I have five RB411 equipped with R52Hn, each of them in ap-bridge mode and linked with the ethernet cables to the main switch to let the wi-fi users reach the Internet.
Some of them are near each-other and the signals are overlapping, so I need to enable WDS to let the APs utilise the same frequency, but I have no idea how to do that.
I always used WDS in master-repeater configurations, here instead I have five APs and all of them have Internet access via ethernet so there is no need to share the Internet connection via wi-fi, but I want my clients to automatically change AP while moving on the area.
I found no examples or useful documents on the wiki or on google. Any hint would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Good question.
I’m a bit ignorant about what the 802.11 protocol foresee in that case, and if/how it is really implemented in client devices: I would like my clients which are connected to, say, AP-X and move near to AP-Y to sync with the latter, which of course has a better signal.
A sort of GSM roaming.
I made some tests and I have some devices which seem to re-sync on the narest AP on the fly (e.g. HTC smartphones), but for example XP clients stay connected with the original AP, no matter if the signal becomes low.
A few more words on the scenario: I’m on a boat, so it’s a long and narrow environment. When docked on the quay we have other boats on both sides with their APs/antennas really near to ours and a lot of frequencies are overlapping. For that sake I’m wondering if it’s better to use a single frequency for the entire network (and maybe just manually launch a script to scan every time the boat is back to the seaport to evaluate which is the best channel and adjust the frequency accordingly) or instead leave every AP on his own channel.
No ideas?
Is that feasible? On the MT wiki there are some use-cases but from different scenarios (repeater, mesh network, transparent bridge), and the manual reports no detailed explanations on WDS features itself.
I made some trials but the network has to be up&running so I can’t afford long downtimes while testing configurations.