Roaming between AP's without WDS.

How do you config AP's to roam to the strongest signal without using WDS?
I have 3 AP's in a warehouse, 2 - WAP321, 1 - WAP371. No domain services available, they are just standalone AP's with local SSID and key for authentication.
They have same SSID and Key. I have them on 3 different channels though, so they would hopefully 'pick' the strongest signal as a person got closer and would move to that AP. However I notice they don't move to the strongest signal they only move when they loose connection to the AP as they wander around the warehouse then the next closest picks them up. So even if a person wanders down to a 5Mbps link from the original connected AP they will stick to it even if there is a 72 Mbps link available, until the original connection is lost completely.
Any other suggestions or links to some reading would be very helpful.

Your devices seem to be sticky. So in that case, you might have to look at tweaking the data rates and disabling the lower rates as long as the devices don't require the low data rates like 1mbps and 2mbps. If you have more than envough coverage, you can leave 11mbps as mandatory and disable the lower rates. Be careful with doing this if you are unsure of your current environment. You need to test first by disabling 1mbps and 2mbps and see if the devices still connect. keep in mind that the client devices are the one who control roaming, not the AP. By changing the data rates, you can force them to make a decision faster than leaving the defaults.
Scott

Similar Messages

Roaming between two WiFi access points fails

Hi...
I just bought a Hawking WiFi range extender...a device that acts like a second wireless access point for rooms that are far from your wireless router. It's also known as a repeater. It has the same SSID (network name) as the one set up by the router.
You are supposed to be able to move about the house and you will connect to whichever device has the higher signal strength, transparently, with no hiccups, like moving your cell phone from one cell antenna to another.
The setup works fine with my Dell laptop, but not with my MacBook Pro or my iPad. When I change "zones", the Network locks up. This is repeatable and consistent.
I've heard rumors about Apple product difficulties with this "WiFi roaming."
Can anyone help?
Thx
Steve

I've been using a roaming setup in my home for years. The company I work for has building wide WiFi roaming setup with multiple WiFi access points on each floor. At home and at work, I frequently move my MacBook between access points without loosing things like my VPN, Screen Sharing, File Sharing, ssh terminal sessions, etc....
But 3rd party networking hardware has not always been well tested against Apple products. Many times 3rd party networking vendors test against some version of Windows and then ship it. Sometimes the 3rd party vendor offers a firmware update that corrects issues with Apple products.
At home I have Apple Airport Extreme base stations for my roaming setup. At work, the company is using Cisco commercial WiFi access points.
A roaming setup needs to have all WiFi devices on the same network "Subnet". That means a 2nd WiFi base station cannot act as a router, but must be just a bridge on the existing router's subnet (generally that means it cannot be offering DHCP services nor NAT services).
The 2nd WiFi base station must have the same SSID (as you said you setup).
And it must have the same security password using the same encryption algorithm (WPA2 preferred from a security stand point). You did not mention this, but I'll assume you did this as well.

Roaming between RV220W wireless router and WAP121 Access Point

Hello, I have recently purchased a RV220W wireless router and a WAP121 access point and i would like to allow my users to "roam" between the two networks as needed (so when the user is closer to whichever one they connect to that one since it has a better signal). For the most part I only have experience in cisco IOS and in actual routers not the wireless stuff so my knowledge has not exactly transfered over well.

William,
WDS will not work between the RV220W and WAP121 due to incompatible chipsets. The RV220W can be repeated using WDS by another RV220W or RV180W only. You will need to plug the WAP121 into the RV220W or try WorkGroup Bridge mode to repeat the signal.
Regarding roaming, the router or AP are not aware of each other and do not have the capability to disconnect a client and help them connect to the AP with the stronger signal. The client will switch to the stronger AP only when the original signal is lost.
The Aironet (enterprise) devices have the ability to utilize a wireless LAN controller which can help keep devices connected to the stronger signal and allow truly seamless roaming between APs.
- Marty

Roaming between two extreme

with an IPad 1..How to roam between two Apple expreme without loosing connection?
Thanks

See the second message of this thread for instructions on creating a "roaming network":
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2273124?threadID=2273124

Roaming between APs with Radius

Hi everyone,
Someone told me about this issue this week. I heard that roaming between APs was not possible without reauthenticating when RADIUS authentication is used. This means that you need to reauthenticate yourself to the RADIUS server each time you switch from an AP to another, so you have to re-enter your credentials many times.
Do someone have heard about the same thing? Is there some technical articles discussing about this issue?
Thx, Jim

With LEAP authentication, your credentials are cached (encrypted) from when you login to windows.
Wen you LEAP authenticate those cached credentials are used, and when you roam they are used to reauthenticate.
The user is not prompted for username-password when roaming with LEAP.
The best security white-paper is this one;
http://www.cisco.com/warp/customer/cc/pd/witc/ao1200ap/prodlit/wswpf_wp.htm

