Hi I've heard the general consensus that Wifi roaming is purely done by the client devices instead of the mesh satellites / WAPs. However here under "The problem with non-mesh access points" and "The advantages of mesh networking" PCWorld claims that mesh networks have smarts built into them to facilitate better roaming on the wireless network. Is this true/untrue? Maybe half-true? Thanks!
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Question Mesh Network Smarts?
- Thread starter Crag_Hack
- Start date
First why would you need so called seamless roaming. I will laugh when router manufactured start getting sued because someone fell down the stairs in their house staring at netflix on their phone. They already walk out into traffic on cell phones.
So many many years ago cisco tried this and most the information about the 802.11 roaming protocols you will find on cisco sites. This was back in the day when you paid by the minute for cell calls and coverage in buildings was horrible. Cisco tried to do what is now called wifi calling but it had a different name back then. It kinda worked but not well. In the end the cell company killed it off with unlimited voice plans and the use of micro cell tower placed in large buildings.
As stated the client is in full control and it does not pick the correct AP. Now the part they try to pretend are the roaming extensions to the 802.11 protocols. Most end devices do not support this so it really doesn't matter if the mesh units do. Again the client is still in control. Even when is has the roaming protocols it is just a bit more information to the end device. The huge problem is the signal level the AP detect from the end device do not mean the end device gets the same signal levels from the AP. The mesh network has no way to determine how well the end device can receive signals from any AP. It makes the assumption it is symmetrical which many times is correct but also why you still get random disconnects and drops as you move around.
Something like a cell phone the tower is in full control of the radio in your cell phone. It can adjust the transmit power on the fly and tell the radio to change towers.
BUT we are again back to why do you really need this feature. In most cases if you walk down the hall by the time you get to the other room the device will detect it and switch even using just dumb AP with no mesh. Nobody in a home environment is going to try to dynamically balance devices. The example cisco used was a bunch of employees move to a conference room and all want to use wifi. The system would force other users who were not on the conference room to move to other AP to allow the extra capacity. Again it kinda worked and kinda didn't
So many many years ago cisco tried this and most the information about the 802.11 roaming protocols you will find on cisco sites. This was back in the day when you paid by the minute for cell calls and coverage in buildings was horrible. Cisco tried to do what is now called wifi calling but it had a different name back then. It kinda worked but not well. In the end the cell company killed it off with unlimited voice plans and the use of micro cell tower placed in large buildings.
As stated the client is in full control and it does not pick the correct AP. Now the part they try to pretend are the roaming extensions to the 802.11 protocols. Most end devices do not support this so it really doesn't matter if the mesh units do. Again the client is still in control. Even when is has the roaming protocols it is just a bit more information to the end device. The huge problem is the signal level the AP detect from the end device do not mean the end device gets the same signal levels from the AP. The mesh network has no way to determine how well the end device can receive signals from any AP. It makes the assumption it is symmetrical which many times is correct but also why you still get random disconnects and drops as you move around.
Something like a cell phone the tower is in full control of the radio in your cell phone. It can adjust the transmit power on the fly and tell the radio to change towers.
BUT we are again back to why do you really need this feature. In most cases if you walk down the hall by the time you get to the other room the device will detect it and switch even using just dumb AP with no mesh. Nobody in a home environment is going to try to dynamically balance devices. The example cisco used was a bunch of employees move to a conference room and all want to use wifi. The system would force other users who were not on the conference room to move to other AP to allow the extra capacity. Again it kinda worked and kinda didn't
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