We’ve been experimenting with real-time streaming over Wi-Fi where packets have a 100 ms latency budget.
The problem we wanted to look at was roaming. Even when you have good Wi-Fi coverage, moving between access points can cause short interruptions that are long enough to matter for a real-time application.
Instead of relying on a single Wi-Fi connection and hoping the handover is fast enough, we tested our overlay multi-connectivity transport using three Wi-Fi access points at the same time.
The transport can use all three paths simultaneously, so a roaming event or temporary interruption on one connection doesn’t necessarily interrupt the stream.
We’re still digging into the results, but it’s an interesting way of thinking about Wi-Fi reliability: rather than trying to make one connection perfect, use several imperfect ones together.
mrb-np•23h ago
WiFi is a real pain in many situations! This can actually help!
lesspassiveobse•13m ago
Unifi had this on their old access points (Multi-AP coordination outside of the spec)
Now we have 802.11r fast roaming and with 802.11bn (WiFi-8) it will be basically instant, because that standard adds SMD (Seamless Roaming Domain). The APs will talk to each other and share the client connection state.
mortenvp•23h ago
The problem we wanted to look at was roaming. Even when you have good Wi-Fi coverage, moving between access points can cause short interruptions that are long enough to matter for a real-time application.
Instead of relying on a single Wi-Fi connection and hoping the handover is fast enough, we tested our overlay multi-connectivity transport using three Wi-Fi access points at the same time.
The transport can use all three paths simultaneously, so a roaming event or temporary interruption on one connection doesn’t necessarily interrupt the stream.
We’re still digging into the results, but it’s an interesting way of thinking about Wi-Fi reliability: rather than trying to make one connection perfect, use several imperfect ones together.