WiFi Mesh starting with no router to the internet

[joel69100]

Hello,

I'm interested by the WiFi mesh technology. I'm going to buy several ESP32 boards to make testing for my application (I have only one for prototyping actually).

I think I will start with the "ip internal network" example, seems to fit my application with the MQTT stuff. I need communication from ESP32 to other ESP32 and also to the internet throw the WiFi router connected at the root node level. Because of external constraints I need to use root node election process (I don't know where is the AP on startup).

One question : after reading the ESP MESH docs and also some posts on the forum, it seems the connection with the external WiFi Access Point is required prior to any communication inside the mesh. Is it right ? My main issue is that the WiFi AP is sometimes very long to start. I wonder if it is possible to have one root node election on startup, and reelection if required later when the external WiFi access point is available again ?

Thanks for your answer,
Joel