4/18/22, 10:54 AM Wireless roaming. Seamless wifi roaming with capsman v2 in Mikrotik.

Roaming mechanism

Wireless roaming. Seamless wifi roaming

with capsman v2 in Mikrotik. Roaming
mechanism
In a corporate environment, WiFi is playing an increasingly prominent function and is
playing an ever-increasing role. You can connect a smartphone or tablet to WiFi, but, more
importantly, a corporate phone, a mobile data collection terminal or an online cash register for
receiving payments and printing checks. It’s good if the WiFi coverage area your business needs is
small and you can get by with an ordinary inexpensive access point, but what if wireless
communication need to cover thousands of square meters on multiple floors? There are
definitely options.

Firstly, you can "spawn" many WiFi networks on a variety of standalone access points. The option
is bad because such an economy is difficult and inconvenient to manage, when moving around
the territory of the enterprise, some mobile devices you will have to switch between these
networks manually, and, most importantly, all this will have to be explained to users who are not
always well understood in IT, and are simply unable to absorb these wisdoms. There is only one
advantage to this solution: it is cheap.

Secondly, can broadcast one WiFi network using the same type of standalone access points
with support for WDS technology. The main disadvantage of such a solution is that the
overwhelming, absolute and unconditional majority of more or less affordable (up to 300 USD)
access points from popular vendors work ugly in WDS mode. Broadcasting can be lost and
restored, connectivity between primary and dependent access points will be disrupted, and mobile
devices will lose connection and, with it, their functionality. So it's better to leave this option for
real samurai.

Ideologically and technologically, the correct option is to use a controller and dependent access
points. This option is called "seamless WiFi". Its essence is that there can be many access points,
and one centralized controller device is responsible for managing them and their broadcasting.
Controller:

monitors the status of slave access points, the load on them;

regulates the signal strength and bandwidth depending on the number of clients and the
nature of their work;
independently restores areas unserved due to equipment failures by increasing the coverage
area from nearby access points;
provides web authentication and dynamic Accounts for the implementation of the so-called.
"guest access" (some controllers have options like printers to generate and print temporary
user credentials);
provides fast roaming, with which you can freely move, for example, with a WiFi phone
between coverage areas of different access points, without interrupting the conversation
and without observing any interruptions in communication. At the same time, the controller
"sets" a signal from the closest access point to your device in a timely manner.

Modern controllers allow you to connect access points via WiFi in repeater mode (the so-called
Mesh technology) without a cable connection to the network, and also provide integration with
related IT systems (for example, Active Directory, location services, etc.).

HOW TO BUILD SEAMLESS WI-FI

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In our catalog of solutions, options for household, corporate and industry-specific WiFi solutions
have already been carefully selected and described: . And if you go "on top", then the most
successful options for seamless Wi-Fi on the market are represented by the following vendors:

2. Another American manufacturer reigns in the middle-end segment - . Relatively

inexpensive, Cambium is also known for its reliability and high performance.

Similar to Ruckus Unleashed, Cambium can also operate in controllerless network management
mode. Cambium calls this ecosystem autoPilot and supports up to 32 network access points and
up to 1000 wireless clients. Functionally, it is almost as good as the version with a controller,
moreover, it does not require any investment, in addition to buying the access points
themselves, you do not need to buy licenses, service contracts and their updates.

Need faster, higher, stronger? Please! Free cloud cnMaestro controller already supports up to
4000 access points and up to 25000 wireless clients. The software can be completely free to
install on your own server if your beliefs do not allow you to use cloud solutions. With the
functionality of Cambium, everything is also in order: here you have centralized management of
the ecosystem, and services of geolocation, analytics, radio analysis, integration with related
systems ... in general, everything your soul desires.

The disadvantage of Cambium can be considered a relatively poor line of access points: . Although
everything you need is present in it: there are access points with sector antennas, supporting
802.11ac Wave 2, MU-MIMO 4x4:4, outdoor and indoor. In general, a complete gentleman's set
at your service!

3. In the budget segment, the competition is much higher, but we single out TP-LINK among
other daring Chinese. This is the main and most interesting competitor of Ubiquiti (which will be
discussed below), although such a comparison in 2019 for TP-LINK is no longer flattering.

