- Preface
- Using the Command-Line Interface
- Using the Web Graphical User Interface
- Administering the System
- Performing Device Setup Configuration
- Configuring Right-To-Use Licenses
- Configuring Administrator Usernames and Passwords
- Configuring 802.11 parameters and Band Selection
- Configuring Aggressive Load Balancing
- Configuring Client Roaming
- Configuring Application Visibility and Control
- Configuring Voice and Video Parameters
- Configuring RFID Tag Tracking
- Configuring Location Settings
- Monitoring Flow Control
- Configuring SDM Templates
- Configuring System Message Logs
- Configuring Online Diagnostics
- Managing Configuration Files
- Configuration Replace and Configuration Rollback
- Working with the Flash File System
- Working with Cisco IOS XE Software Bundles
- Troubleshooting the Software Configuration
- Index
- Finding Feature Information
- Restrictions for Configuring Client Roaming
- Information About Client Roaming
- How to Configure Layer 2 or Layer 3 Roaming
- Monitoring Client Roaming Parameters
- Monitoring Mobility Configurations
- Additional References for Configuring Client Roaming
- Feature History and Information For Performing Client Roaming Configuration
Configuring Client Roaming
Finding Feature Information
Your software release may not support all of the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Restrictions for Configuring Client Roaming
The following are the restrictions that you should be aware while configuring client roaming:
Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) support is enabled automatically for every WLAN on the device and cannot be disabled. The device stores the CCX version of the client in its client database and uses it to generate and respond to CCX frames appropriately. Clients must support CCXv4 or v5 (or CCXv2 for access point assisted roaming) to utilize these roaming enhancements.
Client roaming between 600 Series Access points is not supported.
Information About Client Roaming
The controllers deliver high-end wireless services to the clients roaming across wireless network. Now, the wireless services are integrated with the switches, thus delivering a value-added Cisco unified new mobility architecture. This unified architecture enables client-roaming services to both wireless and wired clients with seamless, fast- roaming services.
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A Mobility Domain is the entire domain across which client roaming is supported. It is a collection of mobility groups. For example, a campus network can be considered as a mobility domain.
-
A Mobility Group is a collection of mobility subdomains across which fast roaming is supported. The mobility group can be one or more buildings within a campus across which frequent roaming is supported.
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A Mobility Subdomain is an autonomous portion of the mobility domain network. Each mobility subdomain contains one mobility controller (MC) and a collection of SPGs. A subdomain is equivalent to an 802.11r key domain.
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A Switch Peer Group is a collection of mobility agents.
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The Mobility Oracle acts as the point of contact for mobility events that occur across mobility subdomains. The mobility oracle also maintains a local database of each client in the entire mobility domain, their home and current subdomain. There is only one MO for an entire mobility domain. The Cisco WLC 5700 Series Controllers or Cisco Unified Wireless Networking Solution controller can act as MO.
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The Mobility Controller provides mobility management services for inter-SPG roaming events. The MC sends the configuration like SPG name and SPG peer member list to all of the mobility agents under its subdomain. The Cisco WLC 5700 Series Controllers, Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch, or Cisco Unified Wireless Networking Solution controller can act as MC. The MC has MC functionality and MA functionality that is running internally into it.
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The Mobility Agent is the component that maintains client mobility state machine for a mobile client. All APs are connected to the mobility agent.
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Intra-switch roaming—The client roaming between APs managed by same mobility agent.
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Intra-SPG roaming—The client roaming between mobility agents in the same SPG.
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Inter-SPG, Intra-subdomain roaming—The client roaming between mobility agents in different SPGs within the same subdomain.
-
Inter-subdomain roaming—The client roaming between mobility agents across a subdomain.
Fast Roaming
New mobility architecture supports fast roaming when clients roam within a mobility group by eliminating the need for full authentication. Security polices should be same across the switches for fast roaming.
Local, anchor, foreign MAs and MCs
When a client joins an MA initially and its point of attachment has not changed, that MA is referred as local or associated MA. The MC to which this MA is associated is referred as local or associated MC.
When a client roams between two MAs, the MA to which the client was previously associated is the anchor MA (point of attachment) and the MA to which the client is currently associated is the foreign or associated MA (point of presence). The MCs to which these MAs are associated are referred as anchor, foreign, or associated MCs, respectively.
