Wireless Access

We have our wireless network configured such that APs in different buildings are in different VLANs (same SSID) and have noticed that some clients when they are moved from one building to another sometimes do not attempt to get a new DHCP lease. The worst seems to be the iPad - someone will be using it in one location, put it away and move to another building - when they start using it again it associates with the network, but does not attempt to get a DHCP lease for the VLAN in use in the new location. Of course, the device looks like it should work from the user perspective; they have a strong signal, an IP address, but their traffic is on the wrong VLAN. We do not support VOIP clients at this time, so we are not worried about roaming and maintaining the same address when moving around.  Is there anything that could be done on the Aruba side to encourage the device to re-DHCP in this scenario?

Have you thought about enabling VLAN mobility? VoIP calls are not going to handle being moved to a new VLAN mid call.

We do not support VOIP clients at this time and for other reasons would prefer the VLAN assignment to be controlled by building.

Ok, I think your problem involves the iPad going to sleep. When it wakes up, it sees the same SSID at a good signal strength, and thinks it is still in the same place.

Is the iPad running 5.0.1? I know there were issues with DHCP and iOS 4.x.

I'm only hearing this from the user community on the iPads, some of which I know are running 5.0.1. I have observed this in testing with two different Android devices as well.