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A Perfect Mikrotik WiFi Network

To optimize a WiFi network, access points should be spaced appropriately and have different channels assigned. When clients move between access points, they will automatically connect to the strongest signal. However, clients may remain connected to a distant access point even when closer to another with a stronger signal. Implementing signal strength thresholds in access point access lists can force clients to reconnect to stronger access points, improving connectivity. The CAPsMAN controller simplifies implementing signal thresholds across all access points.

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80 views

A Perfect Mikrotik WiFi Network

To optimize a WiFi network, access points should be spaced appropriately and have different channels assigned. When clients move between access points, they will automatically connect to the strongest signal. However, clients may remain connected to a distant access point even when closer to another with a stronger signal. Implementing signal strength thresholds in access point access lists can force clients to reconnect to stronger access points, improving connectivity. The CAPsMAN controller simplifies implementing signal thresholds across all access points.

Uploaded by

Phạm Đức Hạnh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A perfect WiFi network

To get a perfect WiFi running, you need to plan the distance between your APs (access points), you need space
between your channels and you need to adjust the power levels per AP.

Roaming between access points


In a WiFi network, it is the client that controls the connection. It is therefore up to the client, to connect to the
strongest Access Point, which all clients do automatically. But many clients will then stay connected to the AP,
until it may loose the signal.

If a user using such a client, moves far away from the AP, they may be in a situation where they have very poor
connectivity and speed, even though they are close to a much stronger AP, since the client keeps the original
connection active.

Most modern wireless clients will usually switch to an AP with better signal by themselves, when the speed
drops low. Users may also have "roaming aggressiveness settings" in their driver settings, to control how soon
their WiFi client, will search for a stronger connection.

If you wish to force all WiFi clients to reconnect to stronger APs, you can use access lists on the APs, and set a
signal limit, letting the APs drop the connection to the client, if the signal goes below the limit. When the
connection is lost, the client will immediately search for an AP, and will choose the strongest AP/SSID
available.

Using signal limits in access lists, you can also force mobile phones to use the mobile network, when the WiFi
speed gets too low, which may increase their speed. It can also help you implement a basic limitation of the
distance from which users can connect to your WiFi network, ex. no further than the walls of your building.

In the future, Fast Roaming Protocol (802.11r) may also solve these issues, as it provides fast and secure
handoffs between APs, but implementation have been poor so far (2017).

If you implement signal ranges in access lists, you are advised to use CAPsMAN and set it up on the
CAPsMAN controller router, which will run the same configuration on all APs. You will need to find the best
signal range for your own network, we advise you to start by dropping clients with signals below -80dBm.

1/caps-man access-list
2add action=accept interface=all signal-range=-80..120
3add action=reject interface=all signal-range=-120..-81
In Winbox: CAPsMAN ⇢ Access List (or if you want to control it per router: Wireless ⇢ Access List)

The clients will usually reconnect within 1 second, so most users will discover that they are reconnected. Since
it is a new connection, there can be some implications. If you are using an old VPN, you will probably get
disconnected from the VPN. The solution is to use a modern IKEv2 VPN, which will automatically reconnect.
If you are using WiFi for audio/video calls, there will also be a short drop in the communication.

To ensure fast reconnects, send the datapath via the CAPsMAN controller, thus the ARP entry for each client
will stay on the central bridge.
The "Seamless/Zero Handoff/Single Channel Architecture" perfect WiFi myth: Several WiFi provider have
created "Zero Handoff" systems, where all access points share the same MAC address. In this setup the clients
cannot know which AP they are connected to, as all APs have the same MAC, and the APs may then control
which AP should sent the packets. This system off course breaks the standard and needs lots of retransmits
between APs, there are channel interference issues and your WiFi network speed degrades a lot. A better way is
to implement access lists to force the clients to reconnect to a stronger AP.

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