Seamless WiFi Roaming?

[PJA]

Hi,

Is seamless roaming between access points possiple? Is it fast enough to allow VoIP connections to continue without dropping the call?

Does anyone offer a solution? I believe Cisco has a solution - does anyone have a ballpark dollar figure for that?

Advice welcome...


Regards

Paul

 

[dput]

That has been troublesome in the past. My understanding is that the wireless switches are the way to go for this. I know both Cisco and 3-Com offer this type of equipment. If you are installing a Cisco IP Telephony system, I would go Cisco. Otherwise, you can look at both options and there may be others out there.

On other issue from my understanding, wireless does not currently support QOS as a standard (it is being worked on) which means you could have some problems with the quality of your calls on the wireless.

Please post here what you end up doing.

Dan

 

[PJA]

Thanks - I am struggling to find an answer - and the answer is (as you have said) that wireless was intended for data, not voice - hence the issues.

There seems to be many suggested prototype systems:
- Atmel in France have a system called Tap Dance
- two university guys in CA created software to seek & connect with very low latency times
- Cisco have a solution
- Aruba Wireless has a system
- I was not aware 3Com had a solution - I'll look into that

In a professional review I found on the 'net, 6 & 7 concurrent WiFi VoIP connections were switched from one AP to another, using some of the above systems.

The Aruba Wireless system was marked as most successful. I believe the tested setup cost approx $8000 US, while the Cisco solution came second at a cost of over $50,000

As if to verify the Aruba system, Dartmouth college (NH - USA) deployed 300+ Cisco AP's with the Aruba 'back-end' devices controlling roaming / security / etc... The AP's are arranged to form a 'wireless data grid', therefore, as long as you are 'within the grid' you get good wireless coverage. The grid covers the whole college - and students can wonder all over campus continuing VoIP calls. The results seems good.

The VoWiFi market is developing - and I'm sure that 18 months from now, there will be the LinkSys VoWiFi router, (that works seamlessly with other LinkSys VoWiFi routers), with much reduced, almost undetectable roaming latency - for under $200 each...just set them up 300ft apart...

Or one WiMax attenna covering the whole area - I think this is the way forward - no handover issues