Wireless Access

I'm new to using Aruba equipment and have an aruba 7005 controller that I would like to setup with at least one mesh access point.  For a household it seems like it has to be setup in this manner given I only have 3 devices.

Controller-->Mesh Portal )))) <----wifi signal----> (((( Mesh Access Point.  

It seems like a waste to have an access point be designated as a mesh portal and not be able to act as an access point as well.

1. Can a mesh portal be used as an access point as well as a portal in a household environment?

2. Can the devices that are next to the access point access it using ethernet as well as wifi, or only one or the other?

Thanks!

1.  Yes, but there is a performance penalty when an access point is doing mesh as well as serving clients on the same radio.  This is unavoidable.

2.  Yes.

Thanks. 

About how much % performance loss is expected vs using a dedicated mesh point?

I'd like to have devices near the portal connect to the portal, and devices near the mesh point connect to the mesh point.

It all depends how much traffic is being passed on both the point and portal.  Wireless bandwidth is shared.  I would say 50% conservatively.