How to organize seamless roaming on MikroTik devices?

Question

Mikrotik

There is a room, 1 main Mikrotik router and 6 antennas (on routerOS) are connected by a wired network. The main router is configured as a DHCP server and 6 antennas in ap bridge mode. The SSID is the same everywhere, the password too.
Problem: the client, when connected to one point, remains on it, the signal is very weak, even if it approaches another in a dense one, and switching occurs only after the WiFi on-off operation on the client device.
How to solve this issue? I read dozens of articles - everywhere there are instructions on how to organize it using WDS and Mesh, and nothing about wired Mesh networks. Please help with advice, or if anyone has useful information. Thank you.

Answer 1

The colleague above (or below) is misleading you, the checkbox allows any devices to log in (not just those pre-listed), and the parameters set the bandwidth limit at the chip level for the entire card and for each client (in fact, everything is a little more complicated, but in general, not about roaming at all).
In your situation, the correct indication of the Antenna Gain antenna gain power at all points will help (so that they - points - can correctly determine the distance to the client), as well as Country be a patriot .
Next, there are a couple of implementation scenarios, of different levels of complexity:
Simple. Focus on the client card and its ability to do roaming (all modern chips do it automatically), after setting the properties of the antennas, it will most likely work.
Harder . Set up roaming parameters in the card properties: distance (to "send" distant clients), signal strength range in the connect list at -80 db (default -120), and also "play" with calibration periods so that switching is " more seamless"
The most hellish . Believe the documentation and build a Mesh or WDS network - in this case, the speed is lost, but the switching time drops significantly, because. neighboring points know about neighboring clients and "on the fly" pick up traffic, even ping does not disappear. But here there are loops and stp and a network and a lot of things need to be built and twisted.
To be honest, I stopped at the first two points - they were enough for comfortable work. I had about 40 points, about 400 clients (laptops, phones, projectors, printers). But I didn’t have a goal to make roaming like in a cellular connection.

Answer 2

I solved a similar problem as follows:
1. set up access points according to this tutorial: habrahabr.ru/post/217657
2. set the signal levels in the section: CAPsMAN>access list>
PS Choose
the numbers in the ACL yourself. It may be different in your context.

Answer 3

You can set up MESH via a cable, I myself searched for a long time as a result I found this dock mum.mikrotik.com/presentations/RU14/wifimag.pdf
In short - eoip tunnels are created between all nodes (gateway and access points), these tunnels, together with wlan interfaces are added to mesh. On my own, I’ll add that in the properties of the mesh interface on the gateway it’s better to indicate that it is a mesh portal if the network is used mainly for accessing the Internet (for example, for hotspot).

Answer 4

As far as I remember, it is necessary to remove the daw in the window as on the screen
and set the threshold values ​​so that the client is dropped from the point if it does not fit

Answer 5

Specify the country in the properties of the wireless connection! This will reduce the power of the transmitter, but it should be so for communication with mobile clients.
Use CAPsMAN to manage the point pool. There is also an access list in the caps. Create a reject rule for signal levels -120 -85. This rule will disable points stuck on a weak signal.
Kapsman organizes the acceleration of client authorization when moving from point to point. Connections will not break, but there will be a failure in RTP protocols for about a second.
Interruption of the traffic flow is due to the fact that when switching to another point, the client must scan the air. 10 ms per channel - just about a second of idle time comes out. Mikrotiks can't do 802.11r\k\v, so it won't work at all seamlessly.