Inter-Subnet Roaming
Multiple-controller deployments support client roaming across access points managed by controllers in the same mobility group on different subnets. This roaming is transparent to the client because the session is sustained and a tunnel between the controllers allows the client to continue using the same DHCP-assigned or client-assigned IP address as long as the session remains active. The tunnel is torn down, and the client must reauthenticate when the client sends a DHCP Discover with a 0.0.0.0 client IP address or a 169.254.*.* client auto-IP address or when the operator-set user timeout is exceeded.
Voice-over-IP Telephone Roaming
802.11 voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephones actively seek out associations with the strongest RF signal to ensure the best quality of service (QoS) and the maximum throughput. The minimum VoIP telephone requirement of 20-millisecond or shorter latency time for the roaming handover is easily met by the Cisco Unified Wireless Network (Cisco UWN) solution, which has an average handover latency of 5 or fewer milliseconds when open authentication is used. This short latency period is controlled by controllers rather than allowing independent access points to negotiate roaming handovers.
The Cisco UWN solution supports 802.11 VoIP telephone roaming across lightweight access points managed by controllers on different subnets, as long as the controllers are in the same mobility group. This roaming is transparent to the VoIP telephone because the session is sustained and a tunnel between controllers allows the VoIP telephone to continue using the same DHCP-assigned IP address as long as the session remains active. The tunnel is torn down, and the VoIP client must reauthenticate when the VoIP telephone sends a DHCP Discover with a 0.0.0.0 VoIP telephone IP address or a 169.254.*.* VoIP telephone auto-IP address or when the operator-set user timeout is exceeded.
CCX Layer 2 Client Roaming
The controller supports five CCX Layer 2 client roaming enhancements:
Access point assisted roaming—This feature helps clients save scanning time. When a CCXv2 client associates to an access point, it sends an information packet to the new access point listing the characteristics of its previous access point. Roaming time decreases when the client recognizes and uses an access point list built by compiling all previous access points to which each client was associated and sent (unicast) to the client immediately after association. The access point list contains the channels, BSSIDs of neighbor access points that support the client’s current SSID(s), and time elapsed since disassociation.
Enhanced neighbor list—This feature focuses on improving a CCXv4 client’s roam experience and network edge performance, especially when servicing voice applications. The access point provides its associated client information about its neighbors using a neighbor-list update unicast message.
Enhanced neighbor list request (E2E)—The End-2-End specification is a Cisco and Intel joint program that defines new protocols and interfaces to improve the overall voice and roaming experience. It applies only to Intel clients in a CCX environment. Specifically, it enables Intel clients to request a neighbor list at will. When this occurs, the access point forwards the request to the controller. The controller receives the request and replies with the current CCX roaming sublist of neighbors for the access point to which the client is associated.
Roam reason report—This feature enables CCXv4 clients to report the reason why they roamed to a new access point. It also allows network administrators to build and monitor a roam history.
Directed roam request—This feature enables the controller to send directed roam requests to the client in situations when the controller can better service the client on an access point different from the one to which it is associated. In this case, the controller sends the client a list of the best access points that it can join. The client can either honor or ignore the directed roam request. Non-CCX clients and clients running CCXv3 or below must not take any action. No configuration is required for this feature.
How to Configure Layer 2 or Layer 3 Roaming
Configuring Layer 2 or Layer 3 Roaming
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SSID and security polices should be same across MAs for Layer 2 and Layer 3 roaming.
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Client VLAN ID should be same for Layer 2 roaming and different for Layer 3 roaming.
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Bridge domain ID and client VLAN IDs should be same for Layer 2 roaming. Either one or both of the bridge domain ID and client VLAN ID should be different for Layer 3 roaming.
1.
configure terminal
2.
wlan
wlan_profile_name
wlan_ID
SSID_network_name
3.
no mobility anchor sticky
4.
end
DETAILED STEPS
Configuring CCX Client Roaming Parameters (CLI)
1.
configure terminal
2.
ap dot11 {5ghz | 24ghz}
l2roam rf-params
{default | custom
min-rssi
roam-hyst
scan-thresh
trans-time}
3.
end
DETAILED STEPS
Configuring Mobility Oracle
1.
configure terminal
2.
wireless mobility oracle
3.
end
DETAILED STEPS
Configuring Mobility Controller
1.
configure terminal
2.
wireless mobility controller
3.
wireless mobility controller peer-group switch-peer-group-name
4.
wireless mobility controller peer-group switch-peer-group-name member ip ip-address {public-ip public-ip-address}
5.
wireless mobility controller peer-group switch-peer-group-name multicast
6.
wireless mobility controller peer-group switch-peer-group-name multicast ip peer-group-multicast-ip-addr
7.
wireless mobility controller peer-groupswitch-peer-group-name bridge-domain-id id
8.
