topic Hello @salvatore.parisi in Wireless

Wifi roaming issue on Android Client

salvatore.parisi — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 12:13:40 GMT

Roaming issues on single WLC based infrastructure. The infrastructure is made up by about 150 AP. The WiFi Network must support our Mobile Phone service. The main problem we observed is the “not transparent roaming” of the mobile Android clients. Under the same infrastructure we also use CISCO CP- 7925 and for this device we didn’ t observe any roaming issues.

- Software Version 8.1.102.0

Leo Laohoo — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 22:17:32 GMT

- Software Version 8.1.102.0

My eyes stopped there. Upgrade to 8.1.131.0 or 8.2.100.0. There are reasons why Cisco no longer allows anyone to download the version currently being used.

- General: Radio policy: 802.11 b/g only

Uhhhh .. what??

- QOS: Platinum (voice)

And what is the 802.1p value set to?

Ok Leo, thanks a lot.

salvatore.parisi — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:03:22 GMT

Ok Leo, thanks a lot.

Now we will proceed with the version upgrade and after i'll let you know.

In the meanwhile we set up the general radio policy on "All"?

The Wired QOS protocol is set on 802.1p and the 802.1p tag has the value 5.

Salvatore

I do not think below settings

Rasika Nayanajith — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:12:35 GMT

I do not think below settings are correct. Most of them are against the voice deployment best practices as well.

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7925g/7_0/english/deployment/guide/7925dply.pdf

- If you enable 802.11r, it has to be either WPA2 with PSK or WPA2 with 802.1X

- Voice is always to deploy on 5GHz

- not sure MAC filtering is recommended setting for this

- Hidden SSID is not good

- General: Radio policy: 802.11 b/g only
- Security: Layer 2 security: none
- Security: Mac filtering enabled
- Security: Fast transition enabled
- Security: Fast Transition over the DS enabled
- Security: Fast Transition Reassociation timeout 20 seconds
- QOS: Platinum (voice)
- AVC profile: Jabber
- Advanced: 11K Neighbor list enabled
- Broadcast SSID : NO.

Refer this post for basic understanding of 802.11 roam

https://mrncciew.com/2014/09/02/cwsp-802-11-roaming-basics/

Here is how Fast transition (11r) works if you enable it. Note that once you enable this certain clients if they not support 11r may have trouble connecting to this SSID

https://mrncciew.com/2014/09/05/cwsp-802-11r-key-hierarchy/

https://mrncciew.com/2014/09/07/cwsp-802-11r-over-the-air-ft/

https://mrncciew.com/2014/09/08/cwsp-802-11r-over-the-ds-ft/

NB: As Leo suggested upgrade to a supported code, but do not expect your configuration issues will go away with that upgrade.

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

Hello Rasika,

salvatore.parisi — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 16:39:16 GMT

Hello Rasika,

in order to better identify the problem inside our infrastructure, we did today another test with two different devices.

We used :

- an Android Samsung Galaxy A3_2016 (SM-A310F)

- an Apple IPAD Air.

We noticed that the Android Device has the same behavior : bad roaming.

Instead, the Apple IPAD roams correctly as you can see inside the log in attachment.

For Apple Device (IPAD) we get :

*apfMsConnTask_4: Jun 16 17:45:51.790: [PA] 60:d9:c7:b0:ee:13 Processing assoc-req station:60:d9:c7:b0:ee:13 AP:80:e0:1d:fd:d4:30-01 thread:9d8b5b0

*apfMsConnTask_4: Jun 16 17:45:51.790: [PA] 60:d9:c7:b0:ee:13 Reassociation received from mobile on BSSID 80:e0:1d:fd:d4:5b AP Office-P2-Ap139

for Android we still get:

*apfMsConnTask_7: Jun 16 18:00:54.226: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Processing assoc-req station:2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac AP:80:e0:1d:f8:5a:b0-00 thread:9d8c840

*apfMsConnTask_7: Jun 16 18:00:54.226: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Association received from mobile on BSSID 80:e0:1d:f8:5a:94 AP Office-P2-Ap138

With the same configuration, with IPAD we have a transparent seamless roaming!