How to improve client handover and roaming between AP's

Improving client Handover and roaming between APs
There are a few standards and methodologies available to use to improve handover of clients between APs. Most are focused on VOIP technologies, but it must always be remembered that we cannot control the client Handover (especially with legacy clients) we can only encourage them. Some Standards and methods work well for some environments and some do not - test the recommendations extensively before implementing in a live Production environment. It must also be noted that all settings take effect immediately once applied, however from a client perspective it might need to re-associate for the changes to take effect client side.
As with everything else in IT, if a perfect method/solution existed there would only be one - try them all and keep the best.
The Standards and Definitions
802.11k
IEEE 802.11k allows a device to quickly identify nearby APs that are available for roaming. When the signal strength of the current AP weakens and the device needs to roam to a new AP, it will already know the best candidate AP with which to connect to.
802.11r
IEEE 802.11r specifies fast Basic Service Set (BSS) transitions between access points by redefining the security key negotiation protocol, allowing both the negotiation and requests for wireless resources to occur in parallel.
When a device roams from one AP to another on the same network, 802.11r streamlines the authentication process. BSS allows a devices to associate with APs more quickly. Coupled with 802.11k's ability to quickly identify the target AP, BSS's faster association method may enhance application performance.
Handoff Assist
The AP monitors the RSSI for every associated client. If the RSSI for a specific client falls below "low-rssi-threshold" and continues to fall for the "rssi-falloff-wait-time", then the AP will send a de-auth to the client.
The de-auth is meant to kick the client away from the current AP and get it to re-authenticate to a nearby AP. This will have the effect of helping a client handover between 2 APs.
BUT (Big But), if the client gets de-authed and takes a while to re-authenticate (if it even does re-authenticate automatically after a de-auth), then this will have the effect of destroying communication instead of helping it -- mostly found with legacy clients.
Remove Lower Transmit Rates
Removing lower transmit rates is a way to promote better roaming, BUT not all clients respond well, or even respond to it.
The practice is that the basic rates are a subset of the transmit rates. If you only want to allow speeds 9 and up, you would select only the transmit rates of 9 and up, and the basic rates of 9 and 11. If a legacy client expects the rates of 1 and 2 it will not connect.
Local Probe Threshold
Local probe Threshold prevents a client from connecting to an AP with a too low a signal - helps more with initial connection than roaming.
The local probe threshold parameter is not supposed to force clients to roam as soon as they pass near an access point with a good signal, but rather to NOT hold on to an access point with a weak signal (avoiding sticky clients).
PMK Caching
Defined by 802.11i and is a technique available for authentication between a single AP and a station. If a station has authenticated to an AP, roams away from that AP, and comes back, it does not need to perform a full authentication exchange. Only the 802.11i 4-way handshake is performed to establish transient encryption keys.
Opportunistic Key Caching (OKC)
Is a similar technique to PMK, but not defined by 802.11i, for authentication between multiple APs in a network where those APs are under common administrative control. An Aruba deployment with multiple APs under the control of a single controller is one such example. Using OKC, a station roaming to any AP in the network will not have to complete a full authentication exchange, but will instead just perform the 4-way handshake to establish transient encryption keys
Implementation and Configuration
802.11k
802.11k is configured in your VAP profile. Tick the option to “Advertise 802.11k”. There after set the Handover Trigger Feature Settings.
Tick the “Enable Handover Trigger feature” and then set RSSI threshold by specifying the -dBm level at what the hand over trigger should be sent to the client
802.11r
802.11r is configured under SSID of your VAP profile. Tick the option to “Advertise 802.11r”
HandofF Assist
Station Handoff Assist is enabled in RF Optimization under the RF Management section of AP configuration.
Tick the “Station Handoff Assist” option to enable it, next set the Low RSSI Threshold – the threshold determines above what level no deauth gets sent
Lower Transmit Rates
Transmit rates can be adjusted in the Advanced tab of SSID under your VAP profile.
Remember that the basic rates are a subset of the transmit rates. If you only want to allow speeds 9 and up, you would select only the transmit rates of 9 and up, and the basic rates of 9 and 11
Local Probe threshold
Local Probe threshold can be adjusted in the advanced tab of SSID under your VAP profile.
Depending on the density of your APs consider values between 20 and 40 -- 40 being aggressive in an AP dense area.
Deny Broadcast Probes
Denying Broadcast Probes can cause problems with Roaming especially if the SSID is hidden – leave option disabled.

