white paper MARCH 2014

Roaming
assistance
white paper
roaming assistance

executive summary
In the past few years, the Internet has totally changed the way we do business. Before,
as users were static with desktop and laptop computers, WLAN connectivity were
only needed at fixed locations within a building. In todays mobile world, connectivity is
required both internally and between different buildings. However, while the wireless
client is initially associated with the access point that is the closest to them, as they
walk away those devices tend to stay connected to that same AP although there is
another AP that can serve the client better. Known as a sticky client, this causes the
client to transmit and receive at lower data rates, affecting the performance of the
client as well as other clients connected to the same access point.

With Roaming Assistance, it is possible to provide an uninterrupted seamless service

to the users connected to WLAN while they roam, create an effective sticky-free client
WLAN network and therefore escalating your networks performance.

sticky client problem what is roaming

With the explosion of BYOD we see different types
of devices including smart phones, tablets, laptops,
from different vendors running different version of
operating systems. Each version and make of these
devices have unique Wireless LAN behavior some
roam aggressively, some dont. They also differ from
each other in power management functions which
affects the transmit power of the WLAN radio. Most of
the smart devices also do not provide options to tweak
these parameters making it very difficult to predict the
behavior of these devices in wireless networks.
When it comes to roaming, it is the wireless client that
decides when it should try to find better access point
and which access point to associate with. Normally,
a wireless client associates with an access point that
is closest to it or to an access point it hears first. In
real world environment, where the wireless clients are
mobile, it initially associates to the access point that is
the closest. Now as the client moves away from the AP,
many devices tend to remain connected to the same AP
thought there could be an AP that can serve the client
better. This causes the client to transmit and receive at
lower data rates. This not only affects the performance
of the client, but also affects the performance of all the
other clients connected to the same access point. In the
wireless industry, this is commonly termed as sticky
client problem.
assistance?
Roaming Assistance is a new feature introduced in
Motorola WiNG 5.5.2 platform to address the issue
of sticky client. This will be available as a software
upgrade across all the Access Points, Controllers and
Integrated Services Platforms. It also does not require
any client specific software, and works across all the
client types.
How does Roaming
Assistance work?
The client initially associates with an access point
that it hears first or the access point with best signal
strength. As soon as the wireless client moves away
from the access point, its signal strength drops.
The roaming assistance keeps a continuous check
on wireless clients by sampling the clients signal
strength at configured intervals. Once the clients signal
strength crosses the configured threshold, the roaming
assistance starts monitoring the client aggressively.
If the clients signal strength is consistently below the
threshold for a small interval, the roaming assistance
initiates a roam and directs the client to find the best
access point. When the client now looks for an access
point, only that access point with the minimum load and
a minimum signal strength threshold will respond to the

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roaming assistance

hand-off threshold count: 3. If a clients signal

strength consistently remains below hand-off threshold
(-65 dBm) for more than 3 counts, as configured,
roaming is initiated.

action parameter set as deauth. Once the client

crosses the hand off threshold, the roaming assistance
will send a deauthentication frame to the wireless
client and directs the client to find the best access
point.

Working of Roaming assistance. It directs the sticky wireless

client to other access point once the clients signal strength drops
beyond a threshold.

client. Roaming assistance helps clients to initiate a

Configuring roaming assistance policy on globe level
roam as the signal strength degrades and find the best
access point to associate to.
2. On the WLAN, configure the minimum signal
threshold and enable client load balancing. Motorola
roaming assistance offers load balancing based on band, channel or access
points.
configuration
The roaming assistance test was performed between associate response rssi threshold: -58 dBm. The
two APs placed 30 feet apart. Device types used for associate response RSSI means that the access point
the test include HP notebook, iPad with ios version 6, will respond to wireless clients only if their signal
iPhone with ios version 7, Samsung Galaxy S4 smart strength is greater than -58 dBm. This ensures that
phone. when the client roams from the current access point due
to roaming assistance, the same access point does not
In order to steer clients to the most favorable access respond back to the clients association request.
point, a roaming assistance policy is required. The
roaming assistance policy includes many configurable
parameters but the most important ones are listed
below:-
Map the roaming assistance policy to WLAN and configure the
1. Create a roaming assistance policy on global level assoc-response rssi threshold as required.
and configure following parameter:
With the above discussed configuration, no sticky
detection threshold rssi: -60 dBm. The detection behavior of the wireless clients is obtained.
threshold is the value at which the roaming assistance
kicks in. If the wireless clients signal strength value
crosses this detection threshold value, the roaming
assistance starts monitoring the client aggressively.

hand-off threshold rssi: -65 dBm. This is the value

which initiates a roam. When the access point monitors
the client aggressively and senses that the clients
signal strength is beyond this threshold value, it
initiates a roam.

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roaming assistance

test results
The CLI statistics obtained for HP notebook with
Roaming Assistance is noted below:

RFS7000-PRI# show event-history

roaming assistance cli

statistics
The roaming assistance technology has been
successfully tested with different client OS - iOS 7 and
previous versions, Windows.

The client initially associates with AP1. As the wireless

client moves away from AP1, the clients signal strength
drops to -67 dB, which is less than the configured
hand off threshold value, set to -65 dBm. Due to
Roaming Assistance operation kicking in, AP1 sends a
deauthentication frame to the client, as configured for
action parameter in roaming assistance policy. The
client dissociates from AP1 due to forced deauth frame.
The roaming assistance technology steers the client to
next favorable AP for the client which is AP2, leading
to successful association of the client with AP2, while
maintaining the performance of WLAN.

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roaming assistance

The floor plan shows the placement of Motorola and competitive AP with the roadmap of iPad roaming
through locations 1 to 5.

Conclusion
An effective WLAN network design depends on a lot of factors. Few factors on which an optimal network design
dependent upon are:

The number and nature (fixed or mobile) of clients and diversity of wireless devices
Data rates of each device type
Application types and required bandwidth

With Roaming Assistance, it is possible to create an effective sticky free client WLAN network, escalating the
network performance.

MOTOROLA, MOTO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC
and are used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2014 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved.

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