topic Re: Apple Device Roaming in Wireless Questions and Best Practices

Apple Device Roaming

jeremy_west_564 — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:13:52 GMT

I am having a problem with frequent disconnects on apple devices when signal strength is great. In looking into this further, I noticed that the apple devices in question are roaming at an alarming rate. This is happening across iPad, iPod, and MacBook platforms. For example, I looked at an apartment with an iPod touch that was roaming every 30 seconds or so. There is a Win7 laptop in the same apartment that has not roamed one time. I have about 40 Apple devices on the network and similar behavior is happening on 70% of them. I have about 40 other devices on the network and this is not happening with any of them that I have looked at so far. What is more, the Apple devices are roaming out from a nearby AP to an AP several hundred feet away with a few buildings between them. The user is not leaving the apartment but the device is roaming to APs throughout the campus, even APs it either should not see at all, or just barely.

Any ideas? Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Re: Apple Device Roaming

santosh_bittu — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:50:24 GMT

Hello Jeremy,

With reference to your post, roaming is always a client decision and never an AP's, do you have channelfly enabled on the ZD? What is the version of firmware on the ZD?
Also are the devices roaming on the 2.4 GHz spectrum of frequency or on the 5 GHz, there might be interference being experienced by the AP that us causing the devices to roam .
Also kindly enable 802.11d under the Advanced Option of the WLAN that these devices are connecting to, we have seen that Apple devices sometimes default to the lowest available speeds when this feature is not enabled.

Also I would recommend you contact Ruckus Support for further investigation of this issue as the support info file of an AP gives valuable information regarding client statistics.

Hope this helps.All the best.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

greg_gilbert — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 22:49:00 GMT

I had a similar issue with apple devices recently, and here is what was going on. the apple devices typically use a 5GHz radio, and if the channelization is set to Auto, then they can't make up their minds. fix the channelization to 20MHz (I would do it for both 2.4 & 5GHz radios) and the problem should go away.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

santosh_bittu — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:45:59 GMT

Valuable input Greg.. 🙂

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 18:42:10 GMT

I've had the same problem. This appears to affect OSX 10.7 and later. I have one system still running OSX 10.6 that stays connected (probably not a 5G connection). I can replicate the problem quickly by spinning up an HD Skype call or Google Hangout with another client and within minutes the Macbook disconnects from the wireless network (even though it's still available).

I've been working with Ruckus support for over well a month now on this issue with no resolution...we've gone through all the settings, dropped the environment down to a single AP, RMA'd the APs, spun up a new SSID, set the channels statically, etc... My Apple devices still disconnect and don't reconnect!. Even though the SSID remains available, the Macbooks don't rejoin the network without manual intervention (simply selecting the SSID to join will _immediately_ reconnect the Macbook to the network).

I was hopeful that Greg's recommendation above (set static to 20 MHz) would be the magic bullet but I can still see and replicate the issue.

Any other suggestions out there?

Re: Apple Device Roaming

greg_gilbert — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:52:35 GMT

unfortunately that initial fix didn't work for more than a few days for me. after that I turned the 5GHz radio off, and that resolved the symptoms that the users were experiencing, but obviously did not "fix" the problem. what seems to have finally fixed the problem was upgrading my firmware to the latest version 9.5.2.0.15 (I believe). check with tech support for the firmware upgrade path from your version, because if you skip an intermediate upgrade you will have problems. I upgraded the firmware on 7/17/2013 and have been running the 5GHz radio without issues for about a month now.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 18:58:25 GMT

Excellent point. Back when this started, I was current. I'll upgrade to the most recent code and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for the comment!

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:53:58 GMT

9.6 is looking solid. It looks to be a problem with the 9.4 that I was hanging onto (can't remember why support didn't want me to upgrade at the time -- I think there was an issue with 5.1 they were fixing).

Thanks for the lead!

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:55:16 GMT

Alas - it was good for only a few days as well. While it does seem to be a bit better, we're still seeing disconnects. This is very odd as I'm not seeing the same problem at another site/company. Support sent some recommendations surrounding changing the mgmt-tx-rate settings but that didn't resolve the issue. It feels like there's something simple that's being missed here.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

keith_redfield — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 02:00:32 GMT

You've got one of our best techs looking at it, so it will definitely be interesting to find out the root cause. Stay tuned.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

michael_brado — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 23:57:41 GMT

Affected customers need to contact your vendor (Apple) to get latest radio drivers and supplicant to resolve this Apple problem.

The decision to roam is solely up to the client radio drivers and supplicant.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:19:49 GMT

Thanks for the thought, Michael, but the current radio drivers and patches are installed on these Apple systems (as of August 28, 2013).

Additionally, it only happens at this site. The problem does not occur at 2nd site (even though the Ruckus installation and ZD configurations are essentially the same).

Re: Apple Device Roaming

dtsblake_588878 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:12:40 GMT

Jeremy,

Did you ever fix your problem?

I have similar problems and need help.

Thanks, RB

Re: Apple Device Roaming

dtsblake_588878 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:27:10 GMT

"Tuning in..." any fixes yet?

Re: Apple Device Roaming

dtsblake_588878 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:30:19 GMT

Michael: Is your response at all related to Keith Redfield's response? Thanks.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

dtsblake_588878 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:46:35 GMT

IT Scott: Any resolutions that "fixed" your OSX and iOS disconnect wifi problems?

Re: Apple Device Roaming

spikes_it — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:33:04 GMT

We patched to 9.6.0 and made some changes to set the mgmt-tx-rate to 6Mbps by adjusting "ofdm-only" and "bss-minrate". That has helped - I'm still seeing disconnects but they're less frequent and more evenly distributed across the clients (Mac vs. PC).

9.6.1 is now out so that's my next order of business to try to get this fully resolved.

Re: Apple Device Roaming

dtsblake_588878 — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:40:07 GMT

Thanks. We are running 9.6.1.0 build 15 "...no joy in Mudville..."

Re: Apple Device Roaming

keith_redfield — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 01:48:09 GMT

Looks like the original poster went to static channel assignment and the problem (mostly) resolved. @Jeremy - was the problem resolved?

Re: Apple Device Roaming

sid_sok — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:37:12 GMT

If you are using 9.6 and later try using the SmartRoam feature.

Here are the commands:
ruckus# config
ruckus(config)# wlan test
The WLAN service 'test' has been loaded. To save the WLAN service, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# smart-roam
The command was executed successfully. To save the changes, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# smart-roam 3
The command was executed successfully. To save the changes, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# end
The WLAN service 'test' has been updated and saved.
Your changes have been saved.
ruckus(config)# end
Your changes have been saved.
ruckus#

The value after the smartroam is the roaming factor and it sets the low SNR/RSSI the AP receives form a client before it forces a client to disconnects.

Here are the different roaming factor and the associated low SNR/RSSI level:
Factor LoRSSI
1 5
2 10
3 15
4 17
5 20
6 23
7 27
8 32
9 40
10 60

The better the coverage the more aggressive you can be on forcing a client off an AP that receives a low client signal. Depending on the deployment different roam factor should be used. Also please note this is not officially support until the 9.7 release but code is in place. I would suggest starting from the low side and monitor/test carefully at each level before increasing the roam factor.