thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Wireless & Mobility · Foundational

Roaming

A client moving its association from one AP to another in the same ESS while keeping connectivity.

Definition

In 802.11, the client decides when and where to roam, usually based on signal strength, SNR, retries, or vendor-specific thresholds. A full roam includes scanning, reassociation, and, for secure WLANs, re-authentication and the 4-way handshake. Fast roaming methods (FT, OKC, PMK caching) and design with roughly 15-20 percent cell overlap at -67 dBm reduce roam delay.

Example

A voice handset roams between APs as a nurse walks down a hospital corridor.

Exam tip

The client, not the AP, makes the roaming decision; infrastructure can only influence it.

Related terms