Are wifi repeaters supported ?

[jerome83136]

Hi,
Naive question here

I'm using a WiFi repeater to extend the wifi range of my router

This is same SSID as my router, same channel, same frequency and same IP subnet
My devices are freely moving between the router or the repeater depending on wifi signal strength

The repeater is a range extender that extends wifi signal strength at the condition it is placed at the edge of the router's wifi range; then it "repeats" the signal by reinforcing its power to extend the global wifi range

I'm wondering if such configuration could conflict with CSI ?

Thank you for your feedback

[francescopace]

Hi @jerome83136, yes, this should be fine.

In practice, ESPectre nodes need to stay physically still for motion detection anyway. If the device itself moves, it will also see its own movement in the CSI, so the normal setup is to keep it fixed in place, for example attached to a wall or placed on stable furniture. In that kind of setup, the node should not normally roam between repeaters or mesh APs, so this is usually not a problem.

For extra safety, I still recommend pinning ESPectre to the BSSID of one specific AP, usually the closest one. That avoids scale changes caused by switching to a different radio, which could otherwise be interpreted as motion and create a false positive.

This is actually the exact setup I use at home: I have 3 APs, one per floor, all meshed together, with the same SSID and password, but each AP has its own unique BSSID. ESPectre works fine in that environment.