wireless network with seamless roaming with APs from different vendors

Question

I've been reading about seamless roaming and IEEE 802.11k/v/r standards, but from a practical point of view it is not clear to me.

I want to deploy a set of access points, all connected between themself through Ethernet, so that they guarantee seamless roaming of the clients connected to the WLAN. Moreover, I do not want to be stuck on a single vendor to do that.

My questions are:

1. Can I achieve this by using APs from different vendors?
2. If yes, when selecting HW, what should I look for to guarantee interoperability? Support for IEEE 802.11k/v/r? Conformance to IEEE 802.11-2012?

Answer 1

Can I achieve this by using APs from different vendors?

Possibly, but the problems you will face in working out interoperability issues will likely far exceed whatever disadvantages there are from using one vendor. In other words, it will be easier, cheaper, and more reliable to use a single vendor's solution.

Most wireless vendors use a centralized controller and "dumb" APs to coordinate roaming, channel selection, power levels, etc. Because enterprise wireless products are designed to work for an entire enterprise, there's little incentive for vendors to design their systems to interoperate with others.