Roaming and probe responses with remote radio heads

A computer program product, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to:
• receive a first probe request from a network device at a first set of a plurality of radio heads on a first channel of a Wi-Fi network, wherein the plurality of radio heads is coupled to a central controller and establish the Wi-Fi network;
• generate, by the central controller, network information for the first set of the plurality of radio heads based on the first probe request;
• calculate first respective metric values for the first set of the plurality of radio heads based on the network information;
• calculate second respective metric values for a second set of the plurality of radio heads based on receiving a plurality of frames from the network device using the second set of the plurality of radio heads before the first set of the plurality of radio heads receive the first probe request;
• select at least one radio head from the first and the second sets of the plurality of radio heads based on comparing the first and second respective metric values;
• and
• send at least one probe response to the network device in response to the first probe request using the selected radio head from the first set, wherein unselected radio heads in the first plurality of radio heads do not respond to the first probe request.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a first probe request from a network device at a first set of a plurality of radio heads on a first channel of a Wi-Fi network, wherein the plurality of radio heads is coupled to a central controller and establish the Wi-Fi network;
• generating, by the central controller, network information for the first set of the plurality of radio heads based on the first probe request;
• calculating first respective metric values for the first set of the plurality of radio heads based on the network information;
• calculating second respective metric values for a second set of the plurality of radio heads based on receiving a plurality of frames from the network device using the second set of the plurality of radio heads before the first set of the plurality of radio heads receive the first probe request;
• selecting at least one radio head from the first and the second sets of the plurality of radio heads based on comparing the first and second respective metric values;
• and
• sending at least one probe response to the network device in response to the first probe request using the selected radio head from the first set, wherein unselected radio heads in the first plurality of radio heads do not respond to the first probe request.