Hello Ivan, Roaming in a WiFi network is a decision that is made by the client. Although our RFS controllers and APs are unable to force your clients to roam more rapidly, here are some general best practices for network design and deployment that may help you. 1. Get details on the operating specifications of your WLAN client devices. Knowing the radio sensitivity and roaming thresholds of your client devices will allow you to design your network to facilitate seamless roaming between access points, as this will allow you to establish a baseline of the signal strength required for optimal operation and at what points the device will attempt to roam. 2. Make sure you are setting your Access Points to use non-overlapping channels. Generally speaking, on the 2.4GHz band (802.11b/g/n), this means alternating between channels 1, 6, and 11, as deployment on these channels will minimize network interference, allowing for better network performance and roaming. This should generally be a point that is addressed during the planning/deployment stages of your network, by performing predictive and physical surveys to determine optimal AP placement and channel/power assignment. If you are using a Motorola RFS switch, and a site survey was not performed, you can use Smart-RF calibration to have the switch intelligently scan and select channel/power levels for your access points, however after this has been done it is still highly recommended to have a site survey performed to validate that you have adequate coverage in all required areas. 3. For seamless roaming to be possible, your APs will need to be configured with the same SSID and security settings. If your WLAN configuration is inconsistent, devices will not be able to roam seamlessly between the APs. 4. If you are using WPA/WPA2-Enterprise, we offer several technologies which can decrease the amount of time required for a device to process a roam between APs. We offer PMK caching, Opportunistic Key Caching, and Pre-Authentication as methods for WLAN clients to obtain keying information without having to perform a full 802.1x authentication, which can drastically reduce the amount of time taken during a roam as it removes the time taken to authenticate to your authentication server. Please note however that in order to take advantage of these technologies, your WLAN client devices need to also support them. This is just a high level overview of some of the items which can influence device roaming. If you have a Motorola WLAN deployed and are experiencing issues with roaming between access points, I suggest opening up a support case by calling your local support desk so that our support specialists can assist you in diagnosing the cause of your issue. I hope you found this helpful.
1 Replies
Hello Ivan, Roaming in a WiFi network is a decision that is made by the client. Although our RFS controllers and APs are unable to force your clients to roam more rapidly, here are some general best practices for network design and deployment that may help you. 1. Get details on the operating specifications of your WLAN client devices. Knowing the radio sensitivity and roaming thresholds of your client devices will allow you to design your network to facilitate seamless roaming between access points, as this will allow you to establish a baseline of the signal strength required for optimal operation and at what points the device will attempt to roam. 2. Make sure you are setting your Access Points to use non-overlapping channels. Generally speaking, on the 2.4GHz band (802.11b/g/n), this means alternating between channels 1, 6, and 11, as deployment on these channels will minimize network interference, allowing for better network performance and roaming. This should generally be a point that is addressed during the planning/deployment stages of your network, by performing predictive and physical surveys to determine optimal AP placement and channel/power assignment. If you are using a Motorola RFS switch, and a site survey was not performed, you can use Smart-RF calibration to have the switch intelligently scan and select channel/power levels for your access points, however after this has been done it is still highly recommended to have a site survey performed to validate that you have adequate coverage in all required areas. 3. For seamless roaming to be possible, your APs will need to be configured with the same SSID and security settings. If your WLAN configuration is inconsistent, devices will not be able to roam seamlessly between the APs. 4. If you are using WPA/WPA2-Enterprise, we offer several technologies which can decrease the amount of time required for a device to process a roam between APs. We offer PMK caching, Opportunistic Key Caching, and Pre-Authentication as methods for WLAN clients to obtain keying information without having to perform a full 802.1x authentication, which can drastically reduce the amount of time taken during a roam as it removes the time taken to authenticate to your authentication server. Please note however that in order to take advantage of these technologies, your WLAN client devices need to also support them. This is just a high level overview of some of the items which can influence device roaming. If you have a Motorola WLAN deployed and are experiencing issues with roaming between access points, I suggest opening up a support case by calling your local support desk so that our support specialists can assist you in diagnosing the cause of your issue. I hope you found this helpful.