Multi Storey Router Set Up

[sniperation]

At the moment this is hypothetical but I still want to know.

If you have a multi storey house and you want to set up multiple routers, say one on each floor, how would you set them up in way that makes them act as one router with a single ssid and ssid password. So for example you are having a skype conversation and you are walking up or down the stairs and you want your laptop/phone to disconnect from the router you getting out of a strong signal from, and connect to the one with the stronger signal automatically, without ever disconnecting from the internet even if it is temporary (like having to drop the call and recall in terms of skype)

 

[jsmithepa]

This is called WIFI ROAMING, and is accomplished via industrial-strength WIFI routers, I believe a company named Ubiquiti or something like that sells them, or Cisco if money is no object. Can't get them at Best Buys.

They are deployed like cells like in a cellular network, just like your cell conversation are handed off from tower to tower as you move, pretty spiffy stuff.

The said routers can indeed be on an ethernet LAN for maximum performance.

 

[sniperation]

I should add that to maximize connectivity, i would be connecting the extention routers to main router (connected to the modem/dsl/ont) via ethernet cables, not wirelessly

 

[kanewolf]

With typical home equipment you are not guaranteed of seamless roaming between access points. Commercial equipment communicates with a central controller to hand off devices between APs. You can have a single SSID and password with multiple access points. Using light commercial units like Ubiquiti UniFi allows you to have multiple APs which can be configured as a system. This will simplify admin but can't ensure seamless roaming.

 

[sniperation]

I have a feeling this is a dumb question but what if you were to just give the extention routers the same ssid, ssid password, ip address, etc. Basically make them identical copies of the main router? Would that do much?

 

[kanewolf]

I have a feeling this is a dumb question but what if you were to just give the extention routers the same ssid, ssid password, ip address, etc. Basically make them identical copies of the main router? Would that do much?

That would be VERY bad. At least the same IP address part. You can do the same SSID and password but without the controller evaluating the signal strength from all the access points and steering the connection, it will be hit-or-miss for roaming.

 

[bill001g]

You will never get roaming at that level with anything other very high end equipment such as cisco or avaya. You are talking numbers as in the cost of a new car price.

Lets assume you have solved the easier problem of getting the device to transfer at optimum signal levels which it does not even come close to by default. The main issue is the encryption keys. There are 2 keys. The first is the one you set in the router and the client. The second is another key that is generated that is unique to the particular AP and end device. As you move to another AP you must find a way to keep all these keys straight. If you were to just switch with no coordination it will take a fairly long time (likely less than a second but enough to drop a call). These high end systems control the AP so it minimizes this but even these system you can still take a outage long enough that it will cause noise or a slight speech loss on voice call similar to what you sometime hear on a cell phone switching towers.

There are lots of very interesting white papers on this topic on the cisco site. It is generally refereed to as IP mobility and even discusses how you solve the issue if the IP addresses would need to change.

Realistically in a home environment you would have to be happy it even switch over automatically. What they tend to do is stay connected to the poor signal even if it is almost unusable and people get mad and reset it manually so it connects to the nearest device.

 

[USAFRet]

There are two words related to what you want to do:
WiFi sucks

 

[sniperation]

Yea just hypothetical anyway, I guess if I were to really do this I would just give the two other routers different names and passwords altogether and have 3 saved wifi routers on all my wifi devices