Wireless Access

We use AP 105s and we have a very dense enviornment (Higher Ed, 90% wireless) 

How many concurrent users can each AP have before you start seeing network speeds drop?

This is assuming all clients are Wireless N (or AC) we provide the laptops as part of tuition. 

I swear I saw a stat posted about this somewhere that said after like 20 clients the speed drops x% per additional Client. 

It depends on several things:

- What type of devices ? How green is your environment ? if you mainly have devices that transfer a high rates this will allow every to have a better share of the medium

- If you have a lot of APs interfering with each other 

- What type of applications are these devices using ?

- And also what's the speed between your AP all the way to your Distribution/Core switch

- If all these I mentioned above are good then you will an impacted performance around 25-35 Clients 

We have laptops and phones. No strange printers running wireless B or anything.

We have a lot of APs. Very dense enviornment. at any time we have around 20-40 clients connected to each AP. We have our power on the APs set low to try not to overlap too much. But there is going to be overlap. 

We have TWO SSIDs, everything terminates back to a single controller (Master/Backup) setup. 

We use Aruba Mobility switch stack, with the 10G fiber to the controller from two different members of the stack. (Fiber between the stack as well) Meaning the limiting factor is 1G between the AP and Switches.

I don't know what you mean by 'how green is your environment' I am assuming I fall within the metrics you are describing.

After 25-35 clients, what sort of degredation are we looking at? 

Green environment is that most of your clients use 802.11n and up and support 802.11an or ac

In terms of the expected performance it will depend on what the user or users are trying to do:

- If you have a lot of phones connected to your APs if you have enable WMM and this is also supported on your Phones these will take priority based on Access Category (AC) vs your Laptops..You should probably need to take a look at the CAC profile under VAP and make sure you have between 8-12 active calls. 

- If you have devices trying to transfer large amount of data when you have a very load AP thats going impact performance.

- Do you have ClientMatch this will help with load balancing clients across different radios ?

http://www.summitdata.com/blog/wi-fi-and-greenfield-mode-functionality/

I didn't specify this and I'm sorry. The phones I meant are Mobile Phones. We do not use Wireless VOIP. All of our VOIP phones are directly connected to infrastructure. 

Our Wireless is used mostly by students. 

Student uses would include streaming video, uploads/downloading files from classes, Web browsing, email, online gaming. 

We actually have Legacy Mode disabled, and haven't heard a complaint about it yet. 

My concern is that we have classrooms with two APs right now. And at this point I am seeing 40-50 clients connecting to those APs. And during those class times I get a few complaints of speeds. 

We do have Client Match enabled. 

How many seats do you have in that room ?

You should consider reading this :

http://www.arubanetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/DG_HighDensity_VRD.pdf 

This is not resolved yet, I have undo it ...by mistake clicked on the accepted solution when trying to click on the reply button..

There are 30 seats in the room. 

I will take a look at that VRD, it's actually a really great idea to go back over it. I haven't looked at that specific VRD in like 8 months. 

The original question is mostly driven due to budget being revised for the new year.

If you are looking at your budget , you should probably consider adding an AP that has more capacity for rooms that you are expecting a good amount of users

If you stay with the 105 you may need to add an additional AP so clients can be distributed properly.

But that document will give a good idea of how to tackle this .

Do you recommend other APs? AP 105s are the only thing Ive ever actually touched so I don't have experience outside them.

Is there a justification for the higher cost? I assume you can make the argument more users per available channel. 

You should reach out to your Local Aruba Sales to give more details about this.

Aruba AP225's or the AP205's which is the "ac" version of the AP105s.

See this threads:

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Technology-Blog/Aruba-802-11ac-Outperforms-Cisco-up-to-4-6x-in-multi-client/ba-p/119545

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Unified-Wired-Wireless-Access/Upgrading-from-AP-105-Recommend-AP-225-or-AP115/m-p/144927/highlight/true#M30882

You should reach out to your Local Aruba Sales to give more details about this.

Aruba AP225's or the AP205's which is sort of like "ac" version of the AP105s.

See this threads:

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Technology-Blog/Aruba-802-11ac-Outperforms-Cisco-up-to-4-6x-in-multi-client/ba-p/119545

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Unified-Wired-Wireless-Access/Upgrading-from-AP-105-Recommend-AP-225-or-AP115/m-p/144927/highlight/true#M30882