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Very high-density WLANs are defined as RF coverage zones with a large number of wireless clients and APs in a single physical space. For purposes of this reference design, a VHD WLAN is one that is designed to serve at least 100 devices per cell. A VHD WLAN may serve as many as 500 devices per cell. With the proliferation of wireless-enabled personal and enterprise mobile devices, a surprisingly diverse range of facilities need VHD WLAN connectivity:
To help our customer and partner engineers succeed in meeting these new requirements, we have written this new validated reference design (VRD) exclusively about very high-density (VHD) WLANs. The guide captures the best practices of our field engineering teams. Aruba also built a dedicated VHD test facility with 300 of the latest 802.11ac devices to produce updated performance data. We are releasing this data to the public to assist in capacity planning
Aruba is introducing a new and modular approach with this VRD. We recognize that the people who are interested in this topic have a wide range of knowledge levels and interest levels. To that end, Aruba is publishing this VRD as a series of three guides, plus two individual scenarios that deal with specific deployment use cases. These guides can be mixed and matched as desired based on each reader’s experience and interests. This organization is shown below.
Engineering & Configuration Guide
PDF
HTML
Theory Guide
Scenario 1: Adjacent Large Auditoriums
Scenario 2: Large Indoor Arena
Whole VRD
Frame Time Calculator
Just checking back in to see if there are any updates on Validated Reference Design progress for an AX/WiFi6 world.
Chuck,
AX is here and ratified. Shoud we expect updates to this and the Mobile First reference guides soon?
Pete
I agree with Pete, it would be nice to see an updated AOS 8.x VRD version for 802.11ac deployments in parallel to 802.11ax. Our campus decided to go with AP-335's and AOS 8.3 based on Atmosphere 2018.
The new AP-370EX series outdoor AP is only supporting 802.11ac. We plan on deploying 300+ outdoor AP's in about a year.
It would be nice to have an updated VRD reference to review with our Aruba partner/pro services focused only on AOS 8.x architecture.
Thanks.
-Juan
The year has come and gone. Time flies when you are having fun. I wanted to check back to see if the newer version of this document was available or in the works.
Thanks,
My company works in the streaming video distribution side also, so extensively familiar with gains make on the encoding side, and the limitations of modern mobile devices when it comes to things like HVEC. I am also aware of dynamic bit rates based on DASH, HLS, and other. That being said, the modern millennial user expectations for streaming sports video quality on mobile devices does not allow for downgraded quality due to wireless capacity or deployment. The new expectation is 5-10Mbps streaming availability as needed, meaning of the 10,000's of devices, some 10-30% are going to be looking for that rate at peak. This bandwidth requirement is driven by the combined lack of H.265 support on many mobile devices, coupled with 60fps HD streams. This percentage can even be higher at breaks in play, i.e. end of a period or half time. I hope you are right, and 802.11ax adoption occurs much faster than wave 2 did. Peers are seeing as high as 80% take rates in stadium student sections, with nearly all being demanding connections during extended breaks; so, 802.11ax will be great once we pass it being the outlier device type.
Thanks for your responsiveness and look forward to updates on this and the rest of the portfolio.
Cheers,
P
clukas,
Thanks for the reply. I am guessing that mobile adoption of 802.11ax will occur at the same speed as adoption of 802.11ac Wave 2 happened. Based on that, I am assuming that the clear majority of mobile devices, specifically Apple ones, are 5+ years from 802.11ax unless their hands are forced. That being the case, any gains associated with 802.11ax won't be realized for many years to come, in the same way the 802.11ac Wave 2 still hasn't proven to be fruitful in large mobile device dominated venues at this time.
Much has changed in the video world since 2015, which is the major reason this guide is out of date. Streaming video providers have updated mobile profiles to move away from a 480p "mobile HD" standard to 720p as the new mobile HD profile. Add to that, there is a huge prevalence of 60fps video hitting the market. These are more than just available qualities, they are the new expectation of the audience. This causes this guides per user bandwidth and cycle impacts to be off greatly from when this document was written. This should be the greatest driving force for an update, not 802.11ax which is years from relevance. So, the majority of us paying attention to arena and venue networking, won't be considering 802.11ax for two to three more years. Please don't hold off in updating this until then and don't loose vision of real impacts of sports 60fps HD video, which is domintant service being consumed in these venues. I am not saying 802.11ax is not important, but it is the least of tomorrow's concerns when looking at modern designs from a realistic perspective.
Is this being updated for 8.x? I know much of the theory behind these practices have not changed, but the user device population, 802.11 technologies, and methods for supporting them have evolved in some senses. It would be interesting to see an update that takes into account the additional tools Aruba has provided via 8.x ArubaOS code and Mobility Master.
Thanks @DResseguie The team appriciates it! @Chuck_Lukaszewski
This is one of the best documents I have seen to date on the topic of High Density Wireless! This does a great job of showing all the factors to be considered including Theory, Planning, Engineering and Scenario Plans. This material is very useful regardless of the wireless vendor you are currently using. You do not have to be an Aruba customer to access this information. GREAT JOB Aruba Networks for helping improve the industry for everyone. - Douglas Resseguie
Thanks a lot for the VRD's lot of useful info.
Thank you @Chuck_Lukaszewski and your team for this amazing VRD!