Enhanced roaming

[AntnonGibon]

Hi,

I would like to Control the roaming.

Like a customer with thin or large walls might need diffrent roaming settings for best customer preformance.

Something like a SNR setting or RSSI. Or similar control to make client move earlier or later depending on network and pysical limitations per site.
Example, i have a customer where the wall between rooms are 1m thick with Iron rebar and steel sheet reinnforced.

This customer needs a SNR of 15 to make sure that the client stays just long enough to have enough signal for the next jump.

[schumaku]

Nothing the Insight AP (or for the sake any industry standard AP) can or will do: The wireless clients get a list of neighboring BSSIDs offered for each SSID. No wireless clients are actively dropped by any AP due to low signal. The roaming is purely under the wireless client control.

Here what Wikipedia IEEE 802.11k-2008 says:

===

802.11k is intended to improve the way traffic is distributed within a network. In a wireless LAN, each device normally connects to the access point (AP) that provides the strongest signal. Depending on the number and geographic locations of the subscribers, this arrangement can sometimes lead to excessive demand on one AP and underutilization of others, resulting in degradation of overall network performance. In a network conforming to 802.11k, if the AP having the strongest signal is loaded to its full capacity, a wireless device is connected to one of the underutilized APs. Even though the signal may be weaker, the overall throughput is greater because more efficient use is made of the network resources.

Protocol operation

• The following steps are performed before switching to a new access point.
• Access point determines that client is moving away from it.
• Informs client to prepare to switch to a new access point.
• Client requests list of nearby access points
• Access point gives site report
• Client moves to best access point based on report

===

Industry standard Wi-Fi clients always defaults to the 5 GHz band over the 2.4 GHz band. This happens as long as the RSSI for a 5 GHz network is at least -68 dBm and the load on the network is not excessive.

Modern Wi-Fi clients consider information shared by networks about channel utilization and quantity of associated clients. These industry standard clients are using these details along with signal strength measurements (RSSI) to score candidate networks. Higher score networks offer a better Wi-Fi experience.

If multiple 5 GHz SSIDs receive the same score, macOS chooses a network based on these criteria:

802.11ax is preferred over 802.11ac.

802.11ac is preferred over 802.11n or 802.11a.

802.11n is preferred over 802.11a.

160 MHz channel width is preferred over 80MHz, or 40 MHz, or 20 MHz.

80 MHz channel width is preferred over 40 MHz, or 20 MHz.

40 MHz channel width is preferred over 20 MHz.

Specifically for Apple implementations:

macOS Monterey supports 802.11k on Mac computers with Apple silicon.

Earlier versions of macOS don't support 802.11k but do interoperate with SSIDs that have 802.11k enabled. (interesting, eh?)

macOS selects a target BSSID with a reported RSSI 12 dB or greater than the current BSSID’s RSSI. This is true even if the macOS client is idle or transmitting/receiving data.

Said this: Certain overlapping with more than an poor power level is required in any position within an AP environment to ensure coverage -and seamless roaming.

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Active controllers and cloud systems are becoming relevant for roaming with WPA3 and 802.1x environment. Nothing special is required for pure WPA2-PSK - what most people are deploying nowadays.