2025 Best WiFi Mesh Network for IoT, Matter and Thread

Hardware
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I’ve currently got a BT Whole Home mesh WiFi system (mesh access nodes are actually connected via RJ45 to the router), and whilst it is good, it doesn’t allow me to connect Matter devices (ESP32 zerocode) - I believe this is because the matter device requires a 2.4GHz WiFi network, and you have to configure it in the Home Assistant app which uses the mobile phone’s current network connection which you can’t force away from the 5GHz network on an Android phone, and my WiFi mesh system doesn’t allow you to disable (even momentarily) the 5GHz network.

I’ve read that for Matter to work, you need to have a 2.4GHz network only, so I guess that means that you need a WiFi system which allows for separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz - or at least some guest 2.4GHz configuration.

So my big questions are:

1. Does Matter work over a mesh wifi system (if you can have a 2.4GHz network only) / Has anyone got any examples of something working?

2. What’s the best (technical performance / value for money) WiFi mesh device on the market (your opinion of course)? for …
Coverage?
Matter Support (i.e. able to set up a ‘guest’ channel for 2.4GHz)?
Thread Support?

Thanks and Regards, Steve

Ref: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/what-mesh-wifi-to-consider-in-2024/732966

2

Hello trumpton,

WIFI doesn’t do mesh. There are companies providing equipment that takes control of the set-up of your AP’s and calls that a mesh, but that’s not the WIFI . So I’m not sure what you are looking for. As you are finding out if you cannot control your WIFI network and let the “mesh” control things you will have mixed results. I have Asus routers and have turned their weird mesh thing off, and just set up my AP’s the way I need them to work.

3

My network has the same dual 2.4G and 5G setup and I have no issues adding Matter devices. I’m no networking expert but it sounds like your issue lies somewhere else. For example, do you have ipv6 turned on?

4

Hi SG - thanks for your reply.

Could be the wrong terminology I am using. My 3 WiFi access points seamlessly hand over the WiFi connection as I move from room to room / floor to floor - this is a great feature.

I am aware that the later access points do support back-haul over WiFi 6GHz channel which may mean I don’t need the RJ45 connections.

My worry is that if I can get a set of WiFi ‘nodes’ which work similarly, and I can somehow get just a 2.4GHz channel set up for Matter devices, there may be some feature in this hand-over protocol / mechanism which would prevent the Matter devices from working, or result in them dropping out.

Ta, Steve

5

Newsflash. If you put multiple AP’s on the same SSID, they all do that… Many you can even set the signal level it uses to switch over.

Another NewsFlash, it isn’t necessary…

6

Yep - IPV6 is turned on. I think my problem is that I cannot set my phone to just 2.4GHz network - the advice I’ve seen is that I have to do this on the WiFi access point, and with mine (and many others I believe), it is not possible to have just the 2.4GHz network - so as part of the matter device registration phase, my phone probably tells the matter device the details of the 5Ghz network, and then the pairing breaks.

I have tried the pairing using an old TPLink network-over-mains access point, where I can just use 2.4GHz network, and I did manage to pair a device. This is not a long term solution as the range is poor, hence the desire to use the house “mesh” wifi.

Steve

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Whether you agree with the nomenclature or not, “mesh wifi” is a common thing. It is not quite the same as multiple wired APs.

What Is Mesh Wi-Fi and How Does It Work? (howtogeek.com)

8

I apologize that this isn’t more helpful but it still seems like the issue is with something else. Everything you have described about your network - mine works exactly the same way. The devices themselves are generally able to select the correct bandwith.

But I’m going to just follow along from here and see if those better at networking are able to help you further.

9

Wired or not doesn’t matter. If there’s no wire it just steals your bandwidth to WIFI between nodes. No difference. (Even if they use BT for the back channel, generally the WIFI and the BT radios share the same transmit/receive hardware.)

The term mesh WIFI is a thing. (But mesh WIFI in not really a thing) There maybe some more of mesh type protocols in WIFI-v6 or 6.1 that I am not aware of. (I’m not talking about IPv6 there)
But other than that actual Mesh WIFI is not really a thing. Mesh means there are multiple (read many) devices that the info can cascade thru, where the devices are consumers of the info and distributors of it. This gives redundant paths for the data to pass when needed.
(Read Zigbee, Zwave, etc.)
What you are talking about is the standard communication available with the protocol back and forth thru Access Points. Generally this involves you setting up the main one, and that is copied to the other nodes and then they just act in a hub and spoke back to the main router hub based on the initial programming.

With WIFI ‘mesh’ makes the set-up easier, but there is no data benefit over non-mesh named stuff.

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No one said there was.

Most Mesh Wifi implementations do provide multiple paths and redundancy between nodes. It’s not that different from zwave/zigbee, it’s just the devices are either dedicated routers (nodes) or endpoints(everything else).

