topic Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue in Wireless

Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

rr6231 — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 02:42:58 GMT

The Apple IPhone running Cisco Mobile 8/8.1 has roaming issue:

We are using a 5508 (WiSM) running 6.0.199.4 code. The AP's in the area are the 1142 and the 1232. the SSiD has QOS set to voice/Platinum. Cisco (and ASCOM) phones are working and roam just fine.

However when using the I-Phone (Mobile-8/8.1 app utilizing the Cisco Call Manager) there is a less than 1 second voice drop or dead air when roaming from AP to AP. The call does not drop and you don't hear anything from either end of the call for less than 1 second, the call then resume normally (until the next roam)

I do have a Cisco TAC case open, but they have come back with nothing. Has anyone heard of this issue before?

Thanks!

-rr

Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

Nicolas Darchis — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:23:57 GMT

Maybe you should give more details, like your SSID security configuration. The current analysis of the TAC case (what has been checked already) etc ...

Which SSID is making the roaming break ?

Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

rhodrijenkins — Tue, 24 May 2011 08:49:27 GMT

We have experienced the same problem with Mobile 8.1. The configuration is as described above and Cisco 7920 series phones also working fine.

I'm using dot1x with PEAP auth, I've tried disabling Cisco Aironet extentions on the SSID but this makes no difference. I also find the same problem but much worse using Blackberry MVS.

Personally, I put this down to the implementation of the wireless card/802.11 in the phone, Unfortunately, I think we'll just have to put up with this until there is more standardisation in the end client devices with regards to QoS etc.

If TAC came back with any advice I'd be interested to hear it.

Regards

Rhodri

Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

josemvigueras — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:23:36 GMT

Hi,

have you tried another type of authentication?, maybe you can prepare another SSID with WPA2 and PSK and see the differences, dot1x is not the best if you are looking for fast roaming.

Regards

Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

b.garczynski — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:43:32 GMT

I agree that our best bet is to use a PSK for the IPhone and most other mobile devices. In order to use fast roaming with 802.1x the client will need to support CCKM via CCX. While many non Cisco devices do support CCX I am not sure that the IPhone does. The IPhone is also at a disadvantage since it only has a 2.4ghz radio and no 5ghz capability. You may also try to reduce the total number of SSIDs to reduce the number of beacons the IPhone needs to listen to.

Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

K D — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:18:56 GMT

Hi RR,

Did Cisco come back with any solutions for this? Or what workaround did you do, to fix this?

Regards

Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

rhodrijenkins — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:30:00 GMT

Unfortunately not. The users have now just gotten used to it

Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

Nicolas Darchis — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:10:57 GMT

Out of experience, it seems that the iphone does not support fast roaming .It for sure does not do CCKM but it also seems that it doesn't do wpa2 fast roaming ... So the problem is on the iphone side.

Re: Mobile 8 / IPhone roaming Issue

George Stefanick — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:13:02 GMT

I did extensive captures and the iPhone creates a new PMK-ID for each ap. And it doesnt even do "fast roam back", either.