How to properly set up simmilar WiFi APs with different internet access?

Question

Good evening.

I've set up some configurations in the past which seem simmilar to the question, like setting a WiFi repeater for a WiFi AP, or connecting throuhg LAN a WiFi enabled router to another WiFi enabled router with internet access so the first one extends the WiFi network.

But this time I have several WiFi enabled 3G routers which obviously have an independent 3G internet connection each one. Every router will be on a separate floor so:

• they can't be connected between them through LAN
• they normally don't see themselves through WiFi, or they do it with a very low signal power
• clients on a floor usually can only reach the signal from one single router, but...
• ocasionally a client can see a network from other floor and even stupidly try to connect to it, despite its low signal
• even in a future it may be necessary to place more than one single router in a wide area, so the set up must be valid with a client seeing thwo routers offering a simmilar WiFi network

I want to set them up so the clients must configure its WiFi connection only once, and their phone will roam transparently from one WiFi to the next most powerful one.

Can I reach that if every router has its own network, maybe using the same IP range with DHCP inside its network, and every router has an own internet access, maybe using a different gateway configuration, maybe using the same? Will the transparent WiFi-to-WiFi-roaming behavior only work when the routers are really creating a unique interconnected network? If so, which are the problems I will face? How will the roaming process be?

I am open to modification proposals but I am also interested in understanding in detail this scenario since I am conscious I don't really understand what will happen in this scenario and it's a lack in my networking knowledge.

Regards.

Answer 1

I finally gathered that the requirement for this scenario is the described below:

On the clients side, the WiFi enabled devices connecting to that network should support the 802.11r standard for WiFi roaming, so they will be able to take in account the existence of several WiFi networks matching its known configuration and decide, based on their implementation criteria, to which connect and even to roam from one to another if they consider it to be advantageous. Otherwise, they will connect to any of both and then will only connect to other after loosing its connection to the first network.

On the router side, all the networks could be set up to use the same channel so the devices could perform the network switch process much quicker than if they will require a channel switch - although that's not always recommendend since if there are several WiFi networks converging in the same point, signal stability will be compromised because of band saturation.