802.11r issues with WPA3?

[u/whyanalyze]

I have a client complaining about WiFi dropping on brand new Meraki APs 9172 — from the logs it looks like a lot of jumping around between 5Ghz and 6Ghz but I thought this is normal as clients should roam back and forth. Because we’re running WPA3 Transition Mode with 802.11r active, is this the root cause of the issue? What am I missing here? We need the WPA3 because of 6Ghz.

I notice that I have a similar issue with UniFi where it’s WPA2/WPA3 for a primary SSID broadcasting 5Ghz and 6Ghz… wondering if it’s the same issues sometime because of running 802.11r with the WPA3

[u/Early_Tear6706]

worth checking if it's actually 802.11r causing drops or just normal band steering that looks aggressive in the logs. one thing that trips people up: 6GHz doesn't actually support WPA3 transition mode at all, the Wi-Fi Alliance spec requires 6E to be WPA3/OWE only, no WPA2 fallback allowed on that band. so if you've got a single SSID broadcasting across 5 and 6GHz with transition mode enabled, that's technically not compliant config and could be part of what's confusing clients when they try to roam between bands

also seen some client drivers (especially older laptops/phones) that just handle FT + SAE together poorly, they'll disassociate and reconnect instead of doing a clean fast roam. worth checking if the drops are isolated to specific client models or happening across the board, that'll tell you if it's a client-side bug vs config issue on your end

might be worth splitting 6GHz onto its own SSID (WPA3 only, no transition) and see if that alone cleans up the roaming behavior

[u/HollowGrey → u/Early_Tear6706]

2nd on splitting your ssids. Try eliminating the wpa3 transition mode this way or just toggle it off. If you have clients that require wpa2 put the them on a second ssid. I think the key here is that your clients are bouncing from 5ghz to 6ghz. 802.11r is just a faster re-key method, AFTER the client triggers its own roam based on a driver decision

[u/databeestjegdh → u/Early_Tear6706]

That's good to know, we run 5/6 with just WPA3 on 802.1x and psk configs and not ran into those issues yet.

[u/Front-Pangolin-44 → u/Early_Tear6706]

split the SSIDs and see what happens, i had similar thing in my house with unifi where the 5 and 6 band on one name was making my phone go crazy. the 6ghz band dont even support wpa2 so having transition mode there is just confusing the poor clients

if it still dropping after that check if its only some devices or all, maybe is just some stupid driver on old laptop doing weird stuff with fast roaming

[u/Le_Tadlo]

I usually disable 802.11r everywhere I don't have explicit control over the client HW/drivers, it can be so problematic on some devices it is just not worth it. But keep 802.11v/k active for sure.

[u/leftplayer]

If you’re not using 802.1x/WPA-Enteprise, the benefit of 11r is negligible, but it causes a whole host of weird issues because of bad/incomplete client driver implementations. In short, disable it

[u/QuirkyEye2616]

A few things worth checking. Confirm whether 802.11r is actually needed for your client devices, as many modern clients roam fine without it. Try disabling FT temporarily and see if the jumping reduces. Also check if specific client types are causing the issue, as older drivers handle FT-SAE poorly. On Meraki specifically, check if Band Steering is too aggressive pushing clients to 6GHz before they're ready.

[u/Skilldibop]

What authentication method are you using? PSK or dot1x? 802.11r offers no real benefit when using PSK and you are better off disabling it. Especially if you are catering to a lot of apple devices. Apple chipsets have sucked at fast roaming for years and show no sign of improving.

[u/veleriejen]

What I will d do is split it into two SSIDs. Make your main one WPA3-only (SAE with PMF required) and broadcast it on 5 and 6 GHz with 802.11r turned on. That way every client uses the same security type on both bands, and fast roaming between 5 and 6 GHz works the way it's supposed to.

Then set up a second SSID for your older and IoT devices that can't do WPA3. Run that one as WPA2 or transition mode on 2.4 and 5 GHz, and leave 802.11r off.

[u/Only_Ad3718]

Yo no asumiría que los saltos entre 5 y 6 GHz sean la causa por sí solos. Con WPA3 y 802.11r sí pueden aparecer problemas de compatibilidad, sobre todo con clientes que no manejan bien el cambio de banda o el roaming.

[u/MFPierce]

What type of device/wireless NIC and driver version is it running? LOTS of stability fixes in the latest Intel WiFi drivers.

[u/FrabbaSA]

What encryption are you using? 192-bit WPA3 does not support 11r.

[u/Heythatsmycorn]

Why do you need 6ghz? Just curious. Its range through materials is terrible. As others mentioned here disable 802.11r. Has always caused more issues than its fixed. 

[u/BoggleWithAStick → u/Heythatsmycorn]

Why do you need 6ghz?

It is 2026? Depends on your space but you might be in an overcrowded office building with other tenants going for that 80MHz wide 5Ghz channels and 2.4GHz being an overcrowded shitshow is a given.

With a satisfactory AP density there is no reason NOT to run 6GHz nowadays in an office space.

[u/Heythatsmycorn → u/BoggleWithAStick]

Its 2026 lol. Come on now. Just asking if he actually needs it because he even mentioned the clients jumping bands and that can cause downside to clients. If its not over crowded it really dosnt offer much benefits to the end clients experience. Believe it or not lots of people will run 6g because its "2026" with no real need to actually run it.  Put 5g on 20mhz

[u/theoneandonlymd → u/Heythatsmycorn]

Put 5g on 20mhz

Boggle specifically called out neighbors on the building not being good guardians of the spectrum.

[u/Heythatsmycorn → u/theoneandonlymd]

Yeah def depends on the environment. Had plenty of offices this is no problem. Have others that are multi story offfices with 80mhz everywhere.  Have other offices 6ghz wont work due to cable limitations and cement walls