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First, let's deal with the TP-LINK label itself: actually there are two of them. There is TP-LINK,
which makes cheap home routers and plastic switches, and there is TP-LINK, which makes
Enterprise line products - WiFi systems, Smart series switches, accessories for them. These are, in
fact, 2 different companies, because. there are no intersection points between these two
directions neither in the field of scientific developments, nor in production lines. And, for the sake
of objectivity, Enterprise TP-LINK is much higher quality than its younger brother, specializing in
products for SOHO.

Now to WiFi. TP-LINK has Auranet CAP line- currently in some oblivion (but this is
temporary). Solution ceiling - 500 access points, 10,000 wireless clients. Controllers - only
hardware, for 50 or 500 access points. Access points - in a rather old, "clumsy" design, but with
support for honest seamless roaming in accordance with 802.11k / v standards, Beamforming,
Band Steering, Airtime Fairness - in general, the set is completely complete. High Density on TP-
LINK, of course, cannot be provided, but we have already served events for 200-300 users in one
room, and this did not cause any complaints from customers.

TP-LINK's second ecosystem is called Omada, it introduces the EAP series access points. The
controller - Omada Controller - is available in hardware version (with a limit of 50 access points in
the 1st network), but there is also a software version that can be installed on a server
under Windows control or Linux. EAPs look modern and, of course, do everything that a self-
respecting access point needs to be able to do in 2019.

4. Our next patient is Ubiquiti of the UniFi series. This is when you want beautiful and cheap.
And "beautiful" with Ubiquiti will be constantly, tk. they have everything subject to design: from
packaging to design of control interfaces. And the design is truly one of the best in the industry. In
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general, Ubiquiti products are characterized by an extremely low price with a fairly high quality of
the product as a whole.

The main disadvantage of Ubiquiti is that it still does not support truly seamless WiFi roaming in
accordance with IEEE standards, offering its proprietary implementation instead. Which works,
well, let's say, so-so. So if you need to get your WiFi clients to roam seamlessly with voice or video
applications, then Ubiquiti, sadly, is no longer the right choice for you. The same goes for High
Density - it's not about Ubiquiti. In general, Ubiquiti is far from ideal in the radio part, but thanks to
a powerful component base, a very wide range of equipment and the right marketing policy, they
are still one of the most popular manufacturers of WiFi solutions. In Russia, Ubiquiti reveals 2 more
significant drawbacks: the lack of an official service and representation. The first means that the
guarantee on the territory of the Russian Federation works a little better than nothing, and the
second means that you will not have technical support or certificates for equipment (which closes
its way to state-owned enterprises and telecom operators).

The advantage of Ubiquiti is in their UniFi ecosystem, which now includes not only WiFi equipment,
but also switches, routers, video surveillance, telephony, and more recently even some smart
home components. Moreover, the management of all this economy is available through very
beautiful and convenient applications (including mobile ones) that integrate with the Ubiquiti
"cloud", i.е. You can "steer" the UniFi ecosystem from anywhere in the world, and this is without
any dancing with port forwarding, static IP addresses and other leapfrog. All in all, it's really
convenient.

5. Mikrotik, Edimax, Wisnetworks, TG-NET, etc. We add the 5th item in this list only because the
number 5 is more beautiful than 4. Well, or it has a better reputation. Objectively, the vendors
listed here still do not even reach the level of Ubiquiti (they may not be worse, but by the
combination of factors of their perception by the market they are still not so significant), but they
still occupy some niche in the market and enjoy some popularity.

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Let's boldly brag: we have accumulated extensive experience in deploying large Wi-Fi networks, we
managed to "feel" the most diverse solutions of most specialized vendors live, and we know their
strengths and pitfalls. We are ready to apply our experience for the design and installation of
wireless networks in your enterprise. - save your time and money!

When it is necessary to cover large areas with a WiFi signal, improve the performance, reliability
and speed of a WiFi network, seamless roaming technology can help us with this. Seamless WiFi is a
technology for moving from the coverage area of ​one WiFi access point to the coverage area of ​
another WiFi access point, without significant data loss. You can think of this as a handover of a
client device from one access point to another. Thus, you can create a seamless WiFi coverage in
large areas: apartments, restaurants, hotels, warehouses, airports, country houses, stadiums, cities.

