WiFi meshed network - how to join strongest AP in STA mode?

[lerebel103@gmail.com]

Hi,

How do I make sure the strongest AP is selected when joining a WiFi meshed network in STA mode please?

I am seeing ESP32 locking to APs with poor signals (RSSI -87dB) when closer and better APs are well in range (RSSI -62dB). I did confirm this by doing an active scan and dumping the found APs and RSSIs just before joining the WiFi, and then seeing esp_wifi_connect() lock onto an AP with a poor signal immediately after the scan.

I am using these parameters:

Code: Select all

    wifi_sta_config.sta.scan_method = WIFI_ALL_CHANNEL_SCAN;
    wifi_sta_config.sta.sort_method = WIFI_CONNECT_AP_BY_SIGNAL;

What am I doing wrong, I would have thought that WIFI_CONNECT_AP_BY_SIGNAL should select the best AP? Is it because the SSID is hidden in my case perhaps? The mesh we are associating to from ESP32 is based on an industrial grade Cisco Aironet 1552 mesh network:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/ ... 37788.html

We would also like further information on the algorithm Espressif uses when needing to associate to a hidden SSID on multiple APs. Unfortunately the ESP32 wifi documentation is limited and this part of the behaviour is not in the available source-code.

Thanks,
Will.

[ESP_yudong]

Hi,
You are using ESP32 as a standard wifi station rather than mesh station, and the mesh network is not built with esp32, right?
It would be better if you could provide some logs.

[lerebel103@gmail.com]

Thanks for that, I am using ESP32 as STA agains a Cisco meshed network. I can occasionally see ESP32 join weaker APs as described and can't explain this behaviour. I don't have any logs to share at present but will do if I can organise this. Thanks.

[vonnieda]

The only way I have found to ensure connecting to the strongest AP is to perform a site scan and then connect to the strongest using BSSID instead of SSID.

Jason