Can you bridge two wireless routers and use both bands simultaneously (2.4ghz & 5ghz)?

[tlucier]

Is there a way to bridge two wireless AC routers (Netgear R6400V2 and Netgear R7000) to use both 2.4ghz AND 5ghz bands at the same time? I've succesfully set up a bridge between the routers and can connect the bridged router to each of the bands individually, but is it possible to use both bands simultaneously to achieve full speeds 1750 between them and across the network?

 

[bill001g]

Not sure you would want to even if you could. It is not possible with factory firmware. You might be able to do it with something like dd-wrt. You could them use layer 3 routing to place 2 equal paths and attempt it to load balance by packet. Not sure if that is supported on dd-wrt or not. Worst case you could run OSPF between them which does support load balance by packet.

The problem is the links are not the same speed and you will now get packet out of order issues. The end stations will detect this as packet loss and request retranmission and if it get bad enough they will drop the session.

The other major issue is your routers nolonger have radios to talk to the end machines so only ethernet connected devices will work.

Now if you were thinking you could run it in "repeater" mode that is a bad idea even with only 1 connection. You will lose at least 1/2 the bandwidth and likely much more because the repeater is intentionally transmitting a interfering signal into the same radio frequency.

You likely would be better off using 1 pair of radios in simple bridge mode and then use the other radios to talk to the end stations. This will run faster than repeater mode because less overhead and no retransmitted interfering signals. Factory firmware does not support this option but this type of design is what the so called "mesh" things are doing....well some of them.

 

[technor]

This is done through Mesh Networking. Asus Routers for example - with a firmware upgrade support this. Not sure if Netgear routers can do that.

 

[failboat]

if you have a 4x4 mu mimo client and wireless ap/router you will basically accomplish what you want.
mimo is using multiple streams to form one link.

the devices can't be very far apart to get very high speeds. the listed speeds are def not happening. 30% of what's listed is more accurate for real world use when you are right next to it. they test the devices in special RF chambers to get near 0dB.
running wires is going to be a lot better than spending a ton on wifi if you only need high bandwidth on a few things.
cat6a is rated for 10G.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-802-11AC-Wireless-AC3100-Adapter-PCE-AC88/dp/B01H9QMOMY