Roaming between AP's

[Rebry]

Hi Everyone!

I've been testing a few Meraki ap's, and I find myself jumping from one AP to another at times, most noticeable when I'm in video-calls. The thing is, during the move between AP's the roaming goes slow. and usually, I've moved to another AP further away from where I'm currently at. 

I'm guessing this is because of the auto-offloading to other ap's as some access points are in heavier use than others. But I feel a 3-6 second roam is a long roam.

Could some of this roaming issue be because I'm using different wifi-profiles on the two access points? 

Any hints or tips on how to get the roam more seamless if I'm using wpa2? 

[DarrenOC]

Hi @Rebry 

what seething do you have under Client IP assignment?  Bridge mode may help 

 

[Rebry]

Hi @DarrenOC!

Im currently using bridge mode on my Client ip assignment. Its a good call, as the roaming information on layer 3 could take some time. Theyre also connected on the same subnet, so roaming should be somewhat possible. 

[PhilipDAth]

99.9% of the time this is related to client drivers.  If you have anything with an Intel WiFi chipset go directly to Intel and get the latest driver.

Don't use a manufacturer-provided driver.  Many manufacturers are slow to incorporate the Intel bug fixes.  Sometimes years behind.

Are you using WPA2-PSK (which should be fast) or WPA2-Enterprise mode (which will depend on your RADIUS server and settings)?

[GIdenJoe]

If seamless roaming is important you should not use AP load balancing.
Your client may be trying to join the next AP but being kicked off due to "high" load on the AP.

I know 802.11v helps here but your client needs to support it.

To be 100% sure it is the roaming itself that is being slow you should measure from the first authentication frame up to the last frame in the 4way handshake or less if you're using 802.11r.