Asus AiMesh technology 802.11kv detected but no 802.11r

[ankhazam]

Hey,
I did some digging through the forums and Asus' AX routers specifications and admit failure in finding any reliable pieces of information. Hence this topic.
So I have an RT-AX88U running 388 with 2 aimesh nodes RP-AX56 (on their latest 386) firmware

I have ran a spectrum scan using the following tool https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html which according to its documentation " Version 2.15: Added '802.11 Standards' column, which displays the 802.11 Standards that the access point supports: 802.11d, 802.11e, 802.11h, 802.11i, 802.11k, 802.11r, and more..."

EDIT: The NirSoft tool above fails to detect 802.11kv on Windows for whatever reason. But WinFi tool detects them properly.

Hence only 802.11r is apparently missing at the moment.

 

[Tech9]

802.11k/v must be supported, no 802.11r when I checked lately. What superior AiMesh products? There are better "mesh" products even on the consumer market. Controller managed SMB multi-AP systems also outperform AiMesh in both throughput and roaming, plus much more control, plus VLANs.

More:

Roaming Assistant, AiMesh, and 802.11k and 802.11v

Miscellaneous AiMesh musings... AiMesh notes: *AiMesh supports the 802.11k/v standard. I wonder if this support is independent from using Roaming Assistant, which I believe was available before 802.11k/v support? My clients roam fine with RA disabled... and I think I would still want them to...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Matthew Patrick]

802.11kv is enabled even on single router mode (AC86U). Probably because I have smart connect band steering. But yeah no 802.11r . Idk why though.

 

[ankhazam]

802.11kv is enabled even on single router mode (AC86U). Probably because I have smart connect band steering. But yeah no 802.11r . Idk why though.

Does it show up for you in this tool? Doesn't show up on my AX200 W10

 

[Matthew Patrick]

Does it show up for you in this tool? Doesn't show up on my AX200 W10

I'm using a MacBook and i have a different software that can see those things. I haven't found an app that shows those info on Android though.. Here's what my AC86U with Smart Connect Band Steering shows on my MacBook

 

[fracarvic]

With my RT-AX92U NirSoft tool doesn't show kv enabled, but with WinFi tool yes, kv but no r.

 

[ankhazam]

Ok, same here for my AX88U, which I guess closes my doubts... but why no 802.11r?

 

[tgl]

but why no 802.11r?

I have no inside info on ASUS' thought process ... but I read wikipedia's article on 802.11r, which states that it has serious security problems. It wouldn't surprise me if they're not supporting it because of that. I notice that my Zyxel gear also supports k and v but not r.

 

[thiggins]

You generally don't see 11r implemented on consumer gear because it usually works with 802.11x authentication. This requires support on the STA side and also usually requires a RADIUS server.

11r is mainly needed for voice and VoIP applications like in some hospital communication systems. It has no real value for home systems.

It also could be that the AP won't advertise 11r unless it sees that a STA supports it. But I think it is more likely the first reason.

 

[ankhazam]

And that's an epic answer! Thanks! Then I might try to go 802.11x for my main network over the holidays

 

[sfx2000]

You generally don't see 11r implemented on consumer gear because it usually works with 802.11x authentication. This requires support on the STA side and also usually requires a RADIUS server.

11r is mainly needed for voice and VoIP applications like in some hospital communication systems. It has no real value for home systems.

11r does require inter access point support - e.g. the DS, and yes, usually radius...

I see it on many hospitality networks - hotels, coffee shops, airports - not guest facing, but back of house to secure and extend their VLAN for wireless and wired connectivity.

Do note that VoWiFi doesn't need 11r - that's an IPSeC tunnel to the carrier's IMS core...

 

[Tech9]

secure and extend their VLAN for wireless and wired connectivity

The way my business networks are set. Device authentication for LAN and WLAN.

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

I had a "discussion" on handover between ASUS devices with chatgpt.

Got the surprising answer that ASUS devices supporting 802.11k and v, also support 802.11r in a limited way PROVIDED that the devices are using WPA2/WPA3 authentication. WITHOUT a separate RADIUS server. This limited support should according to chatgpt be used to store the wifi password and thus make transition between devices faster. Is this really correct? And where did chatgpt get the information?

I am very suspicious about some of the answers / solutions provided by chatgpt since I have received answers that are sometimes completely wrong.

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

Anyone?

 

[tgl]

Since my last post in this thread, I've switched to UniFi APs, and I'm interested to see that they do claim to support 802.11r, whether or not you're using RADIUS authentication. Re-reading wikipedia's article on 802.11r, it seems like there is some gain to be had by parallelizing some of the reassociation steps even if you are not using 802.1X (ie RADIUS).

Whether this is true for ASUS, I have no idea. Did you try asking that bot for its sources?