Hi, thank you for the helpful guidance. I have a basic question, if the device roam from one AP to another AP with the same SSID. Is there a need of re-authentication given a) the network uses EAP based authentication; b) the network uses MAC address authentication. If there is no need of EAP re-authentication, how the 802.11 keys are moved to the new AP. Thank you very much if you could help me clarify my thought.

IPad's Roaming Between Access Points

A company with 460 Cisco Access Points is using iPad Mini's to control lighting and other things, the iPad Mini's are roaming between access points VERY SLOW, they are dropping 45-50 packets between roams. iPad 2's and iPhone's are roaming just fine, if they drop any packets it's a max of 5.
Is there any differance in the NIC's that are in iPad 2's and iPad Mini's? Or is there a setting for fast roaming?

Hi,
It seems that these APs are not aware of each other, I would suggest you look into a controller based solution, that means you need some sort of controller base AP system to get this seamless roaming feature, I also suggest you check whether there's compatibility
issue for the device with product vender.
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

What the heck are you people doing by synchronizing info. between my computers without notifying me?

''dupe of - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/977896''
I've been a Firefox user since 2005 and had once sworn allegiance to Firefox but not any more. As of this moment I will never use Firefox ever again. I've been using Firefox since 2005 and have been using it as the default browser on my three desktops and laptop but it seems today is the last day I am ever going to use Firefox.
I am absolutely livid having just noticed that you synchronize information, data, between my computers without taking the absolutely necessary, responsible, proper steps to notify your users exactly what you are doing and not by the derelict, utterly inexcusable manner in which you have a pop-up do what you don't seem to have the moral sense to do in a responsible, upstanding manner.
You've been slipping for years, having made compromises, skating on morally thin ice, alienating Firefox users in all sorts of ethically questionable ways, but this, this is beyond the pale.
Firefox, you are out of my life forever.

hello mediamayven, without you actively setting up a sync account and pairing all individual devices to this account, there won't be any synchronising going on by mozilla at all! i don't know where you're getting the impression from that it would be anything other than that...
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/legal/privacy/firefox.html

Direct connection between 2 clients without any configuration!

I wan to make a system act like hamachi or logmein (websever & clients).
I have a webserver on the internet and two client from different networks connected to this webserver, now i want to make directly connection between these clients without any configuration on router. I think it is possible because all infomation about clients network could be got from http request which they send to server. But i don't know what exact fields in the header of http request that i need and how to set them to create connection between clients. I need some ideas about this issue.
Edited by: tulous on Nov 20, 2008 7:40 PM
Edited by: tulous on Nov 20, 2008 7:41 PM

tulous wrote:
I know, so if you want to use a remote control tool such as: VNC, remote desktop you must config on router or server. But even if you had a proxy(permit port 80) when you type www.sun.com you will get data from it, this data was sent from Sun to your proxy and in some way the data was return to your browser. So i think if we have enough information(it come from the webserver) we could init a connection between 2 client. An example of this is Hamachi.
At first 2 hamachi clients connect to a server of hamachi, when they have their id, a tunnel between 2 clients was established without any configuration on proxy(certainly that server did not deny port of hamachi). From now 2 clients can exchange data not through the server. The same in logmein, you can remote desktop any where with zero configuration, but the speed is guarantee because they contact to server for query information, but the data was transmited directly. Sorry if i make mistake.It doesn't work the way you think.
There is a proxy or you have to have one side listening with a ServerSocket and have ports opened as needed. You can't create a Socket connection on server A between clients B and C and then pass it off to clients B and C and magically they just talk to each other.
It does not work that way. It is impossible to do it that way.

Roaming between 802.11a & g

Hi forum,
Can wireless clients roam seamlessly between 802.11a and 802.11g APs? they will be using the same SSID.
besides, if I select different channel for bluetooth clients, can it coexist with 802.11g?
Thank you,
paul

It is possible for a wireless client to roam between 802.11a and 802.11g.
Try this link:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/witc/ao1200ap/prodlit/index.shtml

Roaming between E3000 wireless router and WAP300N

Hi all
The Linksys router I’ve got in my office room at home is providing poor coverage in my living room. Thus I’ve purchased a WAP300N and connected it by wire to the build-in 4 port switch of my Router (E3000). The set-up is providing a significant improvement in the living room, but… it seems as if the two wireless access points are “competing” over the “clients”.
When I move from the office room into the living room, my wireless equipment seems to be stuck on the connection to the wireless router in the office room – even though the signal from the WAP300N in the living room is much stronger.
The situation is exactly the same, when I move from the living room to the office room – the wireless equipment is stock on the weak signal from the living room.
I have to turn off and on the radio on my wireless equipment to get them to connect to the strongest signal.
Is there a way to make the “roaming” between wireless access points more smooth?
Kind regards
vonRasmussen

vonRasmussen :
Change the channel on the WAP or your router are on.
Not the 802.11?, but the transmission channels, which are probably transmitting on the same channel. I find the best results are at lease 2 numbers apart. if on is transmitting on channel 1 the next closest will be on 3. With multiple WAPs in a large area you would have to play Sudoko to make sure every one is 2 channels apart.
to quote Lisa Phifer:
Multiple access point configuration: Distinguish transmission signals;
Why should you access points use different channels? In a typical micro-cell Wlan, adjacent APs should always use non-overlapping channels, ( e.g., 1 ,6 ,11), to avoid co-channel interference.
Good Luck.
Dave

