Two different subnets, one SSID

Question

I have an interesting network configuration challenge. I have an installation on a house that has 2 different Internet access points: One is through satellite, and it is OK when there are not many connections. The second is through a 3G modem. Since the ISP 3G signal is not always OK, they keep both ISP providers.

The installation has 4 routers connected between them through Ethernet. All 4 give Wi-Fi access to different devices. One of these 4 routers is connected to the satellite ISP, other to the 3G ISP. There are 2 additional routers configured as network Wi-Fi extenders.

Right now the 2 ISPs are not working at the same time. I have one on, and if it has a problem I change the entire configuration of the network to switch it to the other.

The routers connected to the ISP gateways are far apart.

What I want to do is to configure the network in such way that users can use either of the ISPs. My idea is to give all the 4 routers the same SSID, channel and security configuration but have them in different IP networks and different gateways and two different DHCP. The user can walk around with the iPad and he gets the IP address and ISP gateway from the network with best signal, but since the SSID, channel and sec conf are the same for both networks, the user won't notice.

Would this work?

Answer 1

As long as the typical user doesn't move between cells with different gateways this would be unnoticeable to the user. If the users do tend to be mobile, then any streaming service will have to be restarted at the time of reconnection. Which may not be of any consequence since changing WAPs interrupts service anyway.

The only way to make it seem less is to make it invisible to the user. Bridge the two segments and assign all APs the same BSSID data. That way the user's device doesn't even renegotiate.