Mesh Wi-Fi Calculator
Estimate throughput at the edge of a wireless mesh after per-hop backhaul loss, for shared-radio and dedicated-backhaul designs.
About Mesh Wi-Fi Calculator
A mesh node with one radio must both receive a frame and retransmit it on the same channel, so each hop halves the available throughput. A dedicated backhaul radio avoids that store-and-forward penalty and only pays normal RF and protocol overhead. Mesh is sold as a way to skip cabling, but three shared-radio hops turn an 800 Mbps root link into 100 Mbps at the edge, which is usually worse than the cable run you avoided.
Formula
Mesh Wi-Fi
edge throughput = root throughput × (1 − per-hop loss)^hops, where a client-sharing radio loses 50% per hop because it must receive and retransmit each frame.
- retain
- Fraction of root throughput surviving to the edge
- perHopLoss
- 50% for a shared radio, configurable for a dedicated backhaul
Worked example
With the default values below, Mesh Wi-Fi Calculator returns Throughput at the Edge Node of 100.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Throughput at the root nodeaccepts 1–20,000 Mbps
- 800 Mbps
- Hops from root to edge nodeaccepts 0–8 hops
- 3 hops
- Dedicated backhaul radio (not shared with clients)
- No
- Per-hop loss with a dedicated backhaulaccepts 0–90 %
- 20 %
- Client-serving nodes sharing the edge linkaccepts 1–200 nodes
- 6 nodes
Results
- Throughput at the Edge Node
- 100.0 Mbps
- Throughput Lost Across the Mesh
- 87.5%
- Loss Applied per Hop
- 50%
- Throughput per Serving Node
- 16.67 Mbps
- Assessment
- Too many shared-radio hops — add a dedicated backhaul radio or a wired uplink
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Mesh Wi-Fi
- 3Throughput at the Edge Node= 100.0 Mbps
- 4Throughput Lost Across the Mesh= 87.5
- 5Loss Applied per Hop= 50
- 6Throughput per Serving Node= 16.67 Mbps
- 7Assessment= Too many shared-radio hops — add a dedicated backhaul radio or a wired uplink
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Mesh Wi-Fi calculated?
edge throughput = root throughput × (1 − per-hop loss)^hops, where a client-sharing radio loses 50% per hop because it must receive and retransmit each frame. A mesh node with one radio must both receive a frame and retransmit it on the same channel, so each hop halves the available throughput. A dedicated backhaul radio avoids that store-and-forward penalty and only pays normal RF and protocol overhead.
Why does Mesh Wi-Fi matter?
Mesh is sold as a way to skip cabling, but three shared-radio hops turn an 800 Mbps root link into 100 Mbps at the edge, which is usually worse than the cable run you avoided.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Throughput at the root node, Hops from root to edge node, Dedicated backhaul radio (not shared with clients), Per-hop loss with a dedicated backhaul, Client-serving nodes sharing the edge link. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.