Redundant routes between switches

Question

I have a relatively simple (home) network setup.

Downstairs:

Ubiquiti Edgerouter X
Ubiquiti AP (NanoHD)
+clients (wired and wireless)

Upstairs

Unmanaged gigabit switch
Ubiquiti AP (AC Lite)
+ clients (wired and wireless)

Downstairs the router is wired to the AP, and is also wired to a powerline plug to connect to the upstairs switch.

Upstairs the AP is wired into the unmanaged switch.

My issue is that the powerline adapters every so often will drop their connection, requiring a power cycle to recover. The Ubiquiti support wired backhaul but I haven't enabled it (yet).

I would like the network to be tolerant of any failures of the powerline plugs. If both the upstairs AP and the powerline effectively are connecting upstairs to downstairs through the upstairs switch, will that a) work, b) will clients be able to 'get to downstairs' and out to the internet through the remaining "good" link (i.e. either the wired AP backhaul or the powerline) in the event of a failure?

If not what is my best upgrade option - will a managed switch help me here? I'm trying to avoid putting holes through the walls by running an ethernet cable.

Answer 1

If you connect two switches on two connections simultaneously you will create a loop (simply speaking two possible paths your "network packages" can take). Theoretically, there are three possibilities to solve this, assuming you currently (or future) switch support them:

• "loop prevention" (there are several implementations, start here for more info)
• use link aggregation
• separate the two connections via vlan

Now to the practical bit:

• loop prevention should work fine and is supported by a lot of routers
• link aggregation is rather theoretical since I haven't heard of any solutions to aggregate different types of "connections"
• vlan will be tricky since you need to "reconnect" them via a router this has the considerable drawback of fragmenting your network and will be much more complicated to set it up

Answer 2

There is not much that you can do to improve powerline adapters connectivity.

What you can do:

1. Install the latest firmware for the Powerline adapters

2. Check whether the powerline adapters are working properly by connecting the two on one power-strip with one connected to the router. After some suitable time survey the router's log for disconnections.

3. Reducing interference in the home's power supply:

   • Plug the powerline adapter directly into a wall outlet without power strip or extension cord.
   • Avoid powerline connections on different phases, fuse boxes etc.
   • Avoid possible sources of interference on the same power circuit such as switch mode power supplies, halogen systems and energy-saving lamps, but mainly appliances with electric motors.
   • Ensure that cables carrying VDSL signal are distanced from electrical wiring and outlets.
   • Test different wall outlets and reduce the distance between the powerline adapters.

4. If the powerline adapters may disconnect after a long period of idling with no traffic, create a scheduled task that will periodically ping some device through the adapters.

5. Use instead of powerline a strong wifi router that can punch through to the upper floor. For better covering of distance use the 2.4Ghz band, although 5Ghz is faster (but worse at going through obstacles).

If all these measures don't help or are not applicable, perhaps your wiring schema is not favorable for powerline adapters, so a direct cable is required.

Answer 3

If you have 2 ether over power adapters and replace downstairs switch to a managed switch, you can use STP and create Trunks to allow for redundant cable ties between the two switches.

Otherwise, you are outta luck. Doing 2 connections creates a round robin.