STA roams when beacons are lost

[JPavonM]

Hi Intel team,

We're suffering some connectivity issues with some clients where the device suffer a ping-pong effect every few minutes, and from time to time it also disconnect completely before reconnecting, thus having a huge impact on real-time conferencing application such as Teams or Zoom.

Conditions:

Lenovo laptops with different Intel adapters (AC8000, AC9000 series, AX200 series, AX210 series), and tested using different driver releases from both Lenovo and Intel from 22.120 to 22.220 (there aren't any other model 

Cisco WLAN Infrastructure with C9800 running 17.6.x and 17.9.x code (even with latest SP to fix PMK issues from Windows turning from OKC to SKC), and AP from series 4800. (Cisco is analysing why APs are not sending beacons)

Problem:

Windows report a sudden drop in received signal strength from the connected AP and it roams to the nearest one, then after some time it roams back to the previous AP.

Analysing the issue we have found that the AP where the STA is connected to is missing some beacons for a period of time of 2 seconds recurrently at the same time the device roams, and then, after some time it roams back to this AP (that is inside the logic of the WLAN connections and QoE parameters that the Intel's driver maybe using, as the nearest AP has a SS around -61 dBm and seconday AP SS is around -74 dBm).

Question:

How Intel adapters works when beacons (or probe responses, timing advertisements or a TIM frame with TSF timestamp as source frames for time sychronization as stated in IEEE 802.11-2020 Chapter 11.1.3.1) from the connected AP are missed? How many beacons need to be lost for the STA to start scanning actively to roam? Or is this only happening if the lost beacons match the time when the STA go to passive scan another channel and then back to transmit in the channel that is connected to?

Regards.

Jesus

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @JPavonM  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I will gladly assist you here. 

Please, answer these questions to have a better perspective of this issue: 

1. How many systems are affected? 
2. Does this issue happen with another AP/router from a different brand? Does it happen with another network? 
3. Was it working before? 
4. Does this issue happen with the latest wireless driver (22.230.0)? Note: Make sure to check you have all the Windows updates before doing the driver installation.  
5. Run this utility and attach the report from one of the affected devices: 

Intel® System Support Utility for Windows. 

Note: Make sure to mark the box that says "everything" before pressing the Scan button. After that, click on "Next>" and select "Save" and then, attach the .txt file. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @JPavonM  

We are checking this thread and we would like to know if you were able to review our previous post. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us back. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @JPavonM  

We have not heard back from you, so we will proceed to close this thread now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @JPavonM  

As additional information, we recommend you to contact your AP manufacturer for assistance since this is not a wireless driver issue.

This thread will no longer be monitored, thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician.