Intel WiFi 6E AX211 160MHz unnecessary roaming

[stapi]

Hello,

We are experiencing unexpected roaming behaviour on Dell Pro 14 Plus PB14250 laptops equipped with Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 adapters after deploying new Juniper Mist AP47D access points in our office. This is our first engagement on the Intel forum, so I am providing full context below.

Affected platform

System model: Dell Pro 14 Plus PB14250

Wireless adapter: Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz

Driver version: 23.160.0.4

BIOS: Updated to latest Dell-recommended version

Operating system: Windows 11 (issue reproduced on OEM image)

Wireless environment

Vendor: Juniper Mist

New AP model: AP47D

Older AP model (working correctly): AP43

Band: 5 GHz only

Security (corporate): WPA2-Enterprise (802.1X)

Security (test SSID): WPA2-PSK

Observed behaviour

When the affected laptops are stationary (placed on a desk close to an AP47D):

The client initially connects to the nearest AP with excellent signal quality (typically ~90%+ as reported by Windows).

After 30-60 minutes, without any user movement, the client roams away from this AP to a different AP located significantly further away, with much lower signal quality (typically ~60%).

A few minutes later, the client roams back to the original nearby AP due to the stronger signal.

This cycle then repeats.

From the Mist controller perspective, these are reported as “successful roams”; however, from a client behaviour standpoint this is undesirable, as the client repeatedly moves away from a significantly stronger AP to a weaker one while stationary causing more sensitive applications to disconnect.

Scope of impact

The issue is consistently reproducible on Dell PB14250 + Intel AX211.

Older Dell laptops, MacBooks, and mobile devices do not exhibit this behaviour on the same AP47D infrastructure.

The same PB14250 laptop does not exhibit the issue when connected to older Mist AP43 access points.

Juniper Mist support has reviewed the infrastructure and confirmed no RF, steering, or configuration issues on the wireless side.

Troubleshooting already performed

Updated BIOS and all Dell-recommended drivers (no change).

Reproduced on a clean OEM image (not corporate build) on a WPA2-PSK SSID

Can anyone possibly assist with understanding what conditions or logic in the Intel AX211 driver could cause a stationary client with excellent RSSI to roam to a significantly weaker AP.

Are there are known issues, tuning recommendations, or driver versions related to roaming behaviour with newer 6E/7-class APs such as the Mist AP47D.

An Intel SSU report is attached for reference.

Happy to provide further logs and tracers, if required.

Thank you in advance for your guidance.

[KentRusselP_Intel]

Hi stapi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Intel Community Forum. I appreciate your message, and I’m here to help you with your concern. To better understand the issue and provide accurate troubleshooting, could you please provide the following information:

• During the unwanted roaming events, which channels are the target APs using? Are they also operating in the 5 GHz band, or are they on different 5 GHz channels?
• Since 6 GHz support is enabled but your device connects to 5 GHz, are the AP47D units broadcasting the same SSID on both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands simultaneously?
• What is your current Windows Power Plan (Balanced / High Performance / Power Saver)? If you switch to High Performance, does the roaming behavior change?
• In Device Manager > Network Adapters > [Intel Wi-Fi Adapter] > Properties > Power Management, is the option “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” enabled or disabled?
• What happens if you change RoamingPreferredBandType from No Preference (0) to a specific band preference? Does this alter the roaming behavior?
• Have you tested with Human Presence Detection set to Disabled instead of Auto?
  • This can be done by going to Settings > System > Power & battery and turning off “Automatically turn off my screen when I leave” or “Walk Away Lock.”
• Do the AP47D access points have Band Steering or Load Balancing enabled?
  • If so, please try disabling these features temporarily to check if they are influencing the roaming pattern.

If you have further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to let us know.

Best regards,

Kent Russel P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[stapi]

Hello Kent,

Thank you for getting back to me.

The SSID is not broadcast on 6 GHz; the client is connecting exclusively to 5 GHz. Each AP uses a different, non-overlapping 5 GHz channel with 20 MHz channel width. The AP47D units are capable of 6 GHz, but the SSID under test is 5 GHz only, so there is no multi-band SSID interaction in this scenario. There is no band steering or load balancing enabled. 

Juniper Mist support has reviewed the RF design, AP configuration, and controller logs and confirmed no infrastructure-side steering or anomalies. Other devices (older Dell laptops, MacBooks, mobile devices) do not exhibit this behaviour on the same AP47D infrastructure.

