Wi-Fi Calling Test

[coxhaus]

I seem to have come across Wi-Fi calling test which is hard to pass.

My test. I call my wife on 1 AP when I am on the other one. If I walk to her AP which causes me to roam to her AP there seems to be a 1 second drop. If you are not talking you might not notice but I keep a constant talking stream which causes a 1 second drop. I am using iPhones. A 7 and a 7+ with IOS13.1.2.

There does not seem to be a fix for this. I believe this is more of a problem using a Radius server. I am not. I believe 802.11r will help with the Radius server.

Can anybody pass this test?

 

[sfx2000]

I seem to have come across Wi-Fi calling test which is hard to pass.

My test. I call my wife on 1 AP when I am on the other one. If I walk to her AP which causes me to roam to her AP there seems to be a 1 second drop. If you are not talking you might not notice but I keep a constant talking stream which causes a 1 second drop. I am using iPhones. A 7 and a 7+ with IOS13.1.2.

There does not seem to be a fix for this. I believe this is more of a problem using a Radius server. I am not. I believe 802.11r will help with the Radius server.

Can anybody pass this test?

Couple of questions...

AP1 and AP2 - same or different SSID's

Auth in use - WPA2-PSK or WPA2-Enterprise?

I've got multiple AP's and cross AP or cross band (5 to 2.4 for example, a "hand down")...

11r can help, as long as your WLC can do the key management across the two AP's, but if AP2 has a different SSID, the wireless client will trigger a layer 3 handoff rather than a layer 2...

 

[coxhaus]

Couple of questions...

AP1 and AP2 - same or different SSID's

Auth in use - WPA2-PSK or WPA2-Enterprise?

I've got multiple AP's and cross AP or cross band (5 to 2.4 for example, a "hand down")...

11r can help, as long as your WLC can do the key management across the two AP's, but if AP2 has a different SSID, the wireless client will trigger a layer 3 handoff rather than a layer 2...

Both AP1 and AP2 have the same SSID and both have same WPA2-PSK. I am running dual band 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz with band steering on. Band steering is new for me with this test. So I have 2 SSIDs using both bands.

I thought 11r was for Radius use. Does 11r work for WPA2-PSK? If so then I need to figure out fast roaming on the Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. It looked like it was geared for Radius.

 

[Moebius]

Both AP1 and AP2 have the same SSID and both have same WPA2-PSK. I am running dual band 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz with band steering on. Band steering is new for me with this test. So I have 2 SSIDs using both bands.

I thought 11r was for Radius use. Does 11r work for WPA2-PSK? If so then I need to figure out fast roaming on the Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. It looked like it was geared for Radius.

I'm pretty sure that is correct -802.11r requires WPA2-Enterprise aka Radius.
The other fast roaming 802.11k/v are different.


Strikingly Similar yet completely different -
In my home network, I have 3 Tplink EAP-225v3 with an omada oc200, and dual band 2.4 and 5 ghz, same SSID on all bands and AP.
And I use wifi calling on several android phones. -

Now it could just be the TP-link and Omada controller, but..
Bandsteering works fine if I have a single device and a single AP, but If I try to use multiple devices and multiple AP.. band steering screws everything up .
Fast Roaming 802.11k/v does not seem to help either.


I guess i'm saying.. if you are having problems, you should disable band steering.
good luck

 

[coxhaus]

There seems to be a difference between iPhones and android phones. I have never owned an android phone but from what I read they seem to roam better.

My roaming is all within a single SSID so it is layer 2. Band steering seems to be working as I track my clients. I can try turning it off.

 

[sfx2000]

I thought 11r was for Radius use. Does 11r work for WPA2-PSK? If so then I need to figure out fast roaming on the Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. It looked like it was geared for Radius.

11r is for Radius - WPA/WPA2-enterprise... with PSK it won't matter.

If you're doing band steering - keep it on a common SSID across both bands...

 

[thiggins]

11r is for Radius - WPA/WPA2-enterprise... with PSK it won't matter.

If you're doing band steering - keep it on a common SSID across both bands...

Isn't there a form of 11r for PSK?
Moving between band requires a reassociation, which takes time. 11r helps reduce authentication time, not association. Might as well disable band steering in the router; the client is ultimately going to make that decision anyway.

 

[heysoundude]

if you are having problems, you should

Stop moving. Sit down. FTFY.
SMH. First world problems.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[coxhaus]

I seemed to have fixed my Wi-Fi roaming problem with my Cisco WAP581 APs. I changed 2 things. I turned off band steering and I checked WMF. I also only run 5GHz 802.11n/ac and 2.4GHz 802.11n only.

 

[sfx2000]

Isn't there a form of 11r for PSK?

Don't need it for PSK as long as both AP's have the same setup (AP1/AP2) - rekeying is very fast...

11r addresses the radius concern that AP1 has relationship (a) with the WLC, and AP2 has relationship (b), so keying there has the extra leg of the DS backhaul key updates.

 

[sfx2000]

Moving between band requires a reassociation, which takes time. 11r helps reduce authentication time, not association. Might as well disable band steering in the router; the client is ultimately going to make that decision anyway.

Band Steering is likely something to consider - as that can be odd...

@coxhaus has indicated earlier that his WLAN is 5GHz only, so it should work, but with dual-band AP's, there can be firmware glitches that are not considered.

 

[coxhaus]

Yes I was only 5GHz with my Cisco WAP371 wireless APs. Now that I moved on to the WAP581 APs I am playing with 2.4GHz again. I think it has been more than 3 years since I have run 2.4GHz. I am getting 144.4 rates for 2.4GHz which is a lot better than the old days. I will probably try 40mhz wide but I don't it will work where I am.

I am trying to get by with 2 WAP581 APs instead of 3 which I require for 5GHz only. The antenna gain is a lot better on the WAP581 APs so I might be able to get by with 2 any way. It is too early to tell.