Marvin Speculates on the MCA Big MAC
I know, you're already wondering, "who is Marvin?" A pseudonym for Marcus + Devin. You can thank CWNE Round Table member and CWNT (instructor) Gene Hill, who came up with it, for the chuckle. Marcus is my trusty lab engineer here in the Batcave. We were bouncing ideas back and forth about some problems we were having here in the lab, and we came up with an idea that probably won't work...but you never know where it might lead.
We are having an issue where TxBF systems are becoming victims of their own success. They provide such excellent SNR that clients won't let go of an AP (stickiness). We've tested clients, like Intel's 4965agn, that have roaming aggressiveness settings, and after configuring them for maximum aggressiveness they still stick to an AP far too long. If APs with TxBF capability aren't placed appropriately far apart, roaming can be a bit of a problem (because the client makes the decision). I'm not pointing out a flaw in TxBF systems or necessarily the technology itself, but rather a flaw in the interaction between TxBF infrastructures and the various types of clients that connect to them. The real flaw here is that clients make crappy and inconsistent roaming decisions. Continue reading...