We are manufacturers of home security and automation products. Over the last few years, we have become more dependent on app development and mobile devices. We are experiencing an issue that I am hoping to get some guidance on.
As part of a new product we are creating, we need to utilize a private Access Point (AP) network generated by our device to configure it to connect to a Wi-Fi network. This network is a straightforward 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network generated from our product's Wi-Fi module. It is IPv4 and utilizes DHCP for a limited number of leases. This network is only temporary and is used solely for configuring the device, similar to the setup of a Wi-Fi repeater. However, we do not have a built-in Web Server; we utilize an app to make the configurations.
The issue we are encountering is that iOS seems to take 60 seconds or more to allow local traffic on the AP network once we connect. It establishes the connection quickly and indicates no internet access, which is correct. Then, observing the mobile device, you can see that the "Wi-Fi Icon" does not appear in the status bar at the top of the phone for a prolonged period. During this time, iOS doesn't permit us to discover our device. We broadcast a discovery message on the private AP to prompt our device to respond, allowing us to establish a connection and initiate the configuration. If we attempt discovery during this "verification" period, our app doesn't get a response from the device, leading to confusion for our customers as they are connected to the device that is not responding.
My question is: Is there a document or guideline available that we can follow to enhance the functionality of our network with iOS? Is there a way to inform iOS that we are a private AP without internet access? It appears that the time we are waiting corresponds to iOS exhausting its measures to confirm internet connectivity.
This seems to isolated to iOS, we are not seeing this with other mobile devices.
Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Mike