Hi,
im running 2 CAP ACs with CAPSman (CAP 7.14.1 - wireless package, Capsman 7.14. RB5009), and I noticed, that some clients in my IoT Network, are not choosing the AP, which is providing the best signal/noise ratio (in my opinion).
Best example is the AC unit (below listed as item #7), which is in the same room as the upstairs AP (mounted on the wall near the ceiling, the AC on the wall opposite to the AP). The other AP is located in the floor below, almost in the same spot (neat the ceiling, on the wall). Another example (Item #25) is a Smart Plug, in the next room ("behind") the AP. This Client also chooses the downstairs AP, with a RSSI of -85, instead of the one in the next room.

# INTERFACE SSID MAC-ADDRESS UPTIME RX-SIGNAL
7 IoT 2.4Ghz-AP1-1 IoT [REDACTED] 7h44m5s660ms -52
25 IoT 2.4Ghz-AP1-1 IoT [REDACTED] 7h10m58s300ms -49

I already reduced the TX power to 10, to "force" the clients to move to a better AP (which is more in range).
Both 2.4Ghz APs (with SSID "IoT") are transmitting with 8dbm Gain.
TX CCQ ist between 86% and 93%
Still Clients stay at RSSI levels between -80 and -90, not switching to the "better" AP.

CapsMan config is still the "old" way (before 7.13). I can see only "RX-Signal".. the RSSI Level I have to check on the client itself, which hugely differs (-49dbm RX -> RSSI -85dbm).
I read, that if a client should only connect to this particular AP, it's recommended to have different SSIDs setup, and assign the clients to these SSID.
Would relocating the APs do any difference? I can't understand, why there's barely a client connecting to the upstairs AP, even from my understanding, clients in proximity should choose it.

Thanks for your help.

Are the radios transmitting on different channels (preferably 2412, 2437 and/or 2462)?
My experience is that the channels are equal when all (my) access points are provisioned at the same time.

I'm running an RB4011 in combination with 2x cAP XL ac and 1x wAP ac. The upgrade to the wifi-qcom-ac driver is hughly recommended, performance is better and it has support for 802.11 k/r/v. And the latter will help supporting clients to select the best radio.

Hi, thanks for your reply and that you share your experience on this.

Are the radios transmitting on different channels (preferably 2412, 2437 and/or 2462)?
My experience is that the channels are equal when all (my) access points are provisioned at the same time.

yes they are.
I'm planning to migrate to new wifi-capsman (qcom-ac package), but read mixed reviews about it (at least for 7.14 - VLANs not working properly (bridge filtering), huge packetloss issues, radios not assigning channels). Not sure if I'm waiting until this has been ironed out.

Legacy wireless does not provide any of the standards that improve roaming. It is so dumb, that clients rather stick to the connected AP until the connection drops because of signal loss instead of roaming below eg. -80. The best you can do is create some access list rules to block clients in certain signal range on radio1, so they are forced to connect/move to radio2. But with certain "downtime" between.
Back in the wireless days I was tinkering some days for my home setup until I had a decent ruleset and it worked okayish.

Then wifi-qcom-ac arrived. No more access lists and roaming is so much better than anything you could ever achieve with all these "reduce tx power"/access list and whatever clumsy techniques.

I'm planning to migrate to new wifi-capsman (qcom-ac package), but read mixed reviews about it (at least for 7.14 - VLANs not working properly (bridge filtering), huge packetloss issues, radios not assigning channels). Not sure if I'm waiting until this has been ironed out.

The nice thing is that you can give it a try easily: on the CAPsMAN you can run both legacy and v2. Only the CAP has to have some manual adjustments for supporting VLAN.

I run this on two sites...no pain at all. But it all comes down to a proper config.