The Apple device do the Reassociation procedure when it roams from an AP to the following, the Android device didn’t (Android devices starts a new assosiation).

We also did two tests: the first one at 5 GHZ (802.11a only) and the second one at 2.4 GHz (802.11g only). The results are :

- The Apple device roams correctly in both cases.

- The Samung A3_2016 device, which works at only 2.4Ghz, as reported before, doesn’t roam correctly.

I read the article about Roaming basics, over ther air and over the ds. They are very interesting. But I saw that you had used, in your tests, an Iphone5. Have you ever tried an Android/Samsung Device?

Because also with my WLC configuration Apple devices and the Cisco CP-7925 works fine.

Thank you,

Salvo

I would suggest below

Rasika Nayanajith — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 19:44:42 GMT

I would suggest below

1. Remove 802.11r & simply have your WLAN security configured with WPA2/PSK & test these two device. Even though it is not a fast roam, you should be able to see clients will use rassociation request/response when roam. They will do full auth as no fast roaming configured.

2. Once you confirm both working as expected, enable 11r on the WLAN & test it again.

Refer this site for client capabilities

http://clients.mikealbano.com/

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

In the meanwhile we set up

Leo Laohoo — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 22:41:58 GMT

In the meanwhile we set up the general radio policy on "All"?

Remote into the phone using a browser, go to Network Profiles > Profile.

Look under "802.11 Mode" and choose "Auto, 802.11a preferred over 802.11b/g".

What Data Rates are configured?

Hello Rasika,

salvatore.parisi — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 10:59:19 GMT

Hello Rasika,

we made the tests as you suggested.

The radio policy was setted to 802.11g only.

First Test

- 802.11r : FT disabled

- L2 Security : WPA+WPA2

- Authentication Key Management : PSK

Results:

- IPAD Air : roams correctlty. (We saw the Reassosiation responses) [log_ipad_noft_20161706.txt]

- Samsung Galaxy A3_2016 : not roams correctly (We saw only the Assosiation respones) [log_a32016_noft_20161706.txt]

Second Test

- 802.11r : FT enabled

- Security : WPA+WPA2

- Authentication Key Management : FT PSK

Results:

- IPAD Air : roams correctlty. (We saw the Reassosiation responses) [log_ipad_ft_20161706.txt]

- Samsung Galaxy A3_2016 : not roams correctly (We saw only the Assosiation respones) [log_a32016_ft_20161706.txt]

In atteched the logs.

In your roaming experiments, have you ever tried an Android/Samsung Device?

Thank you,
Salvo

Id do frame captures to see

George Stefanick — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 17:49:48 GMT

Id do frame captures to see what is going on. Also take off security and see if roaming improves.

Hello Rasika,

salvatore.parisi — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 14:14:37 GMT

Hello Rasika,

today we did the WLC upgrade to the 8.2.110.0 version.

And now also with the Samsung Galaxy A3_2016 we, finally, get the Reassosiation responses!

*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Processing assoc-req station:2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac AP:80:e0:1d:f0:9d:f0-00 thread:18d805b8
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Station: 2C:AE:2B:5A:87:AC trying to join WLAN with RSSI 204. Checking for XOR roam conditions on AP: 80:E0:1D:F0:9D:F0 Slot: 0
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Station: 2C:AE:2B:5A:87:AC is associating to AP 80:E0:1D:F0:9D:F0 which is not XOR roam capable
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Reassociation received from mobile on BSSID 80:e0:1d:f0:9d:d4 AP Office-P2-Ap136
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Station: 2C:AE:2B:5A:87:AC trying to join WLAN with RSSI 204. Checking for XOR roam conditions on AP: 80:E0:1D:F0:9D:F0 Slot: 0
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.813: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Station: 2C:AE:2B:5A:87:AC is associating to AP 80:E0:1D:F0:9D:F0 which is not XOR roam capable
*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 24 15:02:09.814: [PA] 2c:ae:2b:5a:87:ac Rf profile 200 Clients are allowed to AP radio

Is a little step. Now the phone doesn't lose the wifi signal but at every ap change it continues to break all tcp connections.

