macOS 10.15 Catalina 802.11r not working

[blinton]

All devices (even iPad 4) and Android 4 are able to work with 802.11r on 5 GHz (2 x Archer c2600 as dumb AP‘s with 19.07.2), wirh 802.11w turned off (else wifi roaming doesn‘t work).
Why is macOS Catalina not working ?

[ACwifidude]

Post your settings- and lets see if we can figure it out. I’m running the latest master build. These are my 5ghz wifi settings (r7800 with Apple devices):

root@OpenWrt:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel '36'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option txpower '22'
        option legacy_rates '0'
        option country 'US'
        option beacon_int '67'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ft_over_ds '1'
        option ssid '*******'
        option ft_psk_generate_local '1'
        option key '********'
        option ieee80211r '1'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option ieee80211v '0'
        option ieee80211k '0'
        option bss_transition '0'

[blinton]

Hi ACwifidude,

Thanks a lot for your help in advance !

Here we go, one of the two AP's:

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option hwmode '11a'
	option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
	option htmode 'VHT80'
	option channel '52'
	option txpower '20'
	option country 'CH'
	option legacy_rates '0'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
	option device 'radio0'
	option network 'lan'
	option mode 'ap'
	option key '****'
	option ssid '****'
	option ft_over_ds '1'
	option ft_psk_generate_local '1'
	option ieee80211r '1'
	option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

Do you think I should also set 802.11v and k off, as well as bss_transition ?

Thanks and Cheers blinton.

[ACwifidude]

The 802.11k and v are just for tinkering with dawn from another thread. They are turned off to keep the family happy right now between my two APs, they aren’t happy being guinea pigs - It won’t help with 802.11r

First try a non DFS channel for the EU like channel 36-48 (see the helpful chart for your country about halfway down the wiki:

List of WLAN channels

Second - since the Mac is the only one acting up you should consider clearing the network settings on that device and starting fresh (make sure you don’t lose any networks / settings you can’t replicate!):

How To Reset Network Settings On Mac - macReports

Last - if those two don’t work you might need to adjust your transmit power (lower it). If there is too much overlap between the APs I’ve found some devices will tend to stick. With some testing like using the airport utility to pull RSSI strength numbers - you can tweak the transmit power to evenly get your APs to about -67 dBm at your desired transition point. To add complexity towards it.... iOS and macOS support different RSSI roaming thresholds and macOS doesn’t fully support all the roaming protocols (doesn’t fully support 802.11r, etc). Apple article on doing this for the enterprise for iOS and macOS - compare notes between the two and tweak the AP transmit power to make both happy (your house ):

About wireless roaming for enterprise

macOS wireless roaming for enterprise customers

[blinton]

Hi ACwifidude,

I've put your settings 802.11k&v, bss_transition (not sure if I really need this, so just turned it off), as well as lowered the txpower to 31mW (15 dBm) and set both AP's to the same non-DFS channel.
Resetting the macbook did the trick finally, i.e. deleted the files and rebooted and yeepee it worked

Thanks a lot !
Enjoy Easter and stay healthy !

Cheers blinton

[ACwifidude]

Thats great to hear. Glad I could help.

Three more tweaks to improve your roaming performance:

1. I recommend different channels for your two APs to prevent physical radio collisions / interference (see below config of my two APs)

2. change up the beacon interval and choose a prime number (I found 101 works well) - the prime number theoretically prevents collisions

3. Didn’t look at your 2.4ghz - name your 2.4ghz SSID a different name from 5ghz (so that your devices don’t roam to 2.4ghz too).

AP1

root@OpenWrt:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option channel '161'
        option txpower '22'
        option legacy_rates '0'
        option country 'US'
        option beacon_int '101'

AP2:

root@OpenWrt:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option channel '36'
        option txpower '22'
        option legacy_rates '0'
        option country 'US'
        option beacon_int '101'

[blinton]

Hi ACwifidude,

Implemented yoir recommendations for my 2 APs, thanks !!

2.5 days running smoothly, will update again.

Cheers blinton