Wireless Access

Hello,

 

We are running 6.4.3.7

 

We are looking at the possibility of enabling 802.11r, I understand that support on older client devices is patchy so we'll be doing some testing first.

 

My query is about how the various technologies interact, in particular whether when enabling 802.11r there is any need/benefit to enabling 802.11k/v? (We have Clientmatch enabled).

 

Many thanks

ClientMatch takes advantage of the 802.11k capabilities but need to be careful when enabling 802.11r which is not supported by most devices , Apple devices do support 802.11r

Thanks Victor, that's useful.

 

But I'm still not quite clear - does the fact that 802.11r utilises 11k&v mean that I would need to specifically enable those on the controller?

 

I didn't realise 802.11r was so badly supported. I found a list of Apple devices/OS's that (allegedly) do support 11r, though it sounds like anything older than 5 or 6 years might have issues:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202628

 

I'm also not clear on the behaviour - presumably the fact that a client doesn't support 802.11r shouldn't mean it can't join the network? These devices should join but just not be able to take advantage of fast roaming, no?

 

I have done some reading around but I haven't been able to find a document that clearly lays this information out.

"Some" clients have a problem joining an 802.11r network.  Which clients and what versions of those clients?  If you don't want to keep up with which does and which doesn't or the fact that some clients *might* have a problem with a protocol, especially clients that you do not control, DONT enable it.

 

802.11r is a marginal improvement and with selected clients.  Some clients also do not support it properly.  End result?  Leave it turned off.

 

UPDATE 6/2018 -  The updated RF and Roaming Optimization Validated Reference Design Guide (VRD) has been published and has updated recommendations about enabling 802.11v, k and r in user networks.  The VRD can be found here: http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Validated-Reference-Design/RF-and-Roaming-Optimization-for-Aruba-802-11ac-Networks/ta-p/432994

Ok thanks Colin, that's pretty clear-cut advice!

 

I do have one other question about this though - the reason it has been brought to our attention is that our Telecomms team are beginning to look at wireless IP handsets and obviously they are interested in anything that could optimise performance, if the phones were identifiable by MAC could we perhaps use a role to apply 802.11r to just them? Or perhaps if they were connecting to their own SSID that would make 11r possible?

802.11r can only be applied at the SSID level.  It cannot be added or removed by a role.  The handsets that they are considering, they should find out what protocols they support and test them before purchasing.