That is a crazy story. How did they do it, just with managing cell size
and channels? I mean back in those days they only had 2.4 Ghtz. I have
heard of folks cranking down the power in tight big rooms and going with
a 4 channel plan. We have an event next weekend where we are going to
have 90 people in a 50' x 50' room and I am freaking out about that.
Maybe I shouldn't be.
I was planning on putting in 6 APs and having only 3 radios going on 2.4
to avoid co-channel interference.
John
On 4/21/2011 5:34 PM, Jonn Martell wrote:
Absolutely possible to have a huge number of active clients in a single room.
When I attended the IEEE plenary and interim meetings between 2001 and
2004, there were 500-800+ engineering types *all* with active laptops
all downloading the latest versions of working group drafts. Back
then, we started on 802.11b (DSSS) without the benefit of OFDM and
some of the newer technology in 802.11n (that's the technology there
were crafting up! :) ....
It all worked even if the people installing the APs were an outside
firm that did the site surveys when the rooms were empty! ;-) I was
shocked to be at IEEE 802.11 engineering meetings and seeing APs on
the floor. :) They fixed that in subsequent meetings but even with
the APs on the floor and a room full of humans, the stuff still
worked!
Now, when everyone downloaded these huge documents simultaneously "the
latest draft of TGi is up on the server..." when announced, the speed
would drop but still downloaded fairly fast considering the number of
people and temporary deployment of these meetings.
No special sauce needed, these were autonomous Cisco APs with standard
omni-directional antennas. There's a lot more you can do these days
to optimize your setup.
I wish we were allowed to take pictures! 700+ laptops all lined up
and active on a ballroom floor is quite the scene! All I could do was
stand at the back with a big smile on my face: "This stuff is
amazing"!
... Jonn Martell
On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 8:11 AM, Palmer J.D.F.
<j.d.f.pal...@swansea.ac.uk> wrote:
Hello,
I've been posed a tricky question by someone on a planning committee for
a new campus building.
"...is it actually feasible for 500 simultaneous WiFi connections in a
lecture room?"
I was hoping that there would be someone that might have experience of
answering (or providing a solution to) such a question who could offer
some input as to whether this is possible, or how close to the figure of
500 could we realistically achieve with the technology currently
available?
We are Cisco a site so ideally any solution would need to be one Cisco
is capable of delivering, but if there are other vendors that are proven
to be able to provide this kind of coverage to good effect, then I'd be
glad to hear of your experiences.
All the best,
Jezz Palmer.
-------------------------------------
Jezz Palmer
Library& Information Services
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea
SA2 8PP
-------------------------------------
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