Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

Post by joshred » Thu, May 28, 2026, 4:11 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #9

andor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Omada devices, you need a "Controller". You can run the Omada Controller software on an existing computer, get one of their controller devices, or use their cloud-based service, which should be free at your scale.

The Omada device* I researched also supports standalone mode and hosts the web UI like any other consumer router. * https://www.omadanetworks.com/us/business-networking/omada-r...

Post by toast0 » Thu, May 28, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

opan wrote: post #13

toast0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a single ssid dual band network ... what tends to happen is 5Ghz is effectively ignored. 2.4Ghz has better coverage, so everything wants to live there. At least wifi 6 brought improved encoding to 2.4Ghz. I haven't had luck with the roaming extensions; when I run them, some of my devices won't connect or won't stay connected and it's a pain to monitor. I guess I could run a different SSID with roaming enhanceme…

You can turn down the power on the 2.4GHz radio so it's not as overpowering.

Post by rcarmo » Thu, May 28, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

goodburb wrote: post #4

You can stick to 802.11r only by lowering the transmission power and have all the APs on the same channel, in my tests it ended up switching much faster than K/V. (~75ms) On iOS, equal channel with correct ESS will switch liberally. On Android 14+ with Broadcom chip it will start conservative, then switch liberally after the first poor signal switch-over event, up until disconnection. Android (Pixel/Moto) will never…

Post by rcarmo » Thu, May 28, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #16

> The obvious advice for roaming is “use one SSID everywhere”, and that is often correct if you’re running Wi-Fi in an office, a public venue, or generally somewhere where you don’t have (or care about) legacy devices. What difference does the presence of legacy devices make? Is the intent to isolate them from modern devices from a network perspective? Then create a separate SSID on both 2.4 and 5 GHz for modern devi…

Post by rcarmo » Thu, May 28, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #28

rcarmo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is zero benefit to using 2.4 for me, really, since it's crowded as heck. I'd rather skip it altogether.

If you don't need it, of course, you might as well deactivate it. But if you do, I don't see the point of having two different SSIDs if you don't need them for another reason anyway.