Customers and callers drop while walking between APs.
802.11k, v and r are three small standards that together make 'fast roaming'. K tells clients which neighbour APs exist, v helps steer which one to pick, r hands over without a full re-auth. For callers and people walking around with a laptop, this is the difference between a smooth day and broken calls.
Try this first
- 1Turn 802.11k and v on for every SSID, almost always free of side effects and helps modern clients straight away.
- 2Only enable 802.11r (Fast Transition) on the staff SSID, not on guest: older clients (Windows 10 with old drivers, some IoT) cannot connect once FT is on.
- 3On WPA2-Personal FT is sometimes flaky, on WPA2-Enterprise / WPA3-Enterprise it is solid. Pilot first on a test SSID.
- 4Keep all APs on identical firmware and in the same controller group, FT does not work across stand-alone APs.
- 5Measure roaming with a phone pinging the gateway, you can see the gap when FT is missing (1-2s) versus present (<100ms).
When to bring us in
You run push-to-talk or medical gear that demands sub-50ms roaming: 802.11k/v/r is the starting point, but you also need a measured cell-overlap design with a Wi-Fi partner.
See also
- Wi-Fi drops randomly across the officeFirst rule out whether it is the access points or the internet connection itself. Different fix.
- One room or corner has no or bad Wi-FiNot always "add another AP"; often one is poorly positioned, or there is a metal wall in the way.
- Internet is suddenly slow for everyoneThree suspects: your provider, a colleague soaking the line, or a backup or update kicking in unexpectedly.
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