Roaming between 1231A and 1142N

Gday Everyone,
Just would like to know your experience in roaming between LWAPP converted 1231A and 1142N APs?

Inter-Release Controller Mobility (IRCM)
Table 10 lists the inter-release Controller Mobility (IRCM) compatibility matrix.
Table 10 Inter-Release Controller Mobility Compatibility Matrix
CUWN Service
4.2.x.x
5.0.x.x
5.1.x.x
6.0.x.x
7.0.x.x
7.2.x.x
7.3.x.x
Layer 2 and Layer 3 Roaming
X
X
X
X
X
Guest Access/Termination
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Rogue Detection
X
X
X
X
X
Fast Roaming (CCKM) in a mobility group
X
X
X
X
X
Location Services
X
X
X
X
X
Radio Resource Management (RRM)
X
X
X
-1
Management Frame Protection (MFP)
X
X
X
X
X
AP Failover
X
X
X
X
X
1 In the 7.2.x.x release, RF Groups and Profiles were introduced. RRM for 7.2.x.x and later releases is not compatible with RRM for any previous release.
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin

Roaming between radios

Hello to all!!
I`d like to know if roaming it's possible between radios. I mean: I've some ap with radio a and b/g/n and other only with b/g/n, client roaming between them is possible??
thanks in advance!!

to add to Leo, so long as you have overlap and the SSID are configured the same, you should roam just fine between AP.
HTH,
Steve
Please remember to rate useful posts, and mark questions as answered

Roaming between mesh and non mesh and mesh AP design

Hi There,
I need some verification on the following:
- Can client roam between Mesh AP 1550 series and Non-Mesh AP?
- I have 1550 series AP to be installed and all the mounting area are with data point ready, which connects back to switch. Would configuring mesh for this outdoor units recommended, and guide on this. Current guide i am looking from cisco site is basically the AP do not have wired ethernet connection, my design here a bit different, all the AP's have wired connection back to the switch.
Kindly assist.
Thank you
Rama

I have seen and done installs like this. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about the backhaul dropping. So it's like any LAP but big chunky outdoor AP. If the RAP looses Ethernet connectivity... Well it changes to a MAP. So you can look at
It as a benefit. It's always nice to be able to have Ethernet when you can.
Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

Roaming between Flexconnect groups for scaling

I have a customer that needs flexconnect at each of his 10 locations to access local servers and printers. The customer has a pair of 5508 WLCs running 7.6.130.0.
While the customer currently has 25 and under AP count per site, they are considering an expansion to 50 - 60 per site.
We are considering the mobility agent on 3650/3850/4500 switches, but the multi-hop restriction will drive the cost too high.
What is the downside for defining multiple flexconnect groups per site?
The customer is also considering Unified Communications. For example, would the voice RTP stream on a wireless IP phone roaming between APs on different flexconnect groups appear to be seamless?

If you plan on utilizing any real-time applications such as voice, you would not want these devices to be roaming between FlexConnect Groups. There will be a full re-authentication of the client; with the exception of OKC capable machines, which "may" roam more cleanly. This means some standard data clients may perform a fast roam, or at least not notice much of a hiccup even with a full re-auth.
In either scenario, you would want to make sure this is NOT a L3 mobility roam (ie. FlexConnect WLAN/VLAN mapping to different networks). This will cause major problems for all your clients as they will most likely end up talking on the new VLAN with their old IP address.
Mobility / Roaming Scenarios
WLAN Configuration
Local Switching
Central Switching
CCKM
PMK (OKC)
Others
CCKM
PMK (OKC)
Others
Mobility Between Same Flex Group
Fast Roam(1)
Fast Roam(1)
Full Auth(1)
Fast Roam
Fast Roam
Full Auth
Mobility Between Different Flex Group
Full Auth(1)
Fast Roam(1)
Full Auth(1)
Full Auth
Fast Roam
Full Auth
Inter Controller Mobility
N/A
N/A
N/A
Full Auth
Fast Roam
Full Auth
(1) Provided WLAN is mapped to the same VLAN (same subnet).

Roaming between AP's without WDS.

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