Hey Everyone,
Have you ever been using a mobile device while walking from one side of a building to the other when suddenly without any explanation the wireless connection you were using cuts out, stutters, or slows down? More so than not, that drop or slow down in connection was caused by the wireless network having problems with properly supporting roaming.
It can happen in any wireless environment, a warehouse facility, school, hospital, anywhere where you're accessing a wireless network.
It's a common wifi problem, however, it's a problem that can be avoided by deploying the right wireless network design.
Here's a simple overview of why your WLAN design needs to support roaming and how to get started.
What is roaming?
According to Senior Network Engineer, Michael McNamee (SecurEdge Networks), roaming is, "the process by which a client device or wireless device moves and shifts its connection from one access point to another as it moves throughout a facility or across a campus."
For example, let's say you have 3 APs spread across a facility, as the end-user or wireless device moves from one side of that facility to the other it hands-off from AP 1 to AP 2 to AP 3 seamlessly.
In the ideal situation, the end-user or device is able to maintain its voice or video session, etc. without dropping packets or in other words experiencing a drop in wifi performance, i.e. choppy video, frozen video, etc.
What challenges are there when trying to properly support roaming?
There are four critical elements to creating a quality wireless network design:
The Physical Environment
Devices
Applications
The End-User
In the case of roaming, the challenge to making it work properly is understanding and planning for these four elements, specifically your devices and applications.
Whether it’s a video streaming app like Netflix, or a video call, whatever the wireless device is whatever the application is you have to understand what they are and what they need for optimal performance.
Each device and application has a specific set of requirements that your WLAN design has to accommodate in order to properly support that device and/or application, for example, an iPhone using Snapchat or YouTube.
Another aspect to keep in mind is that in the Wi-Fi world the roaming functions on a wireless device are left up to the device, and a lot of times they're not the best decision-makers.
For example, cellular service is decided by the cell towers telling your phone when to disconnect and connect to a new tower. This is the opposite of how it works in the wireless world, so you really need to understand your devices to make sure those decisions are as easy as possible.
Thanks for reading.
