A lot of devices roam aggressively once RSSI falls below some threshold level. It was -70dBm for a few years. It started on Apple products and was soon copied by Samsung, Microsoft, and many others. I’ve long treated roaming issues where the 5GHz signal is around or weaker than -70 as coverage problems, and when we improved the coverage the roaming problem went away. This year we’re seeing the problem where the 5GHz signal is clearly better than -70. Not sure if the threshold changed on the client devices or if something else is at work here, but something seems different this year.
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> On Behalf Of Tim Cantin Sent: Friday, October 09, 2020 2:12 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Client roaming We're getting hit with this too, and have a case open with Cisco on it. Next step is to set up some live debugging... We have two 8510's paired for failover, upwards of 3,000 client wi-fi devices connected, and we've had maybe 20-30 reports that might be related to this. We may have clients who are feeling it and putting up with it, we're hearing a few say "everyone on my floor" etc. I agree there are certainly some new practices going on, with students holed up in their rooms on Zoom meetings all day! Specifically on the reports we're getting, we're seeing multiple platforms (everything from MacOS, iOS, Windows, Androids) roaming around to the nearest 2-5 ap's on a regular basis. It's usually from a student who doesn't have an ap in their room - we have Cisco 1810W's approx every other room. Not hearing any reports of this in NON-residential areas, which are all 2700-series mostly out in hallways etc Less roaming options, makes sense... hmm, maybe shut off half our 1810W's in the dorms? :D T On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 10:55 AM Enfield, Chuck <cae...@psu.edu<mailto:cae...@psu.edu>> wrote: FWIW, I’ve been reluctant to assume this is a new problem. Usage patterns have changed in the dorms and people are spending much more time using real-time protocols than ever before. Those protocols make brief connectivity issues very noticeable. It’s quite possible we’ve always had these problems, but they rarely bothered users enough to make them open trouble tickets. From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>> On Behalf Of Michael Davis Sent: Friday, October 09, 2020 10:49 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Client roaming We're an Aruba shop and only seeing it on iOS and MacOS devices. On 10/9/20 10:44 AM, Mallon, Jason wrote: I have not been able to pinpoint a device type as of yet. It seems to be happening across all platforms including game systems. Thanks, Jason Mallon | Network Engineer III [/var/folders/h2/r448cc4j4_v70yns10brx6r00000gq/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/Content.MSO/90F25235.tmp] OIT The University of Alabama <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ua.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ccae104%40PSU.EDU%7C11705879c1c145f965c308d86c7ee80e%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C637378639612775231&sdata=2osDwEcKGtKlX8lKD5YpLe91emdu1aQHlnUj91TjOG8%3D&reserved=0>jemal...@ua.edu<mailto:jemal...@ua.edu> [/var/folders/h2/r448cc4j4_v70yns10brx6r00000gq/T/com.microsoft.Outlook/Content.MSO/8434B70B.tmp] From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU><mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Date: Friday, October 9, 2020 at 9:40 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU><mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Client roaming We’re an Aruba shop and have noticed similar behavior. We’re having more incidents of intermittent connectivity issues this year than in previous years, and most of those clients are making questionable roaming decisions. It’s been really prevalent with iOS and MacOS. Much less on Windows and Android. There’s always been problems with picking a good radio when those devices first connect, but, historically, once they were steered to a good 5GHz radio they stayed there. They’re not staying there this year. We haven’t figured out why. Chuck Enfield Manager, Wireless and Cellular Penn State IT 814.863.8715 From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Community Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU><mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> On Behalf Of Mallon, Jason Sent: Friday, October 09, 2020 10:30 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Client roaming Wondering if anybody else is seeing this. We currently have devices doing a lot of roaming between 5 and 2.4 radios, especially in the dorms. I would not think anything of it normally, but they are moving from a -52 to -58 on the 5 radio to a -75 or worse on the 2.4 radio. This doesn’t seem to matter what SSID they are connected to. Band select is enabled on all SSIDs. We are running Cisco 8540 WLCs on 8.10.130. Most of the complaints are coming from the dorms, so I am not sure if it is happening on our other controllers with an older code level. 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