wpa_supplicant bouncing between AP nodes

[Mark Pearson]

Hi all,

I have a customer issue where they are running Ubuntu 24.04 and at their office site finding that their system is bouncing between AP nodes in the office mesh.

I have full logs if useful, but it looks to me like wpa_supplicant is being perhaps over aggressive in switching between nodes when looking for better throughput.
e.g. in below switches from ba:ee to b7:ee to ba:ee to b7:ee in less than a minute.

Jul 01 09:57:19 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Considering within-ESS reassociation
Jul 01 09:57:19 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Current BSS: a4:00:4e:05:ba:ee freq=5680 level=-66 snr=26 est_throughput=324302
Jul 01 09:57:19 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Selected BSS: a4:00:4e:05:b7:ee freq=5280 level=-65 snr=27 est_throughput=331502
Jul 01 09:57:19 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Using signal poll values for the current BSS: level=-66 snr=26 est_throughput=324302
Jul 01 09:57:19 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Allow reassociation - selected BSS has better estimated throughput

Jul 01 09:57:53 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Considering within-ESS reassociation
Jul 01 09:57:53 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Current BSS: a4:00:4e:05:b7:ee freq=5280 level=-66 snr=26 est_throughput=324302
Jul 01 09:57:53 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Selected BSS: a4:00:4e:05:ba:ee freq=5680 level=-65 snr=27 est_throughput=331502
Jul 01 09:57:53 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Using signal poll values for the current BSS: level=-66 snr=26 est_throughput=324302
Jul 01 09:57:53 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Allow reassociation - selected BSS has better estimated throughput

Jul 01 09:58:26 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Considering within-ESS reassociation
Jul 01 09:58:26 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Current BSS: a4:00:4e:05:ba:ee freq=5680 level=-66 snr=26 est_throughput=324302
Jul 01 09:58:26 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Selected BSS: a4:00:4e:05:b7:ee freq=5280 level=-62 snr=30 est_throughput=353102
Jul 01 09:58:26 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Using signal poll values for the current BSS: level=-67 snr=25 est_throughput=306252
Jul 01 09:58:26 ccalifan-l-pw0la38t wpa_supplicant[3444710]: wlp9s0f0: Allow reassociation - selected BSS has better estimated throughput

Is this 'normal' and are there any recommendations on how to avoid this?

Thanks
Mark