Wireless Access

 View Only
last person joined: yesterday 

Access network design for branch, remote, outdoor, and campus locations with HPE Aruba Networking access points and mobility controllers.
Back to discussions
Expand all | Collapse all

Single Space + Alot of Clients

This thread has been viewed 20 times

  • 1.  Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 10:41 AM
    What is the best practice for providing coverage/throughput for a single space with a large amount of clients connected?

    School environment - so like in a lecture hall with up to 70 people (each obviously having 2-3 devices connected) ..............which is best practice, less large AP's or more small?  Also, these spaces aren't really that big, so if i'm putting multiple AP's in the room, they are going to be fairly close together - definitely less than 60' apart.


    ------------------------------
    Mike Robertson
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 11:01 AM
    Mike,

    I will speak from experience that we have typically had a lot of success with just 2 AP's in such spaces.  Most recently, we have been using the 315's and 515's.  

    Hope that helps.



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 11:08 AM
    Thanks, Jim - does the system do it's own thing and manage splitting users across the AP's or is there some configuration involved for that to work properly?

    Like I said - if i drop more than 1 AP in there - they will physically be probably 40 - 45 feet apart.

    ------------------------------
    Mike Robertson
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 11:30 AM
    Mike,

    Typically we would try to be consistent within the building.  For each building, we have a separate AP Group and within that AP Group we limit 2.4GHz to 20 and 40 MHz wide channels and adjust the Transmit EIRP range from 6 - 12 dBm.  On the 5.GHz side, we also limit to 20 and 40 MHz wide channels and adjust the Transmit EIRP range from 6 - 21 dBM.  Off hand, I don't recall much else other than recommended practices.




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 11:37 AM
    Jim - what AP's are you running?  

    Did you disable 80/160mhz channels or are your AP's not capable?

    ------------------------------
    Mike Robertson
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 20, 2021 11:48 AM
    Mike,

    AP 315's and 515's in these areas.  The AP's are capable, but we felt it was in our best interest to limit connections to the 20MHz and 40Mhz wide channels to cut down on interference.  Seems to work well and we don't have any applications that need excessive bandwidth.




    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    MVP
    Posted Sep 21, 2021 08:14 AM
    You run 40 MHz on 2.4 GHz? I think there is only 1 available 40 MHz interference-free channel

    We only use 20 MHz channels on 2.4. In dens environments we disable some 2.4 GHz radios.

    ------------------------------
    Bruce Osborne ACCP ACMP
    Liberty University

    The views expressed here are my personal views and not those of my employer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    Posted Sep 21, 2021 08:30 AM
    "In dens environments we disable some 2.4 GHz radios."

    bosborne - are you doing that with seperate AP profiles ?

    ------------------------------
    Mike Robertson
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    MVP
    Posted Sep 21, 2021 08:37 AM
    We use a separate AP group in the area where the 2.4 GHz radios are set to just monitor.

    For example;

    ap-group "Music-Classroom-5Ghz"
    virtual-ap "liberty-secure-24"
    virtual-ap "liberty-guest-24"
    virtual-ap "liberty-wireless-24"
    dot11a-radio-profile "classroom-1-3aps-a"
    ap-system-profile "lu-campus-ap-sys"
    regulatory-domain-profile "lu-dfs"
    !

    In the VAPs we use 24 suffix for SSIDs restricted to 24 MHz and higher connections.

    ------------------------------
    Bruce Osborne ACCP ACMP
    Liberty University

    The views expressed here are my personal views and not those of my employer
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Single Space + Alot of Clients

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Sep 21, 2021 06:20 AM
    That inter-AP distance shouldn't be an issue, unless the APs end up on the same channel or the distance is really short like 3m/10ft. It may help to have the APs as distributed over the room as possible because clients prefer to connect to the strongest signal. If you have 3 APs more in the center of the room, the client distribution will be worse than if you have the APs in the corners or to the edges. The 'leak' of signal from adjacent rooms/APs can play a role in your AP placement as well. If you have existing RF blockers in the room, like some lecture halls have a concrete structure in the middle for AV operations/projector placement, you can leverage that to cut up the RF domain, if needed. But for 70 people/200 devices that probably is not needed and can be handled by 2 or 3 APs and then you can have non-overlapping channels when using 20/40MHz channels on 5GHz.

    ------------------------------
    Herman Robers
    ------------------------
    If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

    In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.
    ------------------------------

    Original Message