In my test system I have 11 dual-channel nodes. The 5GHz link is used for interconnect between the nodes and the 2.4GHz link is for clients. One of the nodes is distant. My laptop is connected to a common-SSID AP link from one of the local nodes. I can always ping the distant node from one of the local nodes, but the link from my laptop is less reliable. I can have an SSH session open to the distant node and a local node, pinging the distant node from both the local node and my laptop. At no particular point the distant node will stop pinging from my laptop and its SSH session will drop, while the ping continues just fine from the local node.
The connection can restore equally mysteriously.
Can anyone explain this behavior? No manual network configuration changes are being made at the point at which the connection drops or is restored, though I suppose my laptop could be hopping between one of the local APs. I am pinging an IP attached to the bridge joining bat0, the copper node LAN and the 2.4GHz client LAN.