How many clients per access point?

[mvandorp]

Hi,

I have an installation with a WLC4406 and 10 LAPs. In one location there are 2 Access Points. How many wireless clients can be supported with those 2 LAPs?

I cannot find any figures: I only found that a 4406 can support up to 2500 users. Given the maximum amount of 12 APs, I could assume that 2500/12 = 208 clients per LAP is supported.

Is this a real figure (I assume NOT)?

Another value I found, is that by default, congestion control kicks in above 12 clients per LAP (but this can be lowered to 3 if performance is requested).

There is a big difference between 12 and 208!

What is it?

I understand that with more clients, the available bandwidth per client drops. The intended audience just want to check their mail occasionally, but is must be a workable option.

Can anyone shine some light on this? Or point me to the right documentation?

Thanks!

Marcel

[Lucien Avramov · Accepted solution]

The theoretical maximum is 2048. As part of 802.11, however, some number of

these 2k addresses are reserved bringing the IEEE maximum down to 2007.

Although the AP motherboard has memory capable of handling 2007 users, the

radio utilized in our 1200 Series AP has memory limitations which hold the

maximum number of client associations to 255.

The number of 255 is active associations, though the cam table can

contain 2048 entries because of the memory size, the number restricted

for actual active association is 255.This number is still far too large for sensible

networking but what is possible. Remember that WLAN is shared media, all users have to try

to get access to the media by waiting until it is free and then sending a request to

reserve the media for the duration of the frame size that they want to

send. If the air is busy then you have to wait a random time and start

again. So if you have too many users waiting they can end up waiting a

very long time - sort of traffic jam effect at a congested junction, one

more car and the traffic seems n times worse.I dont know as to how the number 255 was

arrived at but it is largely irrelevant as 255 is still too large to be practical for

active associations, we recommend 25-30 for most design work.

[mvandorp]

Thanks, this was the answer I was looking for.

Marcel