THE MAIN FEATURES WHEN CREATING A SEAMLESS WIFI ARE:

Calculation of network capacity (power) depending on the expected number of network

users.
Planning WiFi coverage based on capacity and resiliency.
Inspection of the air for the presence of interference, re-reflections, obstacles and other
reasons that affect the propagation of the radio signal.
Frequency plan planning for better noise immunity and network performance.
Determination of installation sites for active equipment, taking into account all factors.

LIST OF POSSIBLE REQUIREMENTS FOR EQUIPMENT WHEN ORGANIZING

SEAMLESS WIFI:
Possibility of work of WiFi access points in the conditions of street use. Necessary when
covering outdoor areas, as well as when used in rooms with a climate other than room
temperature (warehouses, freezers, saunas, swimming pools, etc.)
Availability of models with different radiation patterns(sectoral, omnidirectional), to be
able to create complex WiFi coverage patterns.
Availability of transmitter power control, for the possibility of creating networks with
high capacity.
Ease of installation and attachment of access points. The possibility of power supply over
PoE, which allows you not to lay additional lines for powering devices. Compatible with
various client devices.
Centralized management of all access points. Ability to manage and bill traffic of
subscriber devices. Ease of network scalability.

All these characteristics are met by equipment from MikroTik and UBIQUITI, which can provide you
with high-quality seamless WiFi in various conditions: from your apartment to your city.

A new version operating system OS 2.13.C0 was released on 09/20/2018. This version adds support
for IEEE 802.11k / 802.11r standards in manual configuration mode.

Thanks to the new mechanism "Seamless Wi-Fi Roaming" switching from one access point to
another on a mobile phone, instead of five seconds, is now only 100 ms. With seamless roaming,
clients connected via Wi-Fi, when moving from the coverage area of ​one kinetic router to another,
will not notice how quickly the switching between devices takes place. Thus, even telephone
conversations Voice over Wi-Fi will run without interruption.

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HOW DOES SEAMLESS ROAMING FOR WI-FI

KEENETIC WORK?
AS IT WAS BEFORE?
In a large room, for example, in a country house or a two-story apartment, two devices are
installed. On the first floor, there is an Internet center, the second device on the top floor is
connected to the first cable and operates in the "access point" mode. If the user wants to
communicate via video communication, for example, in Skype, while moving from the first floor to
the second, at some point he will leave the coverage area of ​the first device and, accordingly,
disconnect from the WiFi network.

Even if your smartphone of the latest model, knowing the network of the second device, connects
to it in just seconds, the skype call will still be interrupted. The same will happen if you download
files or send them. In any case, the action will be interrupted due to reconnection to the Wi-Fi
network and a short pause in the data exchange.

AS IT IS NOW?
Seamless roaming Keenetic 802.11k/r allows you to avoid completely reconnecting the device in
two steps. When using the 802.11k communication standard, the client device does not spend
time completely scanning the air and searching for access points, the device knows in advance
which networks are preferable. Thanks to the 802.11r communication standard, the authentication
time in the new network is greatly reduced. As a result, the process of reconnecting to the
network is reduced to one hundred microseconds, which is not at all noticeable to the user.

This seamless connectivity is especially relevant to ensure a stable connection in IP telephony.

WHAT DEVICES SUPPORT SEAMLESS WI-FI?

"Seamless Wi-Fi roaming" is supported by all models of Keenetic routers (dual-band and single-
band), all devices for which the a new version operating system Keenetic OS 2.13. These include all
kinetics of the previous and latest generation, most of those that are on sale.

HOW TO SET UP KEENETIC SEAMLESS

ROAMING?
A detailed setup guide can be found in Keenetic database . Here we will focus only on the main
points:

Easy to set up Keenetic seamless roaming for the main segment "Home network" can be
done using the web interface. To set up the same options for "Gbackbone network» or
other arbitrary segments, you need to resort to command line;

On dual-range kinetics, both one network and both can be turned on. WiFi networks 2.4 and
5 GHz with the same settings (name, key, work schedule);

IDs for one segment must be the same across all devices;

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The keys and SSID of the mobile domain must be the same.

You can configure the kinetics via the web interface only if it works in the "Basic" or "Access
Point" modes. For the “Amplifier” mode, setting is possible only using the command line.

WHICH CLIENTS SUPPORT SEAMLESS WI-FI ROAMING?

