Droputs with multiple wifi access points -- RADIUS server?

that

esuhl wrote: »

I was just browsing through the settings on my Android phone, and found this option:

Would this improve performance when moving between wi-fi APs? Are there any downsides? I presume there must be, as it's disabled by default.

I had a quick google, but couldn't find anything particularly definitive. :-/ I wonder if there's a similar option for the iPhone...?

I did not know is was on android phones, less of a clue on apple, but there are 3 or four options under the wifi advanced properties for windows. It checks for alternative stronger networks.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005546/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

esuhl

arciere wrote: »

Downsides? Maybe battery?

Ah, of course. I'm sure that must be it.

that wrote: »

I did not know is was on android phones, less of a clue on apple, but there are 3 or four options under the wifi advanced properties for windows. It checks for alternative stronger networks.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005546/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

Right -- that sounds like it must be the same thing. Nice one!

arciere wrote: »

But then again, if you have a non-centralised system, it's up to each device to decide where and how to roam between two different access points.

I still don't quite understand how that works in practice. I watched a few YouTube videos explaining Ubiquiti, but it looked like most of the kit was just a standard router, switches, IP cameras, etc. I couldn't understand the technical reason it all "worked better" than separate components. I don't really understand what the "controller box" (which seems to double as a NAS drive) actually does to improve the wireless network...?
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Whilst trying to find out if the "wifi roaming agressiveness" is user-configurable on the iPhone, I came across this document, which outlines how 802.11k, 802.11r and 802.11v standards improve wifi roaming.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202628

The 802.11 Working Group standards k, r, and v let clients roam more seamlessly from access point (AP) to AP within the same network.

802.11k
The 802.11k standard helps iOS to speed up its search for nearby APs that are available as roaming targets by creating an optimized list of channels. When the signal strength of the current AP weakens, your device will scan for target APs from this list.

802.11r
When your iOS device roams from one AP to another on the same network, 802.11r uses a feature called Fast Basic Service Set Transition (FT) to authenticate more quickly. FT works with both preshared key (PSK) and 802.1X authentication methods.
iOS 10 and later includes support for adaptive 802.11r on Cisco wireless networks. Adaptive 802.11r offers FT without the need to enable 802.11r on the configured Cisco wireless network.

802.11v
iOS supports the basic service set (BSS) transition-management functionality of 802.11v on certain devices. BSS transition management allows the network’s control layer to influence client roaming behavior by providing it the load information of nearby access points. iOS takes this information into account when deciding among the possible roam targets.

When you combine 802.11k and 802.11v’s ability to speed up the search for the best target AP with FT's faster AP association, apps can perform faster and you get a better Wi-Fi experience in iOS.

So... is the secret of the Ubiquiti kit just that it supports the above standards...?

debitcardmayhem

Read this https://www.tp-link.com/ae/support/faq/2097/ I would but am going to ZZZzzz....

arciere

esuhl wrote: »

I still don't quite understand how that works in practice. I watched a few YouTube videos explaining Ubiquiti, but it looked like most of the kit was just a standard router, switches, IP cameras, etc. I couldn't understand the technical reason it all "worked better" than separate components. I don't really understand what the "controller box" (which seems to double as a NAS drive) actually does to improve the wireless network...?

A centralised system knows what's going on on the network from "above", meaning that the controller manages all wireless access points that are connected to it.
For example, if you have one iPhone connected to the WiFi, with a centralised system the controller knows that iPhone is connected to Access Point 1 with signal 21%, using protocol AC, current speed 12Mbps, channel 6.
Now, if the controller reckons that 21% signal is too low, and Access Point 2 can guarantee a better signal, then it asks Access Point 1 to drop the connection and 'force' Access Point 2 to acquire the iPhone client. This is not exactly how it works, but you get the idea.
With a stand-alone system, if iPhone is connected to AP1 with 21% signal, AP1 doesn't know anything about AP2 (or at least it doesn't know it's part of the same network), so it will never drop the connection as long as iPhone is within range. Same thing with iPhone: it doesn't know that AP2 is on the same network as AP1, so it can decide to stick to AP1 or to try and connect to AP2 instead, but it's entirely up to the device.

In the 'zero hand-off' configuration that I mentioned earlier, all access points behave as there is only one, big access point. From a device perspective, there is no AP1 and AP2, but only AP. I believe this is achieved by using the same BSSID and same channel.
However this set up has major downsides: if all the access points are using the same channel, also all the clients will be using that same channel, so in a congested environment, disconnections, packets loss and latency are more than likely.

arciere

I forgot to add a couple of things.

Zero-handoff is not the same as 'Fast roaming'. Fast roaming is usually preferable.
Ubiquiti doesn't have any 'physical' controller. The controller is simply a program that you can run on a Windows computer (it doesn't need to stay on 24/7) or you can use a special controller on 'key' similar to a USB flash drive (it's called Cloud Key).