Wireless roaming without Cisco Wireless Lan Controller

[tomas.greno]

Hi,

I own 2 access points (AP) - Cisco AIR-AP1131AG-E-K9 (firmware: c1130-k9w7-mx.124-10b.JDA3)

They are both connected to switch in the same subnet - Cisco WS-C2960-24TT-L (firmware: c2960-lanbasek9-mz.150-1.SE)

I want to set APs in a way that they allow roaming of wireless clients. Only requirement is that roaming between access points should be transparent for clients. In other words - if client make TCP connection while connected to first AP, after roaming to second AP, TCP connection must stay alive.

I know this is possible using Cisco Wireless Lan Controller, but is it possible also without this device?

Thanks in advance,

Tomáš Greňo

[Leo Laohoo]

In other words - if client make TCP connection while connected to first AP, after roaming to second AP, TCP connection must stay alive.

If you are living in a large open field with no wireless interference around, you can.  As long as the APs are spaced with 20% cell overlap.  You'll also need to manually adjust the channels and the powers for each of the radio.  

[George Stefanick]

Exactly once you use 802.1X you should configure WDS. Other wise you will do a full auth each and every roam .. PSK you only do the 4 way hand shake .. 

[Sandeep Choudhary · Accepted solution]

Adding to Leo ..

Yes It is possible.

If you are using PSK then :Client roaming will  work fine If you have the SSIDs, passwords, and authentication types are identical on each AP except the BVI  interface IP address.

if you are using 802.1x,  then you would want to configure WDS for the key caching.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/aironet-1100-series/44720-WDS.html#step1

https://rscciew.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/configuring-wds-via-cli/

Regards

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