[c-nsp] Mobile plant roaming speeds

[Ron M.]

Most of this will be dependent upon the client device itself.

I've got a number of mobile client devices in a glass production facility
running on a WLC5520/IW3702 infrastructure, and my biggest issue is with
the stickiness of the client device (Moxa). Even with "forced" roaming from
the WLC, the client would not willingly roam unless a special feature of
theirs "turbo-roaming" was enabled... and oh by the way, that turbo-roaming
function is limited to only three channels. Obviously originally designed
for a 2.4GHz deployment where you only have three non-overlapping channels
to work with... but in my facility my design was using .11n modulation with
20MHz channels on 5GHz so I could spread out the APs and limit co-channel
interference. And we discovered the Moxa client wouldn't aggressively roam
to a new AP even down at -80 to -85dB RSSI... unless we had their
"turbo-roaming" enabled, which of course defeats the purpose of using the
additional channel space available at 5GHz.  When I took all this back to
Moxa support, their reply was essentially "that's how it is, if you want
the code changed, submit a feature request and pay for it." So... the
immediate fix was to limit the AP infrastructure to only using 3 channels.
The long term fix is that as the Moxa radios break, they'll be replaced
with something non-Moxa. And we won't ever be buying Moxa client devices
for any of our other facilities. Their attitude = loss of customer.

So, word to the wise, look VERY closely at the capabilities AND limitations
of the client devices. Test them thoroughly before issuing the purchase
order.

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 2:32 AM, Mal via cisco-nsp <
cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net> wrote:

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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Mal <malz at jetlan.com>
> To: <cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2018 18:02:44 +0930
> Subject: Mobile plant roaming speeds
> Interested if anyone having success using 802.11n/ac in mine wifi
> deployments with mobile clients (trucks/plant), roaming speeds in the
> order of 15-30kmh ?
>
> Broad question, given the roaming responsibility of the client device.
>
> Mal
>
>