I will simplify my problem. Let’s say I got two offices with RB433 configured in AP-bridge mode in each office. RBs are conected with UTP cable (shown in attached image). I got handheld devices and I need them to roam between these two APs.
I wouldn’t use WDS because I got APs bonded with UTP cable.
I could use access-list with Signal Strenght Range option but it takes time to switch between APs. Maybe it’s not a problem with just two APs, but I got 10 APs and several vast warehouses and that might be a problem.
I saw some SOHO devices have the “wireless roaming” feature based on 802.11F (IAPP)…I don’t know how it works but I suppose that is the option I need. Searching the forum a saw that MT isn’t supporting 802.11f…
Is there any other MT feature I could use to achieve wireless client roaming between several APs?
Depends on fast you need the roaming to be? If for tcp/ip based clients, such as pda, netbooks, laptops, just make all APs have the same SSID? The disassociate / re-association process is faster than the TCP re-transmit process so you hardly notice any problem at all. So the end-user surfing the network or sending emails etc never knows they disconnected for a few hundred milli-seconds.
If you need roaming for VOIP UDP type traffic based clients, then no, Mikrotik does not support fast roaming and calls can break up and stutter when client is moving from one AP to the next.
You are right that Mikrotik does not support 802.11f (or 802.11r and 802.11k for that matter)
You’re right nest. Roaming for voip users is useless, but for network application it did the job.
I put the same SSID on all of the RB’s, configure the non-ovelapping channels, all RB’s are working in bridge mode (wlan0 and eth0 bridged) and one of them is DHCP server, so every wifi device get the same address on whatever RB’s he is connected.
If I were using routing between interfaces, when roaming, device loses several second on getting the new IP address.
Otherwise, when bridged, in the best case none of the ICMP (ping) packets are lost, and in the worst case maybe 3-4…what’s acceptable for me
Yes, that is how I have installed similar systems myself, except I used EOIP tunnels - but principle is the same. It might be good if Mikrotik supported faster roaming by some method, perhaps by providing a tunnel mechanism that sends all the radio data back from multiple ‘slave’ mikrotiks to a ‘master’ mikrotik where all the hard work is done.
I see another supplier have done it already at VERY cheap prices and a free software controller that runs on Windows or Linux (Beta stage at moment) It’s early days, but it is looking good so far.
