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 > ------------------------------------- > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > -- -- ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
