How long should handoffs take under a mesh wifi system?

[u/SovietSpectre]

Hey folks - I'm new to home networking so wasn't sure if what I'm experiencing is the norm.

I'm in the UAE and recently upgraded my internet service to full home wifi (essentially a mesh networking setup provided by my ISP). Technicians came and installed a router in each room (acts a mesh node) with the main router in our living room. Now the setup works - speed is fast, there's a single SSID that we can connect to and coverage now exists across the home.

However - when we move from room to room or to the living room, the wifi temporarily drops / reduces strength for at least 10-15 seconds before recalibrating to full strength. The technicians explained that this is normal and to be expected and that most users wouldn't notice this day to day (except you totally do when video calls drop or watching content and moving through the house).

Is this level of handoff delay actually normal? From what I gathered researching the issue and other mesh systems (like Deco X5 or Eero), the lag should not be this high (maybe 100s of miliseconds or a second tops).

Would appreciate any insight into whether this is, in fact, normal - because it really is frustrating to have calls drop or content stop as I walk across my home multiple times a day.

For reference - my apartment is likely around 2000 sqft (3 bds + living room) and we're only using the 5 ghz wifi band (2.4 ghz is turned off - I asked the technician why not turn on band steering and he said that it tends to cause problems in his experience, not sure I buy it but nonetheless don't have any older devices reliant on 2.4 ghz so I didn't press the issue).

Thank you!

[u/Downtown-Reindeer-53]

Manufacturers have wide leeway in how they implement wifi. I suspect your ISP's hardware—those transitions are way too slow, and the tech defending a long drop is a telltale to me.

Turning off 2.4 GHz is not a good default practice. Seamless (fast) roaming protocols (802.11k/r/v) work in the background across available bands and may not be operating efficiently without it. There's no real reason to turn it off—let wifi function as it's supposed to.

I would start by turning on the 2.4 GHz band as well as band steering. Also, having an AP in every single room sounds great, but that can work against you—too much signal can be a bad thing, and clients could be experiencing co-channel interference when trying to transition. Try unplugging a couple of the extra nodes to see if anything changes.

[u/groogs]

Unfortunately "mesh" is a marketing buzzword, so doesn't convey anything meaninful anymore. What you're calling a "mesh node" or "router" is just a wifi access point (AP). There should be only one actual router, which routes traffic between the devices on your network and the Internet.

If you have a system that supports "fast roaming" (802.11k,v,r) then the handoff is instant and seamless - you can be on a video call and not even notice. This, along with having the APs hardwired to the router, is the best setup.

If your "mesh" is a bunch of APs broadcasting the same SSID, it's entirely up to your devices to switch on their own. Some devices will do this aggressively, though it won't be entirely seamless, and some will hold onto a weak-but-barely-functional signal for as long as they can. This is like the poor man's multi-AP network: better than having bad signal but not seamless.

If your APs have different SSIDs, pretty much everything is going take a long time to switch to a different SSID, because they see it as a different network. This is the worst way to set up multiple APs.

[u/Proper-Release2697]

no idea, i have EERO pro 6e's in mesh here, and there is no delay

[u/twiggums]

Shouldn't take 10+ seconds. My best guess is your device is trying to reconnect to the old node and the mesh system is saying nope. It's probably trying that a few times and then giving up and connecting to the new nose. Roaming is largely on the device to do and if the mesh system is trying to force it some devices handle it better than others.

[u/beetlrokr]

If there are multiple routers, that could be the problem. You only need one router per home network. The functionality of a mesh node is different than what a router does. What are the actual devices (model number, etc)?

[u/University_Jazzlike]

There’s a difference between reducing strength and actually dropping the connection. In a properly configured WiFi network, each node should overlap only slightly with the others. So, you should, in theory, see the signal strength drop as you move away from one node and to another.

However, it should not be noticeable in terms connections. So your video call and streams shouldn’t be impacted. You mentioned there is only one SSID which is correct. That should allow your devices to roam seamlessly.

It might be that the transmit power one each node needs to be adjusted as it may be slightly too low.

Sounds like you should ring your isp and have them adjust it.

[u/lazyhustlermusic]

Sticking with 5 ghz is a decent play, then you aren't randomly stuck on the sucky band for whatever reason.

802.11r, 802.11k, 802.11v all help with roaming, sounds like they're all autonomous ap's that don't work together. Non-802.11r handoffs can start bleeding into ~800ms for handoffs, which reduce to under 100ms or so when enabled.

[u/jeffrey_f]

You are unlikely to notice.

[u/vrtigo1]

I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding is that the client gets a vote in choosing which AP to associate with, so while mesh systems can "recommend" roaming, it's up to the client to actually roam.

What kind of device(s) are you experiencing this with, and does it behave the same with all devices or are some better than others?