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ZyAIR B-3000 User’s Guide
Chapter 6 Wireless LAN 66
The roaming feature on the access points allows the access points to relay information about
the wireless stations to each other. When a wireless station moves from a coverage area to
another, it scans and uses the channel of a new access point, which then informs the access
points on the LAN about the change. The new information is then propagated to the other
access points on the LAN. An example is shown in
Figure 26.
With roaming, a wireless LAN mobile user enjoys a continuous connection to the wired
network through an access point while moving around the wireless LAN.
Enable roaming to exchange the latest bridge information of all wireless stations between APs
when a wireless station moves between coverage areas. Wireless stations can still associate
with other APs even if you disable roaming. Enabling roaming ensures correct traffic
forwarding (bridge tables are updated) and maximum AP efficiency. The AP deletes records
of wireless stations that associate with other APs (Non-ZyXEL APs may not be able to
perform this). 802.1x authentication information is not exchanged (at the time of writing).
Figure 26 Roaming Example
The steps below describe the roaming process.
1 As wireless station Y moves from the coverage area of access point AP 1 to that of access
point
2 AP 2, it scans and uses the signal of access point AP 2.
3 Access point AP 2 acknowledges the presence of wireless station Y and relays this
information to access point AP 1 through the wired LAN.
4 Access point AP 1 updates the new position of wireless station.
5 Wireless station Y sends a request to access point AP 2 for reauthentication.