wireless mobility group member ip ip-address [public-ip public-ip-address] [group group-name]
9.
wireless mobility dscp value
10.
wireless mobility group keepalive {count | interval}
11.
wireless mobility group name name
12.
wireless mobility oracle ipmo-ip-address
13.
wireless management interface interface-name
14.
end
DETAILED STEPS
Configuring Mobility Agent
1.
configure terminal
2.
wireless mobility controller ip ip-address
3.
wireless mobility load-balance
4.
wireless mobility load-balance threshold threshold -value
5.
wireless management interface interface-name
6.
end
DETAILED STEPS
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 |
configure terminal Example: Device# configure terminal
|
Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 2 | wireless mobility controller ip ip-address Example: Device(config)# wireless mobility controller ip 10.10.10.20
| Sets the IP address of the mobility controller. |
Step 3 | wireless mobility load-balance Example: Device(config)# wireless mobility load-balance
| Configures wireless mobility load balancing. |
Step 4 | wireless mobility load-balance threshold threshold -value Example: Device(config)# wireless mobility load-balance threshold 100
| Configures the number of clients that can be local or anchored on the MA. You can configure the threshold value in a range from 100 to 2000. The default value is 1000. |
Step 5 | wireless management interface interface-name Example: Device(config)# wireless management interface Vlan21
| Configures wireless management interface for the mobility agent. |
Step 6 | end Example: Device(config)# end
| Returns to privileged EXEC mode. Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl-Z to exit global configuration mode. |
Monitoring Client Roaming Parameters
This section describes the new commands for the client parameters.
The following commands can be used to monitor the client roaming parameters on the .
Command |
Purpose |
show ap dot11 {5ghz | 24ghz} l2roam rf-param | Displays the current RF parameters configured for client roaming for the 802.11a or 802.11b/g network. |
show ap dot11 {5ghz | 24ghz} l2roam statistics | Displays the CCX Layer 2 client roaming statistics for the 802.11a or 802.11b/g network. |
show ap dot11 {5ghz | 24ghz} l2roam mac-address mac-address statistics | Displays the CCX Layer 2 client roaming statistics for a particular access point. |
Monitoring Mobility Configurations
This section describes the new commands for monitoring mobility configurations.
The following command can be used to monitor mobility configurations on the Mobility Oracle, Mobility Controller, and Mobility Agent.
Command |
Purpose |
show wireless mobility summary |
Displays the summary information for the Mobility Controller and Mobility Agent. |
show wireless mobility statistics |
Displays mobility statistics. |
show wireless mobility dtls connections |
Displays established DTLS connections. |
Command |
Purpose |
show wireless mobility oracle summary |
Displays the status of the Mobility Controllers known to the Mobility Oracle. |
show wireless mobility oracle client summary |
Displays the information of a list of clients in the Mobility Oracle database. |
show wireless mobility oracle client detail client -mac-address |
Displays the detailed information of a particular client in the Mobility Oracle database. |
show wireless mobility oracle mc-ip |
Displays the information of a list of clients in the Mobility Oracle database that are anchored or associated to a specified Mobility Controller. |
Command |
Purpose |
show wireless mobility controller client summary |
Displays a list of clients in the subdomain. |
show wireless mobility controller client mac-address detail |
Displays detailed information for a client in a subdomain. |
show wireless mobility agent ma-ip client summary |
Displays a list of clients anchored or associated to a specified Mobility Agent. |
show wireless mobility ap-list |
Displays the list of Cisco APs known to the mobility group. |
Command |
Purpose |
show wireless mobility load-balance summary |
Displays the summary of mobility load-balance properties. |
Additional References for Configuring Client Roaming
Related Documents
Related Topic | Document Title |
---|---|
Mobility configuration | Mobility Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3SE (Cisco WLC 5700 Series) |
Mobility-related commands | Mobility Command Reference Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3SE (Cisco WLC 5700 Series) |
Standards and RFCs
Standard/RFC | Title |
---|---|
None | — |
MIBs
MIB | MIBs Link |
---|---|
All supported MIBs for this release. |
To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL: |
Technical Assistance
Description | Link |
---|---|
The Cisco Support website provides extensive online resources, including documentation and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. To receive security and technical information about your products, you can subscribe to various services, such as the Product Alert Tool (accessed from Field Notices), the Cisco Technical Services Newsletter, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password. |
Feature History and Information For Performing Client Roaming Configuration
Release | Feature Information |
---|---|
Cisco IOS XE 3.3SE | This feature was introduced. |