Regarding the power configuration, it appears that the High Performance plan is no longer available in the current version of Windows 11. The issue affects corporate laptops that are MDM-managed, where power settings are enforced by policy, there is only a few settings that has been changed, the rest of them are kept default. For additional testing, the system is also prevented from sleeping. More importantly, The devices are plugged into AC power, actively used, and stationary when the issue occurs.

At this point, we are trying to understand what metrics or decision logic within the Intel AX211 driver could cause a stationary client with very strong signal quality (~90%+) to initiate a roam to an AP with significantly weaker signal (~60%).

Are there any logs or traces that can be enabled to show the roaming decision logic that the system/driver is using for specific roams?

Best Regards, Michal

[KentRusselP_Intel]

Hi Stapi,

Thank you for your detailed response! Please follow the recommended settings for your Intel® Wireless Adapter AX211. Also, ensure that both your adapter and your wireless router firmware/software are up to date.

Default / Recommended Settings

Property	Value
Channel Width for 5GHz	Auto (Access Point determines width)
Roaming Aggressiveness	Medium
Throughput Booster	Disabled
Transmit Power	Highest
802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode	802.11ax

Please also ensure that your Access Point (AP) is configured to support 802.11ax. If you're unsure whether your AP is set to operate in 11ax mode, we recommend contacting your AP manufacturer. Note that the exact naming of settings may vary depending on the AP model. You can refer to your device manual or consult the manufacturer for clarification.

For reference, please visit: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057574/wireless.html

Lastly, I would like to confirm: Does the Intel AX211 perform more aggressive background scanning when it detects Wi‑Fi 6E–capable APs (e.g., AP47D) compared to older APs (e.g., AP43), even if the 6GHz band is not being used?

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to let us know.

Best regards,

Kent Russel P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[stapi]

Hello Kent,

The channel Width for 5GHz is set to Auto

Roaming Aggressivness is set to Midium, but we have also tried Medium-low with no improvement.

Throughput Booster is Disabled

Transmit Power is set to Highest

Both AP models support 11ax mode and we can see the laptops using 11ax while connected to either type of AP. As advised previously, we have updated both the laptops and the APs to the latest manufacturer recommended versions and it has made no difference to the behaviour experienced.

Regarding your last question, I was hoping there would be some system or driver logs that would answer that, any chance you can advise where to look for those? Are there logs that detail the logic taken by the driver for each roaming events?

Thank you very much for your support, Michal.

[KentRusselP_Intel]

Hi Stapi,

I've sent an email to your active email address regarding the next step of the process. Please check both your Inbox and Spam folder, and kindly confirm once you’ve received it.

If you have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out.

Best regards,

Kent Russel P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[SB21]

Hello Intel Support Team,

I am reaching out regarding roaming instability observed with the Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz adapter (driver version 23.160) in an enterprise wireless environment. We have upgraded to 24.20 version but it did not fix the issue.

We are currently operating a WLAN using Juniper Mist infrastructure with the following configuration:

• Security: WPA2/WPA3 transition mode (mixed)
• 802.11r (Fast Transition): Enabled
• 802.11k/v: Enabled

In this setup, clients equipped with the AX211 adapter are experiencing both excessive roaming and failed fast transition events.

Observed behavior:

• Frequent roaming between nearby access points (ping-pong behavior), even when RSSI remains stable (around -60 to -70 dBm)
• Repeated FT authentication failures during roam attempts
• Fallback to full authentication, causing noticeable delays
• Roaming loops triggered shortly after failed transitions

Example log patterns:

• "FT authentication failed (status code 43)"
• "PMKID not found"
• "Fallback to full authentication"
• Multiple roam events within seconds between the same APs

From our analysis, the issue appears to be related to how the AX211 driver handles WPA2/WPA3 transition mode in combination with 802.11r. Specifically, there seems to be inconsistency in key selection (WPA2 vs WPA3) during fast transition attempts, resulting in authentication failures and unstable roaming decisions.

We have confirmed: The issue is primarily observed on AX211 clients

Could you please advise:

1. Whether this behavior is a known issue with driver version 23.160 up until 24.20
2. If there are recommended driver versions or settings to improve roaming stability
3. Whether there are known limitations with WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode + 802.11r on AX211
4. Any debug tools or logs you would like us to collect for further analysis

We are happy to provide additional logs, packet captures, or client diagnostics if needed.

Thank you for your support.

Kind regards,