802.11r – the one that made roaming not suck

IEEE Std 802.11r-2008, aka Amendment 10, was all about keeping things moving – literally. built by **Task Group r** and released in 2008, this one tackled a long-standing Wi-Fi pain point: roaming between access points without your call dropping or your video freezing mid-sentence.

before 11r, moving between APs – even on the same network – was slow. every time you switched, your device had to go through full re-authentication and key exchange like it was meeting the network for the first time. 802.11r fixed that with what it called **Fast BSS Transition (FT)**.

FT basically let your device pre-negotiate authentication and encryption keys before it moved to a new AP. so when you actually made the jump, it was fast – like under 50 milliseconds fast. perfect for **VoIP, video calls, gaming**, and anything where "buffering" is a dirty word.

the tech behind it included stuff like the **Mobility Domain Element (MDE)** and the **Neighbor Report Element**. these let devices and APs talk ahead of time, exchange info about which APs are nearby, and prep the credentials needed to switch without stalling. smart handoffs became possible, not just hopeful.

as with other post-2007 updates, 11r got folded into the **802.11-2012** revision, and stayed strong in 2016 and 2020. if you’re walking through an office or airport and your Zoom call doesn’t drop – thank 802.11r for that seamless handoff.

802.11r didn’t make Wi-Fi faster – it made it smoother. roaming finally felt like a handover, not a hard reset.