IEEE 802.11f
The IEEE 802.11f standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an extension of the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard adopted in June 2003 . It provides procedures for roaming clients between different access points according to the Inter Access Point Protocol (IAPP).
IEEE 802.11f made it possible to change your location within a large wireless network beyond the range of a single access point. In this context, roaming means that the network connection is transferred from one access point to the other without being interrupted.
The accepting access point informs the formerly operating access point (so-called handover request ), which then deletes the client from its station table. The new access point transmits this information with the source MAC address of the client so that existing switches in the LAN can find out about the new route and update their assignment table.
The standard was withdrawn in 2006 and replaced in 2008 by the IEEE 802.11r (Fast Handover: extension for VoiP) standard.
In 2012, 802.11r was finally combined with nine similar expansions and has since formed part of the IEEE 802.11-2012 standard.