Random/Sporadic Client Disconnects

[ritchgaz]

We are seeing random/sporadic/in-repeatable disconnects from our Wireless LAN.

Examples of the errors we are currently seeing on the WLC are;

AAA_AUTH_SEND_FAIL: 1x_aaa.c:849 Unable to send AAA message for client dc:53:60:d6:de:31
*Dot1x_NW_MsgTask_1: Aug 20 09:34:58.590: %DOT1X-3-ABORT_AUTH: 1x_bauth_sm.c:450  Authentication Aborted for  client dc:53:60:d6:de:31 Abort Reason:DOT1X RESTARTED DUE TO EAPOL-START/CLIENT ROAM
*Dot1x_NW_MsgTask_4: Aug 20 09:34:57.575: %DOT1X-3-ABORT_AUTH: 1x_bauth_sm.c:450  Authentication Aborted for  client 60:67:20:45:1e:7c Abort Reason:DOT1X RESTARTED DUE TO EAPOL-START/CLIENT ROAM
*Dot1x_NW_MsgTask_1: Aug 20 09:34:56.603: %DOT1X-3-AAA_AUTH_SEND_FAIL: 1x_aaa.c:849 Unable to send AAA message for client 28:b2:bd:73:18:79
*Dot1x_NW_MsgTask_1: Aug 20 09:34:56.588: %DOT1X-3-ABORT_AUTH: 1x_bauth_sm.c:450  Authentication Aborted for  client 28:b2:bd:73:18:79 Abort Reason:DOT1X RESTARTED DUE TO EAPOL-START/CLIENT ROAM

Setup is;

Wireless Client -> Cisco 2802i -> 5508 WLC (version 8.2.170.0)

Any advice/guidance greatly appreciated.

[patoberli]

Can you debug an affected client a little bit longer. This could be a loss of signal on the client side, meaning a too weak signal.

[ritchgaz]

I don't believe it is related to signal strength as issue/disconnect can happen when user is directly underneath and access point.

[Bernhard Ertl]

Hi,

did you found out what the root cause to this was?

We are experiencing this issue too.

I've found some article which mentioned the 802.11r as source for the problem,

I'm not convinced that this is in fact the cause and just disabling fast roaming doesn't sound like a real solution :-)

would be nice to hear your experience so far.

regards

Bernhard

[patoberli]

Please note, only extremely new clients support 802.11r. For example Intel clients older 2 years (more or less) don't support it anyway.

Here a list from Intel:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000021562/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html



So this is a feature that you currently can safely disable or set to optional.