I don’t see the need of questioning wat the OP meant, when he was using commonly accepted and understood terminology.

11

I’m using a mesh system here. Consists of three devices, one connected to the modem, and the two others distributed around the house as slaves (they connect to the master and extend the range of wifi around the house.)

Although my setup supports Wifi 6, I am using 2.4+5 and it works fine with all my devices. No need to do anything funky with my phone.

Some people call what they have “mesh” but it’s not exactly the same setup. Sometimes it’s just range extenders. Sometimes its multiple APs wired to the same router. These are not really “mesh” systems, but they do appear the same though you could encounter issues with setup I would imagine.

Matter (and most IoT devices for that matter) does depend on 2.4GHz, but any reasonable setup will allow you to work with both 2.4 and 5 on your network at the same time. Just make sure your routers/APs are configured for dual band operation.

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Dual band is worth a try, but some devices definitely do not like it. OK to try but if it doesn’t seem to work, try other ways.

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Unfortunately, I am not sure it is commonly accepted and understood. I always thought if I had multiple APs and my devices moved freely from one AP to another as I moved thru my home, then I had a mesh network. However, I was corrected. In my case, all of my APs have a wired backhaul and that doesn’t fit the definition of a mesh network. A mesh network is when the APs connect from one another using wifi. I don’t get it and it seems silly that mine isn’t also a mesh network but that was how it was explained to me on another thread here.

14

The WiFi certification group ratified an interoperability standard for meshed WiFi called EasyMesh a few years ago. This is different than the IEEE 802.11s specification for wireless mesh networks (read more here) which is built into the Linux kernel but not many routers. The general similarity is that they all interconnect wirelessly instead of wired. Multiple hardwired APs provides roaming capability, which is different from mesh.

If you want to use two different vendors in a single mesh network, look for EasyMesh Certification. Newer WiFi 6e and 7 routers support tri-band networks (2.4, 5.0, and 6ghz), with mesh implementations cleverly using the third band for the backhaul traffic since so few devices can use it yet. End devices still connect using the WiFi 4/5/6 standard they have always used, on either frequency, and work normally — letting the mesh routing protocols seamlessly handle getting the packets where they need to go.

16

I have an RT-AX88U and a single AX92U node currently setup via AIMesh, all it does is dedicate one of the 5GHz bands as a backhaul and sync the wifi changes between them whilst letting the main mesh host handle pushing the firmware updates to the nodes.

When it comes to setting up devices via wifi the only ones that I have had the need to temporarily disable the 5Ghz band was the Tuya Wifi based lenovo plugs that I have stopped using.

The matter over wifi useelink power boards I have worked without issue commissioning them up with without the need to disable anything.

17

The right answers are here, mixed in with a lot of things that are irrelevant to the question. There are also misconceptions in the question itself. So let’s pull things apart:

Matter has no relation to Wifi, let alone “mesh” wifi. Matter does require IPv6 to work at least locally, which any modern router should support. Matter also relies on mDNS to work, which is sometimes a challenge.

Matter can run over Tread, in which case wifi is not used, it can run over wifi too. In that case wifi is needed. Some thread devices connect to the network over wifi for other reasons. But if the device cannot connect to wifi, the problem has nothing to do with Matter or Thread.

Matter over wifi does not care if it is 2.4GHz wifi or not. But IOT devices are typically 2.4GHz. So esp’s need 2.4GHz wifi, that is true. It is just not related to Matter or Thread.

2.4GHz devices cannot see or interact with 5GHz wifi. There are a lot of misconceptions about the merits of turning it off. Yes, it can sometimes help as a workaround to circumvent the real problem, but the problem is never 5GHz itself. It cannot be. In rare occasions it for instance helps get around poor router (mesh) wifi implementation issues.

If it is a modern Wifi router then more often than not both the 2.4 and 5 GHz wifi networks use the same SSID. You can indeed not turn one half off if it is wifi 6, and it should not matter that you can not. 2.4 devices should be able to connect, unless you have badly implemented router firmware or end devices.

It should also not matter that the phone needs to be on the same wifi. In fact, lot of software claims it must be so, but what they mean is the device must be reachable and in the same subnet. They actually do not care about the SSID. And in the OP case the SSID and password are correct for 2.4GHz, so it should not be the cause.

So to get back to the problem. I have yet to find an Espressif device that cannot connect to my Wifi 6 mesh. Are you having trouble getting it to connect to wifi, or do you have a problem commissioning a Matter device? As you can guess now: those are different things.

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18

There is some evidence that HA’s Matter server does not work with Zerocode devices unless you bypass attestation verification. Has nothing to do with underlying WiFi. It’s very frustrating because these devices commission to other ecosystems just fine.