Off the cuff, few things I would do.
- Upgrade to 27.6 firmware
- Your TX power levels are defaulted, I would look at making sure the power level on each AP is where it should be. This of course requires survey work to know. Relying on Meraki AutoTX/RRM is not a good idea
- I would make your SSID's 5GHz only and 2.4GHz only. Dual-Band can cause issues with voice. Make sure your voice clients are only connected to the 5GHz one.
- I would also set your minimum data rate on 5GHz to 6Mbps
- Set your channel width to 20MHz on 5GHz
- Make sure you don't have RXSOP enabled
- 802.11r will only help iOS devices (FYI), not sure what clients your using
- You need to be 100% certain that the AP ports are configured correctly. They need to be on the same VLAN for the SSID the clients are using, otherwise you'll never get fast roaming if your swapping L3 domains.
Now of course, you could have the perfect configuration and still have issues if your actual wireless (RF) design is not adequate. No config can fix that. You have to ensure proper overlap from one AP cell to the next to ensure proper and seamless roaming for the client from AP1 to AP2 etc. This goes back to making sure the wireless design was done properly with a site survey etc.
@mikeset116 wrote:should i then change the minum bit rate from 12 to 6 , this will be for the same SSID 5 and 2,4 GHZ
For 2.4GHz, unless you need 802.11b support (only you will know this), then set it to 12Mbps to cut-off/disable those slow 802.11b rates.
For 5GHz you can set to 6Mbps without any issue.
Just to confirm are you using an iPhone to test with?
For the sake of testing, I would try with 802.11r disabled and see if it makes any difference, or fully on.
Your on the right path, using a 'test SSID' will allow you to figure out where the trouble areas are on your own.
I'm going to assume the port configurations for each AP are correct, and all on the same L2 network. So assuming that, what I would do is have this new SSID only broadcast on AP's with tags, and then pick two AP's near each other and just walk back and forth and confirm if roaming is having an issue or not.
I would tune your power levels, or at least see where Meraki is having them land on. You want it to be around 11 - 17dBm range, so if you have AP's at 5dBm or 30dBm then that's not good. This allows for proper TX power matching between clients and APs (again this also comes down to the RF design).
Another thing to consider (not sure what country your in) is if your using DFS channels (UNII-2 and UNII-2e), which has impact on roaming. Clients are not allowed to actively scan and probe on DFS, they can only listen for beacons, so its takes longer for them to discover if there is an AP on a DFS channel for it to roam to, which means a delay in the roaming etc. 802.11k is supposed to help with this but its not perfect, so its something to consider.
If all configurations are good, and your still having issues, its going to come down to the RF design which is a physical thing and these forums won't really be able to assist you with other than recommend you have an outside source perform a survey and come up with better AP locations.
Have a look at this guide here (although I recommend ignoring the SSID bandwidth limiting they suggest):
This link here is about Cisco WLCs, but they go over some RF design stuff that is worth a review:
https://mrncciew.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/brkewn-2000-voice-over-wifi-best-practices.pdf
Yes iphone 12 latest firmware
I just tried it without 802.11r it still wasn't good.
My APS are 17 to 25 range for the 5ghz signal.
Im am in USA flordia, it Is on a beach not to far from a airport .
Channel planning
Are you testing between just two specific APs?
I wouldn't let the power go over 17dBm personally, but again this comes down to the design that was done. You'll run into power mismatch issues with power levels being too high (client can hear AP well, but AP can't hear client well scenario).
Looks like your using the older version of the radio settings page, I would personally use the new version if I were you. You'll want to turn client balancing OFF as well, that prevents clients from joining an AP if the AP things it already has too many which = bad for voice.
The better option is as follows:
You will need to contact Meraki support and ask them to enable the feature/option to configure an SSID as 2.4GHz only.
When you have that turned on, then create a new SSID and make it 2.4GHz only. Those legacy devices will then need to connect to this new SSID.
Then make the existing SSID that you have now, 5GHz only
Done and done
You still have 2.4GHz support, but on a dedicated SSID. This might require more effort on your end as you'll need to reconfigure those devices to connect to this new SSID, but in my opinion its worth it.
