Hello, My two cents:
As people have already pointed out, the limiting factors are the overhead from beacons as well as responses to client probe requests. When you consider that each BSSID will be transmitting beacon frames as well as responding to client probe requests (and each AP will respond simultaneously to these probes typically), and that in a typical deployment you have multiple overlapping AP coverage areas (especially in 2.4GHz with greater penetration, which also has only three non-overlapping channels).... you get the point. The overhead from this traffic can add up very quickly. That being said, depending on 1.) how many APs are overlapping in a given area and 2.) whether or not all of the APs are set on the same channel or not in a given area and 3.) the number of clients in the area, we have found that 4-6 SSIDs is where noticeable performance drop-off begins occurring. Hope that helps. Greg Williams Product Manager 415.203.5630 meraki.com ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
