Signal dropout on VOIP while access point roaming with Complete Home.

[charliemain]

We get loss of signal of sufficient duration to often cause disconnection on VOIP apps like zoom when moving between access points of our BT Complete Home system, which is supposed to give 'seamless' handover.   It's not predictable either.  Any ideas?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@charliemain 

I think you will find that seamless handover would not maintain a VOIP connection on any wireless mesh system. Also, not all mobile operating systems support it anyway.

There will always be some interruption during node handover, unlike mobile phone networks which are totally different.

[licquorice]

But surely that is the whole point of a mesh system rather than discrete APs, that handover is seamless otherwise there is no point in buying a mesh system.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@licquorice wrote:

But surely that is the whole point of a mesh system rather than discrete APs, that handover is seamless otherwise there is no point in buying a mesh system.

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Its very dependent on the client being capable of moving between different nodes, without any interruption. 

[charliemain]

Thank you for your comment.

 I looked at the Halo 3+ terms and conditions and there are statements like   "ensure a strong signal of at least 10Mbps in every room of your home".  There is indeed nothing said about 'seamless' handover, although I'm sure the advertising blurbs say something like that (I'll check)

Does this mean that BT will not officially guarantee such seamless AP roaming handover with its mesh packages? 

Also - would such handover dropouts occur with other  Wifi equipment (Sky, talk talk...) ?

If it is a client device property, then I'd guess so, but do you have a definitive answer?  

I'd be very grateful for your comments!

Charlie Main

[Keith_Beddoe]

@charliemain 

Well I have a Tenda Nova MW3 mesh, and although devices roam from one note to another, there is a short break while the device authenticates to the new node. There is an option to enable fast roaming, but it notes that all devices must support it, and specifically mentions IOS 4.0 as not compatible.

When I enable it, it made the system unstable, so I left it disabled.

The question is whether the BT mesh supports fast roaming, I would be surprised that it does. It may be seamless as there is no loss off wifi signal, but that does not mean there is no loss of data. So if you were streaming video or audio, there would be no break in content, as buffering within the application would cope with any short break.

VOIP is a special case, as there is no latency permitted, otherwise speech would be delayed, so I would not be surprised if the call dropped due to a change in transmission path.

You may get some feedback from one of the BT device experts.

[charliemain]

Thank you Keith, for your quick and considered reply.

Now a stupid question - how best to get in touch with a BT device expert?   The folk they send round are competent to install their equipment, but I do not think they have the level of expertise to answer my query definitively...

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@charliemain wrote:

Thank you Keith, for your quick and considered reply.

Now a stupid question - how best to get in touch with a BT device expert?   The folk they send round are competent to install their equipment, but I do not think they have the level of expertise to answer my query definitively...

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They post on this forum in their own time, normally its @Darren_B  who may be able to help answer your question.

I suspect that true no-break roaming is only possible on enterprise mesh networks, which have a central authentication server, but I may be wrong.

[Keith_Beddoe]

To move from one wifi node to another, there has to be a de-authentication from the current nodes BSSID, then a re-authentication to the new nodes BSSID. This is going to involve a short break, and if there is also wifi interference on that channel, then this could take a while, which may explain why sometimes it appears to work, and why some devices fail.

A Google search will find may articles discussing this issue.

[charliemain]

Thank you again Keith. I have also taken your advice to contact the BT device specialist.