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maximum recommended clients per access point

maximum recommended clients per access point

Yves_Haslimann
New Contributor III
Hello there,

We noticed client disconnections in our WLAN network. The clients are connected in the 2.4Ghz band with the access point AP3805i (radio 2). I've seen, that there are 80 clients connected with this radio. So, what is the maximum recommended clients per access point? I guess its much lower than 80... Anyway, could these be the reason for the client disconnectsions?

Many thanks,
Yves

3 REPLIES 3

Chad_Smith1
Extreme Employee
Yves,

Client load calculation is tricky and depends on many factors. Client capabilities (radio quality, supported data rates, receive sensitivity, etc), the RF environment in the area, and the applications in use by the clients or bandwidth requirements all play major roles. All these things have to be considered when determining how many clients are too many in a given situation.

In a well designed high density environment 80 clients could be supported, but each of those 80 clients must share the bandwidth capabilities of the radio (i.e. 150mbps/80 =1.875mbps). So high bandwidth applications on the clients would be difficult to support (i.e video stream etc.)

Based on the fact that you said this is a 2.4GHz radio, and due to the lower bandwidth and RF challenges of the 2.4 GHz spectrum, I would guess that 80 clients are likely too many.

In order to support a large number of clients you need the following:

1. High SNR for clients, which allows for high data rates. The higher the client data rates the more bandwidth you can push through the AP. Even a single client communicating at 2mbps (data rate not bandwidth) can reduce the efficiency of the radio as a whole.
2. Low RF interference and minimal co-channel interference. This is difficult to achieve in the 2.4GHz band
3. Client applications that are low bandwidth and/or client rate limiting. This prevents one user consuming all the radio's bandwidth.

JK
New Contributor II
Looks like 156 per radio for a total of 312 per AP. It also is based on what they are doing when attached to the radio. You could have 80 connected but if they are using 2mbps of bandwidth each you are at 160mbps total. If they all in theory connected at 300mbps you can cut that number in half at 150mbps of available bandwidth, you can see you are technically overloading the radio.

Nico_Willamowsk
New Contributor III
Thats written in the datasheet, but i don´t know if they mean per Radio or total. When 312 means total, then you can also have 156 users per Radio.

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