2 SSIDs broadcasting on a single BSSID

[Michael McNamara]

I ran into an interesting problem last week where the Apple iPad/iPad2 wouldn't connect to the public network at one of our facilities.

At this facility we have a pair of Motorola RFS7000s (v4.3.4) running with 79 AP650s. There were some legacy SSIDs/WLANs that we needed to maintain so we ended up deploying two SSIDs/WLANs on a single BSSID and left both of them configured so their were broadcasting/advertising.

The Apple iPad/iPad2 didn't like this at all... users should complain that the iPad would jump back and forth between the two WLAN names. If the two SSIDs were "alpha" and "beta" and the users tried to connect to "alpha" the iPad would change the SSID name to "beta" as they would try to connect and fail to connect.

Once I removed the broadcast/advertise flag off one of the SSIDs then everything worked properly.

It is legal to have two SSIDs on a single BSSID and both broadcasting/advertising?

Cheers!

[twpolk]

I have found that you can only have 1 broadcasting on the same BSSID - If you want them both to broadcase then you need to use advanced mode and add the secondary SSID to a second BSSID

[Flintstone]

I was also under the impression that each SSID needs a separate BSSID?

CheerZ

[Michael McNamara]

I was also under the impression that each SSID needs a separate BSSID?

No, you can definitely have multiple SSIDs on a single BSSID.

Motorola supports 4 BSSIDs and 16 SSIDs per radio (on the AP300). I believe the issue is that you can't have more than a single SSID broadcasting on a BSSID.

I couldn't find the specs on the AP650 but I did find specs on the AP-6511 which say 8 BSSIDs.

I was just surprised that the Motorola interface allowed me to make that configuration.

Cheers!

[Peter Nguyen]

I am using Aruba Wireless.  It will not allow me to configure multiple SSIDs on a single VLAN, but it will do the other way, single SSIDs on a multiple VLANs.

Does each VLAN have a unique BSSID?

Regards,
P.

P.s Just checked my controller, to verify: Yes, I can do multiple SSIDs on a single VLAN, but I can not install multi SSIDs/single VLAN on an AP. 
Another words: two APs can broadcast the same SSIDs, but on different VLANs.   

[Michael McNamara]

I know that on a Cisco AP 1200 series you couldn't associate multiple WLANs with a single VLAN (bridge group).

This is not the case with the Motorola Wireless LAN Switches, you can associate multiple WLANs with a single VLAN, you can also associate multiple VLANS with a single WLAN to provide client load-balancing across multiple IP networks.

The issue here is more around having multiple SSIDs broadcasting on a single BSSID. It can freak out a MU (Mobile Unit) when it see's the SSID name of the BSSID change every time it broadcasts. I believe that was the issue with the Apple iPADs.

Thanks for the reply!

[cashxx]

I was also under the impression that each SSID needs a separate BSSID?

No, you can definitely have multiple SSIDs on a single BSSID.

Motorola supports 4 BSSIDs and 16 SSIDs per radio (on the AP300). I believe the issue is that you can't have more than a single SSID broadcasting on a BSSID.

I couldn't find the specs on the AP650 but I did find specs on the AP-6511 which say 8 BSSIDs.

I was just surprised that the Motorola interface allowed me to make that configuration.

Cheers!

So just to clear everything up here........you can have multiple ESSIDs on a single BSSID, but the Apple iOS in iPhones and iPads have an issue with this.  So this is a bug in Apple's iOS that needs fixed then?

Just want to make sure before I start getting on Apple about this, should have been fixed by now if it is the "correct" way of setting up a Wireless infrastructure with a BSSID with multiple ESSIDs.