Devices movement issue WIFI

[athan1234]

Dear all:

I'm having issues with a few gadgets that move around the fabric and occasionally get lost, making things impossible.
I am following the machine when they are connecting to the AP is more nearby they are connecting for other AP is so distant and the signal is -87DMB signal -7 there is a zone where they used to lose connectivity (there are a lot off beer kegs).
I am seeing in AP 75 while the machine is in AP 63.

When I tested it on the client's PC, the acces point was more or less accurate when he was below the amount.

When I tested it on the client's PC, the acces point was more or less accurate when he was below the AP.

Is there any way to solve this problem , maybe gain antenna , and mobility for those device are moving having a fast roaming

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

You could enable the 802.11k and 802.11r protocols to improve the roaming.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Wi-Fi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/802.11k_and_802.11r_Overview

I suggest to execute a passive wireless survey to verify the spectrum.

[athan1234]

Hi

Can 802.11k and 802.11r only be enabled in a specific SSID or AP   wlc 9800 ?
The Cisco WLC 9800 lacks an available spectrum.

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

You can do it on specific SSID, sharing a couple of useful links:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/config-guide/b_wl_16_10_cg/assisted-roaming.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/config-guide/b_wl_16_10_cg/802-11r-bss-fast-transition.html

Regards,

[JPavonM]

@athan1234 notice that client roaming is goberned by the chipset driver/firmware and the logic taht is programmed on it by the manufacturer's developers, and there is little you can do to improve that if the vendor does not provide you with a tool to change specific settings on that driver like roaming aggressiveness or prefered bands.

As @Julio E. Moisa mentioned, enabling assited roaming through the use of 802.11k/r/v may improve the decitions as far as the device do support them. If not, the only thing you can do to improve that is to use patch antennas and not omni ones to reduce propagation and limit the coverage range of all APs, and/or tune maximum TX Power levels in the APs and mandatory and supported data rates to disable the lower ones (if the device does not requires the DSSS/CCK ones to be enabled as I've seen in some IoT sensors) so to reduce the effective cell and make the device to roam, again, if it plays fine with DRS. You can check supported specifications on the device's datasheet or with the vendor.

[Daniel Ordóñez Flores]

Hi @athan1234 

802.11r will help you with 802.1x and Voip roaming, but client and APs mus support it.

@JPavonM he's right, you need to modify mandatory datarates from 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If you have enable 1 Mbps that could be a issue. For 2.4 go for 11 or 12 Mbps, for 5 GHz go for 12 Mbps.

You need to be aware that this is just a try, acctually you need to do a Site Survey, but you can try, disable load balancing as well and try to modify TX powe settings. Pretty sure that will help