Wireless Functions --- Wireless Roaming

1. Background

Routers have limited coverage. When a terminal moves from an area covered by a router to another area covered by another router, signals are interrupted.

2. Function overview

When wireless roaming is used, the terminal disconnects from the original router and connects to the new router. In this process, the terminal IP address remains the same, ensuring service continuity.

3. Roaming process

a. The terminal moves away from router A and the signal strength becomes lower than the threshold or the packet loss rate is greater than the threshold. In this case, the terminal can decide whether to roam to another router.

For desktop computers, you can reduce the roaming sensitivity to avoid frequent roaming. (Frequent roaming needs to be avoided because packet loss may occur during roaming.)

b. The terminal sends a signal detection request towards the surrounding environment.

c. Router B receives the request and sends a response.

d. The terminal receives the response and evaluates the response. If the signal strength is higher than that of router A, the terminal roams to router B.

4. Differences between L2 and L3 roaming

(1) L2roaming means roaming between routers that allocate IP addresses on the same IP segment to the terminal. Example:

  a. If two routers allocate IP addresses to the terminals that are on the 192.168.110.0/24 IP segment, the roaming is L2 roaming.

  b. If dual-band integration is enabled on a router, the terminal will have the same IP address when it uses the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. So, the roaming is L2 roaming when the terminal changes between the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

(2) L3roaming means roaming between routers that allocate IP addresses on different IP segments to the terminal. Example:

Router A allocates an IP address on the 192.168.110.0/24 IP segment to the terminal. Router B allocates an IP address on the 192.168.111.0/24 IP segment to the terminal. The roaming is L3 roaming when the terminal roams between these two routers.

Note:
Ruijie's routers do not support L3roaming.