This company provides the only logical solution for high density, high availability 802.11X indoor enterprise connectivity that I know of outside of Cisco.
http://www.arubanetworks.com/ You cannot do what you are asking unless you have some centralized AP controller capable of adjusting the RF power levels, frequency, etc. for every AP in real time. The Aruba platform also offers things definitely needed in an environment like this such as rogue AP detection. All conference centers, enterprises, campuses, etc. should have rogue AP detection as a matter of best practices. Scriv On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 4:32 AM, Rogelio <scubac...@gmail.com> wrote: > Within the last few weeks, I have gotten several inquiries about setting > up 802.11 wireless access services for thousands (1000-5000) of people > in a conference sort of area (assuming 100% subscription rate, which I > think is sort of unreasonable, but that's another story), and I have > told them that based on what I know, the 802.11 protocol breaks at those > numbers. > > Is there any 802.11-based solution that can handle this density? The > only way I have seen people get around it (like at the Superbowl press > areas with tons and tons of people) is to try to offload a significant > number of users on Ruckus devices using cat5. > > Does anyone have any suggestions here? In these situations, I would > just probably put in a ton of smaller access points and then turn the > power WAY down and then plan some sort of non-overlapping channel plan > with 802.11a and 802.11b/g. I have heard of other solutions (e.g. > Proxim) having soft limits on numbers of associations one each AP so > that they can, at least, guarantee good coverage with the few who are > able to associate to that access point. > > Anyone have any other ways around this? Based on what I know, access > points (fat or thin, regardless of the model) crap out at around... > > --about 250 MAC associations > --about 50 client associations > --about 25 hardcore user sessions > > Any and all advice on the topic is welcome (even if it is to just tell > me I'm stupid for even considering talking to these customers!) > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