Thank you for your support! Do you have any suggestion for us ?

Salvo

DHCP has a high elapsed time:

Andrew MacTaggart — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 18:56:33 GMT

DHCP has a high elapsed time: 92s

Maybe you are running DHCP on a switch or something other than a dedicated server.

Hi Andrew,

salvatore.parisi — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 10:12:59 GMT

Hi Andrew,

thank you for your answer.

Can you show me where you see that ?

Thank you,
Salvo

Hi Salvatore,

Nashja — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 16:10:04 GMT

Hi Salvatore,

How about all your Android devices after upgraded to version 8.2.110? Are they OK for roaming?

Do you turn on 802.11r? Please share your configuration.

Thank you.

Hi,

salvatore.parisi — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 13:15:45 GMT

Hi,

after the upgrade to the 8.2.110 my clients roams well.

I have a problem with clients with android 5 or later. These clients roams well only if the DHCP (client side) is off.

A device with android 4 roams well in all scenarios (DHCP off and DHCP on).

For Android 5 I see :

- If the DHCP in on (client side) I see that when the client roam (to another AP) the client IP address for a little while (1 second) take a 0.0.0.0 as IP address! After that interval he return to the correct IP address.

- If the DHCP is off (client side) when the client roam (to another AP) the client IP address is alwasy correct.

Salvo

Hi Leo, Hi All,

salvatore.parisi — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 16:15:37 GMT

Hi Leo, Hi All,

after the upgrade to the 8.2.110 my clients roams well.

I have a problem with clients with android 5 or later. These clients roams well only if the DHCP (client side) is off.

A device with android 4 roams well in all scenarios (DHCP off and DHCP on).

For Android 5 I see :

- If the DHCP is off (client side) when the client roam (to another AP) the client IP address is alwasy correct.

I have took the logs (attached) :

- dhcp_on_android_v4.txt : Roaming test with Android 4 and DHCP ON (roams ok)

- dhcp_off_android_v5.txt : Roaming test with Android 5 and DHCP OFF - static IP (roams ok)

- dhcp_on_android_v5.txt : Roaming test with Android 5 and DHCP ON - (roams bad)

Thank you for your support.

Salvo

Hello @salvatore.parisi

slyfox — Wed, 17 May 2017 07:27:44 GMT

Hello [@salvatore.parisi]

Did you solve roam issue with Android 5 and higher devices?

we have two the same way configures test networks, Net.A with 802.11r over DS only enabled

and Net.B with 802.11r DS, 802.11k and 802.11v

For the Net.B we experience absolutely the same issue like you mentioned

Tested device Sumsung S7 (Android 7.0)

Hi @Vladimir Lisovskiy

salvatore.parisi — Wed, 17 May 2017 08:42:03 GMT

Hi VLISOVSKIY

we still have the problem.

We found a workaround : we use static ip on the devices.

If the device has been configured with a static ip, we get a trasparent roaming.

I have a question for you.

Do you have a configuration (Net.A) where the Samsung devices roams transparently ?

Can you share with me the configuration.

I did many test, and i never get a configuration where Samsung devices (with DHCP) roams transparently.

Thank you,

Salvo

Hello @salvatore.parisi,

slyfox — Wed, 17 May 2017 09:17:19 GMT

Hello @salvatore.parisi,

wlan info attached.

With disabled 802.11k Samsung roams without breaks,

Thank you for sharing.

salvatore.parisi — Wed, 17 May 2017 09:43:43 GMT

Thank you for sharing.

WLC running version ?

DHCP is enabled on Samsung devices, right ?

Salvo

WLC run under AIR-CT2500-K9-8

slyfox — Wed, 17 May 2017 10:31:33 GMT

WLC run under AIR-CT2500-K9-8-2-151-0

yes, DHCP enabled.