IEEE Completes 802.11r Fast Wi-Fi Roaming Standard
Just what we needed (really), another letter in the alphabet soup of 802.11 standards. This one, 802.11r, is also known as Fast Basic Service Set Transition (more details on the standard here).
The 802.11 standard was originally conceived to operate around individual access points (APs). This is a far cry from the high density AP network designs increasingly being installed in hospitals – and the wireless medical devices and other mobile applications they support.
In a conventional WiFi network it takes about 100 ms to re-associate with a new AP, and several seconds to re-authenticate connections using 802.1x (a common security requirement in many hospitals). This time lag can potentially result in several second gaps in patient monitoring waveforms, missed alarms, and dropped wireless VoIP phone calls. Another problem fixed in 802.11r is that a client radio does not know if the required quality of service (QoS) resources are available in the new AP until after it has associated with the new AP.
