A dual radio wireless mesh access point is described herein. According to one embodiment, a wireless mesh access point includes an uplink wireless interface, a downlink wireless interface, a local wireless interface, and a routing unit coupled to the uplink, downlink, and the local wireless interfaces. The routing unit is configured to route data packets to other wireless mesh access points (APs), including communicating with an uplink AP via the uplink wireless interface and communicating with a downlink AP via the downlink wireless interface. The uplink and downlink wireless interfaces utilize different communication channels having different communication frequencies. The routing unit communicates with one or more local clients via the local wireless interface. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.