In the last dorm we built (13 stories, typical university construction), we had to put the APs in the hallways due to non-accessible ceilings in the rooms (hard pan bottom of the floor above forms the room ceilings). We asked early during the design phase for something in/on the ceiling that we could mount to, but were denied due to cost. No conduit or other exposed wiring is allowed to allow us use our preferred mounting (in the rooms).
So, now we have dorm that holds just under 1,000 students with 134 APs. Just took a quick look and the max number of clients that any AP has is 13, the fewest is 0, and the midpoint is 5. Four through six clients/AP makes up about 80% of the usage. We have had no complaints since it opened this past fall. Max clients for this group of APs over the last 3 days (the students started classes on WED) was 1,091 with an average of 754. Bandwidth usage max was 36.5 Mbps in and 192.2 Mbps out with average usage at 6.7 bps in and 67.8 Mbps out. For the complete Fall semester these numbers are: Clients: Max 1,286 & Avg 855, Inbound bandwidth: Max 69 Mbps & Avg 16.7 Mbps, and Outbound bandwidth: Max 303.7 Mbps & Avg 116.6 Mbps. Based on these figures, some students haven't fired up all their new toys just yet since we are running below the fall numbers and I'm sure that many students got new things to play with over the Christmas break. APs are Cisco 1142s using WiSM2 controllers. APs are spaced at 35' down the center of the corridors. The building is shaped like a box with a hollow core and corridors all the way around the building. Rooms are on both sides of the corridors (so, some have a view out to the world and others have a view into the center courtyard. -jcw ------------------------------------- John Watters UA: OIT 205-348-3992 -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Tom O'Donnell Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 8:51 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] students per AP in residence halls I was wondering what other schools have for a ratio of students to AP's in the residence halls, either definitely or approximately? If you have such a number, how do you count dual-band AP's? They're doing more than a 2.4GHz AP, but not quite as much as two AP's. Then one last related question... Would anyone know their relative mix of 2.4GHz vs. 5GHz connections in residence halls? Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------- Tom O'Donnell Senior Manager of Network and Server Systems Information Technology Services University of Maine at Farmington (207) 778-7336 ********** 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/.
