can leave MESH enabled even if running cables, it will offer you some backup should a switch fail or cable break. 

  @Philbert Do you know, in the scenario where the cable is lost and mesh is active, do the APs have to be on the same channel before the cable loss, or will they reconfigure if in auto channel selection?  I haven't played much with the mesh and failure modes, and have wired all my APs along with hard set channels, so I'm not expecting that fail over mode, but just curious.

  @JoeSea 

Per my understanding, the Mesh unit will be forced to use the same channel as the main root AP.

  @Somnus 

This is my understanding also.  It will scan the channels to find the AP and connect on that channel. 

  @JoeSea 

A note on the EAP653, it is a lot lower broadcast power than the EAP650.

Hi, do you have a reference for that? EAP653 has the same radio as EAP650, the only difference is that EAP653 package does not include the power adapter.

  @RamtinR Yeah here is the AP datasheet for all current Omada APs, page 13 shows the transmit powers for the 653 & 650 side by side.  For the US the 653 is 3db lower (half the power) on both bands, and EU version is 3db lower in the 5ghz upper channels.