Roaming client halow

General
1

Hello.

I am exploring Wi-Fi HaLow (Morse Micro / Heltec) for UAV/drone communications.

Current topology:

  • Several Morse Micro HaLow routers are deployed on the ground.

  • They are connected using 802.11s mesh.

  • Each mesh node also operates as a regular non-mesh AP (client SSID).

  • The drone uses a Heltec HaLow dongle as a normal STA client (not a mesh node).

Topology example:

Drone (STA client)
↓
HaLow AP on Mesh Node A
↓
802.11s mesh backhaul
↓
Mesh Node B / C / Gateway

My main question is about roaming / handoff behavior.

When the drone moves between mesh nodes:

  • will the client roam automatically and quickly between APs?

  • are the following supported:

    • 802.11r

    • 802.11k

    • 802.11v

    • background scanning / roaming assistance

    • RSSI-based roaming

    • BSS transition management

Currently the behavior looks similar to a classic sticky client:

  • the client stays connected to the old AP for too long,

  • even when a stronger AP is nearby,

  • and only reconnects after heavy signal degradation or link loss.

2

Is it possible to simply add these options to the wifi config file to configure 802.11r/k/v or are these options not supported?

# 802.11r Fast Roaming
 option ieee80211r '1'
 option mobility_domain '1234'
 option ft_over_ds '0'
 option ft_psk_generate_local '1'

 # 802.11k
 option ieee80211k '1'

 # 802.11v
 option ieee80211v '1'
 option bss_transition '1'
 option time_advertisement '2'
 option time_zone 'KZ-6'
3

i use Morse Micro HaLowLink 2 MM-HL2-EXT

4

photo_5224637079625603764_w
photo_5224637079625603764_w1640×441 39.7 KB

According to the OpenWrt documentation, there should be a WLAN roaming tab here.

but it’s not there.

5

@Argyn Hi Argyn,

actually I already tried， it’s possible to implement WiFi halow mesh client on Heltec HT-HC33, so it can seamlessly roaming across openwrt mesh nodes. Let me know if you are interested about that.

1 Like
6

Yes, I’m very interested in that. How did you do it and what exactly did you do?

7

Morse Micro already provided openwrt halow mesh, so now you can already build your mesh network with Wi-Fi Halow routers. The only constraint is power consumption, Linux based Wi-Fi Halow nodes cost too much power, cannot be powered by battery or solar. So we implemented Wi-Fi Halow on embedded MCUs like ESP32S3 and nRF54 referencing Morse micro sdk. And especially we already implemented Halow mesh client on ESP32S3, which means end device can keep multiple connection with neighbor nodes, and switch smoothly without drop. Theoretically we can also implement the same on nRF54, which can lower the active power to 200 mW. We also have end to end IoT solution to collect sensor data from Wi-Fi Halow nodes.

1 Like