Wireless Access

Need suggestion on this scenario.

I need to support about 300 devices at the lawn, web and email mostly. Users are not able to connect when it gets to certain level.   What is the best solution to fix and support this scenario?  How many more APs would I need and where should they be placed?

 

For even good performance, your access points need to be a close to your users as possible.

 

Performance degrades (1) as users get further and further away from the access point and (2) as more and more users get on the same access point.

 

I would place them as close to or even on the lawn with a stand like this:  https://wifistand.com/  I would also consult the High Density Validated reference design guide here:  https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Validated-Reference-Design/Very-High-Density-802-11ac-Networks-Validated-Reference-Design/ta-p/230891 for ideas on how many access points you would need.

Thank you for the quick answer!

 

Would the portable APs form mesh with APs on the buildings or run wires across from the building to the lawn?  Which series of APs would work best in this portable scenario?

Doing a mesh would hurt performance considerably at those distances.  If you could, I would run fiber to a POE switch outside right next to the lawn, and give all of the access points a home run to that switch.  Of course, your switch would have to have an uplink to your AP VLAN.  I would not combine mesh with high density, when performance is needed.  If it is not going to rain, you can use indoor APs with those AP mounts on a temporary basis.  I would not put indoor APS outdoors for an extended period of time.

 

Attached is an example of what was done for a temporary event outside.  We put the switch in a larger plastic container to protect it from any incidental moisture (do not do this when there is rain), and ran ethernet cables from the switch to the individual access points.

 

 

Cool!  I will look into this solution.  Thank you so much for that suggestion!

With the information in the capacity planning section of this guide, you can determine how many APs are required for specific deployment use cases. In this section, you determine where to put the APs and the wireless channels to use.