A plant WLAN requires fast transition. Newer phones roam quickly. Older scanners that do not support fast transition cannot associate at all. What does the requirement do to those scanners?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Required means the scanners are not invited to join slowly. They are turned away. Your phones can do fast transition and the scanners cannot, so the scanners never associate, and the requirement has to match the devices you still have.
Full Explanation
When fast transition is required, a client that does not support it cannot complete association. The older scanners are refused, not merely given a slower roam. Required is not optional at join time. The WLAN does not convert those scanners to open authentication. They do not get a passwordless fallback. Hiding the SSID is a separate setting. It does not apply only to clients that lack fast transition, and it does not explain a phone that can still roam. Fast transition is required. Scanners that do not support it cannot associate at all. The fix is not to require it, or to replace the scanners. Check one live client after the change and do not retune the rest of the floor until that client matches the result you expected. Exam caveat: an adaptive or mixed fast-transition mode can let older clients associate while newer clients still use fast roams. Required mode is the choice that locks the scanners out. Operational check: watch a scanner try to join, confirm it fails before it has a session, and confirm a phone that supports fast transition still gets on.