Smartphones and tablets must also support seamless Wi-Fi roaming according to IEEE 802.11k/r
standards. You can find out exactly whether a particular model supports this standard in the
technical documentation from the manufacturer. Note that most modern devices Apple and
Samsung support this standard.

In the modern business environment of almost any enterprise, it is difficult to overestimate the
role of information technology, and recently especially WiFi networks. Wireless communication
becomes a great helper when you need to connect a smartphone or tablet to the Internet, a
manager’s corporate phone, a data collection terminal for a warehouse employee, or, for example,
a device for accepting payments in a restaurant hall. If the territory of your office or enterprise is
small, and the load in terms of the number of connected devices does not exceed one dozen -
everything is extremely simple, you need to install and configure wifi router.

But what if you need to cover the whole building of a multi-storey hotel, a factory workshop,
several halls of a large restaurant, a large office or, for example, a recreation area with an area of ​
several hectares with a wireless connection?

WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO SOLVE SUCH A

PROBLEM?

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THE COMPANY SITE OFFERS THE MOST

ADVANCED SOLUTION FOR LARGE CORPORATE
AND PRIVATE WIFI NETWORKS - SEAMLESS WIFI
With the help of our equipment, you can build a modern seamless wireless network at home, at
the enterprise, indoors or outdoors.

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HOW IT WORKS?
In fact, you have a single WiFi network running under the control of one controller and dependent
access points. This is called "seamless WiFi". The point is that there can be from several to several
hundred access points, while one centralized controller device or specialized software is
responsible for managing and broadcasting traffic.
What is the controller for:

constant monitoring of the status of access points, the load on them;

manages signal strength and bandwidth depending on the number of clients and the nature
of their work;
independently restores areas unserved due to equipment failures by increasing the coverage
area from nearby access points;
provides web authentication and dynamic accounts for the implementation of the so-called.
"guest access" (some controllers have options like printers to generate and print temporary
user credentials);
provides a continuous WiFi signal, with which you can freely move, for example, with a WiFi
phone between the coverage areas of different access points, without interrupting the
conversation and without observing any interruptions in communication. At the same time,
the controller "sets" a signal from the closest access point to your device in a timely manner.

What are access points for?

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give Internet access to the end client (for example, mobile phone or tablet)
under the control of the controller, they remove the peak load from one point to another

CONVENIENT AND BEAUTIFUL GRAPHICAL

INTERFACE
If you have a plan of the premises / area where the wireless network will be deployed, then it can
be used in a useful way to maintain the network. In the wireless controller settings menu, you can
create or download a room map.

Radio frequency map. Monitor and analyze the radio environment around you.

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The dashboard provides a visual representation of the status of your network and displays basic
information about each network segment.

Great functionality of settings. You can select WiFi channels, frequency spectrum and
transmitter power, etc.

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HERE YOU CAN PURCHASE TWO TYPES OF

EQUIPMENT KITS FOR CREATING SEAMLESS
WIFI NETWORKS
Networks in the WiFi 2.4 + 5 GHz range with support for up to 50 users per 1 access point

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These kits are presented on Ubiquity equipment and are fully compatible with Mikrotik brand
routers and switches. It acts as a controller, which, firstly, is convenient in terms of management,
and secondly, it removes the load from the main router and is fully responsible for the wireless
network at the facility. The number of access points is programmatically limited to 20. Wireless
points of the Ubiquity Unifi AP series are presented in two versions - for placement indoors,
indoors and outdoors. The recommended number of users is up to 50 clients per 1 access point.
Depending on the scale of the task, we offer the following options for sale:

Number WiFi User Placement Kit

of users coverage mode of WiFi contents
(max) area m2 equipment
100 up to Internet indoors Controller -
200 surfing 1 pc.
social Access
media point / - 2
IP pcs.
telephony

100 up to Internet On the Controller -

200 surfing street 1 pc.
social Access
media point - 2
IP pcs.
telephony
watching
video
online
200+ up to Internet indoors Controller -

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400 surfing WiFi

social protocol
media support
IP 802.11ac
telephony with
watching maximum
video speed up
online to 1200
Mbs
- Modern
and
intuitive
graphical
interface of
the
controller
for
managing
access
points
- Kits with
Ubiquity
Unifi AP
Mesh
equipment
support
Wireless
Uplink
technology,
which
allows, if
necessary,
not to
connect
access
points
directly to
the
controller
by wire

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