Seamless Roaming with Android Pixel phones - does it work?
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Hi, I have two EAP615s and one EAP610 configured with a single SSID on 5GHz using 80Mhz channels. I'm running Omada software 5.7.4 on a Linux server that is permantly powered/active. I've enabled fast roaming, AI roaming and dual 11K reporting as well as 802.11r (though the last two should be irrelevant as the SSID is only 5G and I'm using WPA3-PSK).
I have various devices: Windows 11 PCs, Linux PCs, Fire tablets, and three different Pixel phones - 4a5G, 6a and 6. Everything roams to varying degress, except the Pixel phones, which will hold on to a -80 dBm signal when a -40 dBm signal is available.
Google is a terrible company for consumer support and cannot/will not confirm whether they support 11k/v on their phones, and their support communities are well meaning, but directed me to reddit reports to validate functionality - where there are one or two claims of 6/6Pro and 7/7Pro supporting 11k/v. Nothing against reddit, but it's concerning that the company behind the product, and their own support community have nothing on these common features. Given my Pixel 6 won't roam I'm skeptical of the accuracy of the reddit reports - unless there is something specific I'm missing in my setup.
I've taken beacon traces of the APs (wireshark on Linux and analiti on Android), and they are definitely beaconing 11k/v - so nothing is obviously missing.
I was wondering if anyone has had any success with these phones, and if so, if they have any pointers for me to try and get these devices to roam.
Thanks in advance for any help
Alan
PS In case anyone was interested, Windows 11 roams faster than I can move between APs and provides a perfect experience, Linux is a bit lumpy (with IWD) but gets there, and the Amazon Fire tablets seem to roam adequately. It's just the mobile devices that aren't mobile...
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I have exactly in your same problems
13 EAP615, all over, two stories.
Everything is roaming perfectly, moving from south 1st floor to north 2nd floor, the iphone roams through several APs.
Pixels (6, 6a), they just struggle to the point they die, they are sticky forever
I tried lowering powers, enabling all the advanced features, force disconnections, AI, ...they are stubborn.
If I reconnect them from the app/cloud, they correctly connect to the best AP available. But they just do not roam, no matter what.
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Here are the 802.11 specs I found online for the Pixel 6/6a/6 Pro
802.11k Supported
802.11r Supported
802.11v Supported
802.11w Supported
802.11n Supported (2ss)
802.11ac Supported (2ss), MCS 0-9, [X] 160 MHz, [X] SU BF, [X] MU BF
802.11ax Supported (2ss), MCS 0-11, [X] 160 MHz, [X] TWT, [ ] Punctured Preamble, [ ] SU Beamformer, [X] SU Beamformee, [ ] HE ER SU PPDU, [ ] UORA, [X] BSR
6 GHz Operating Class Supported
Max Power 20 dBm
Supported Channels 36-64, 100-144, 149-165**
The Google Pixel 6 (and above) do support fast roaming, how it handles roaming depends on the Android OS and how closely your EAPs are spaced within your dwelling or office space. I notice that my own Google 6 Pro roams generally as expected on my Omada wifi network, but my EAPs are spread out in such a way that roaming might be triggered more reliably than in setups where EAPs are closer together.
When you have EAPs overlapping too much, there are multiple EAPs broadcasting very usable signals and no clear threshold where one looks much better than the other to make switching worthwhile. Remember, device radios can only be on one frequency at a time. Scanning for EAPs available on other channels is very expensive to the device's network performance on the current EAP. A device won't consider roaming to other EAPs until the signal becomes poor. You can try turning the power down on the "sticky" EAP so that when your Pixel 6 crosses a signal threshold it switches to a more nearby EAP.
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@Shoresy can you post the link to the pixel WiFi specs please. Thanks
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@Pdenti it only worked for me while I was on an active call - in my case I tested it with zoom. When I was on the call the pixel roamed. When I wasn't on a call, it clung to the AP.
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@Shoresy
I tried [pretty much everything
roaming during an existing connection did not work
i took the power down to 4dBm, it did not work as well, not even during a call
i tried with fast roaming, force disconnection, ... whatever i do, pixel 6a does not roam (all this last tests were executed only with 6a, not with the 6)
Thanks for your help but I think I am giving up with these phones, they do not want to roam :-)
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yes, you're right. the signal is still usable, it is 5Ghz, and it is not roaming.
For any other phone, still in 5Ghz of course, is roaming as soon as the signal is stronger somewhere else.
If i reconnect, it catches the stronger AP
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I think I got close to the solution.
Now the pixels are roaming.
This is what I did
- disable 6ghz
- set wpa mode to wpa2 (disabled wpa3 basically)
- enabled 802.11r
and it is working, not super fast, not super efficient like the iphone but it roams
- enabled fast roaming
- enabled AI roaming
- enabled dual band dual bad 811k report
- enabled force disassociation
- set tx power to low for every AP
it looks it is roaming faster, still not sure
The first section did the trick
I'll keep posting here whatever I find
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