AP that will support 30+ clients

[acole1]

I currently have a Cisco Aironet 1200 that has been seeing 15-30 concurrent clients. Users are generally light internet users (phones, tablets), but we have been seeing lots of situations with bad signal, dropped connections and poor speed, so I'm looking to improve that.

There are two APs in the building that cover everything signal-wise, but one takes the brunt (95%) of the clients because of it's location. I noticed on the 1200's Q&A page they recommend a maximum of 24 concurrent users.

Is there a more modern AP that would support 30+ concurrent users, or do I just need to back the signal strength off and add more APs? The 2nd option would obviously require a LOT of work.

No need (currently) for 5GHz or N. The 2.4 spectrum is very clear at this location -- no other APs within signal range. Trying to not break the bank, but still trying to get an idea of what price range is reasonable. $150? $500? $2k?

 

[drebo]

Correct solution is less signal and more APs.

There isn't really any other option.

 

[skyking]

Correct solution is less signal and more APs.

There isn't really any other option.

bingo
far too many concurrent connections on one radio.

 

[gsaldivar]

Assuming plain 802.11g and no other AP interference:

Isn't there an AP out there that has like 6 different radios on board?

That way, you could specify different channels for each radio and maintain a bit of separation between each. Wouldn't the number of possible clients from that AP increase dramatically?

(i.e... 10 clients on channel #1 + 10 clients on channel #3 + 10 clients on channel #5...)

 

[gsaldivar]

bingo
far too many concurrent connections on one radio

Right, but not all AP's have only 1 radio.

 

[spidey07]

Right, but not all AP's have only 1 radio.

His has two but depending on model it has MIMO and the ability to handle many different transmit/receive streams. The problem OP is having is just how wireless works, you can't have that many on a single band/AP, the bandwidth gets overwhelmingly consumed from management frames and traffic. It's completely normal for this to happen and is expected from any AP. The solution is more APs on non-overlapping channels.

Or it could be an interference issue (microwaves, non wifi noise, bluetooth, etc), but 30 with even light traffic is too much. Best practice really is no more than 12-15 per AP. You even typically design wireless networks around this number of clients per AP and limit the number of clients an AP will allow.

I guess if you wanted to you could allow 15 on 2.4 Ghz and 15 on 5 Ghz, but that's really poor design/planning and kludging it when the real solution is MORE aps and lower the power on them to not interfere. That allows you to maintain consistently high data rates which actually allows MORE clients. The higher data rates don't consume as much bandwidth as the lower ones.

Cisco has brand new APs that are freaking amazing. The 3600. In those you can put a 3rd radio in, but that 3rd radio is for monitoring, spectrum analysis and threat mitigation and counterattack. This allows the two radios to constantly service clients. Very slick stuff.

 

[acole1]

Thanks for the help everyone!

Do you see any problems with adding 3 more 1200s and turning on WDS?

 

[spidey07]

Thanks for the help everyone!

Do you see any problems with adding 3 more 1200s and turning on WDS?

Are these IOS or lightweight? WDS on autonomous APs requires layer2 adjacency, but it works well. Since you'll have 4 APs just make sure your channel allocations on the 2.4 band 1,6,11 are good.

 

[acole1]

Thanks, they are IOS.

 

[drebo]

WDS isn't even necessary. Just set the SSID the same and the authentication the same and the clients will jump to the best AP anyway. Sure, it wont be seamless, but it'll work well.

 

[spidey07]

WDS isn't even necessary. Just set the SSID the same and the authentication the same and the clients will jump to the best AP anyway. Sure, it wont be seamless, but it'll work well.

Yeah, but doing WDS on them is just a few commands, it's easy.

 

[skyking]

No experience with cisco wireless, my understanding of WDS is one wired unit and others cascading off that. Is the cisco WDS a mesh with common authentication, but multiple wired AP's?

 

[spidey07]

No experience with cisco wireless, my understanding of WDS is one wired unit and others cascading off that. Is the cisco WDS a mesh with common authentication, but multiple wired AP's?

Yes. The APs cache credential and key information per user so no re-auth/re-key is needed when they roam.

 

[acole1]

I have been doing more reading and noticed the D-Link DAP-2553 "supports load-balancing features to ensure maximum performance by limiting the maximum number of users per Access Point."

Would it be easier/better to buy 3 of those (or a similar load balancing units) than to buy more 1200s, attempt to place them in the correct locations then tweak their power setting to create an evenly distributed coverage?

 

[DainBrammage]

Just read this entire thread, A few things: he says he has 1200's. What is the specific model?
i.e 1220 1231, 1242AG, 1242G. As Spidy says they may have two radios, BUT NONE of the 1200B,G or AG series supports MIMO. MIMO is only on N radios. Also the 1200 series is external antennae only. How many and what type of ants are on EACH AP? He also eludes that he is not using non-overlapping channels.

Definitely agree that more AP's less power is the way to go. But you need to tell us what type antennae you have installed and how they are oriented.