Help a bout distance that WAP Accessspoint support

[atiyehmahdavi]

Hi Guys,

I want to purchase WAP551 for dormitory that has 50 user and support 50 meter,I think WAP551 is good for this goal(if not,please tell me and suggest another Product).

But I can't find any document about the distance that Accesspoint or it's Antennas support for this model(WAP551) or another product and Aironet Product too.

Please tell me,How much distance WAP551 and WAP371 can support when the situation is Normal and doesnt have more barrier.

I read all datasheet and many Article but there is no any thing about my problem in Cisco web site, if there is any link or document please past it for me.

I should answer my customer as soon as possible and give it to him.

Thank you,

[bnedyalk · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The distance that the products mentioned can cover is between 30-50 meters (but it always depends on the environment in which the AP is installed). Usually you should be able to reach the 50 meters without issues. Unfortunately there is no official document that I can provide you with the above statement.

If you have any other question/s feel free to ask :)

Best Regards,

[atiyehmahdavi]

Hi Dear,

thank you so much for your answer...

depend on your answer there is no document about this,so how you know about this?
sorry if iI ask you this question is because that my customer ask me to show him this thing with paper or document.
I study about 802.11/n and another wifi standard and I found this link:

1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

2-http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-300-series-wireless-access-points/models-comparison.html

3-http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-500-series-wireless-access-points/models-comparison.html

* depend on this link and datasheets of  WAP551 and WAP371 ,can we said 50 meter is ok??

** in link 2 and 3 we could see 4 models,which one is best for my goal(dormitory),I want to know your suggestion too(but please notice about their price too I dont want to be more expensive).

*** link No.2 (I mean 300 series) didnt say any thing about the number of Antennas,do you know any thing about it?

**** WAP551 has 5 Antennas,does it affect to distance that it can support??(I can't find any thing about the name of WAP551's Antennas and the distance that Antennas can support too(I mean that is the number of Antennas important for distance that it can support? :-(

***** in it's box,are there Antennas (I mean 300 and 500 series)or we should buy them seprate?

[bnedyalk]

Hi once again :)

The information provided to you comes from my own experience with the AP's. In some environments they can reach also 70 meters of range, but this coverage really depends a lot on the surroundings. As I previously said 30-50 meters is the distance they usually cover without any issues. No document about my statement can be provided to your customer at this moment, since there is no such one. If you sell him a WAP551 or WAP371 he should be able to cover the area of the dormitory if the surroudings do not have solid walls with armored cement which could absorbe the signal strenght. Please kindly note that the wireless coverage is a very delicate topic, and I really believe that almost no one can give you a 100% guarantee answer about the coverage of a wireless product. Least but not last no additional antennas are sold separately for the models mentioned by you above, nor they can be installed on the units.  

[Eric Moyers]

My name Eric Moyers. I am an Engineer in the Small Business Support Center.

My colleague, Bozhidar is correct. The distance completely depends on the environment that the Access Point is installed in. 

When I hear the word dormitory, I envision a building with multiple living quarters for students. With each wall that a wireless signal has to go through the quality of the signal degrades. Other things to take into account is are microwaves, cordless phones, and other pieces of equipment that could put out wireless signals, not just radio wireless signals. These have as much of an impact as other wireless routers and access points. 

To get a better answer, could you provide a rough sketch or description of the dormitory?

Something else to consider when talking number of users is when you say 50 users are you talking 50 actual individual users? If they each have a wireless Laptop and then have smart phones and wireless gaming systems, you could overrun the 50 users and have over 100 clients trying to connect to your Access Point. Instead of planning for 1 access point I would at least install 2 if not 3 depending on the shape of the dormitory to get maximum coverage with maximum availability. 

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Technical Support | Wireless and Surveillance Subject Matter Expert

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[Eric Moyers · Accepted solution]

I also forgot to mention that all of this is if you are planning to use the 2.4 Ghz radio  with the WAP551. The 5.0 Ghz radio while having a stronger signal, because of the wavelength will only cover a shorter distance.

Another thing to consider is if you are using mixed signals like "G" and "N" your through put will be only as fast as the weakest (or lowest) link. What this means is that if you have 20 users connecting at "N" speeds and getting over 100 Mbps of throughput, when a user connects to the same SSID at "G" then all users, even the ones connecting at "N" will start getting 54 Mbps throughput.

Just something to keep in mind.

 Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Technical Support | Wireless and Surveillance Subject Matter Expert

[atiyehmahdavi]

Thank you Dear Eric,
I have actual 30 users and I calculate their device too and because of their device I said 50 users,ok?
So,for 50 users I think wap551 or wap 371 is good,(are you agree with me?) but When I see their datasheet I saw that wap 551 can cluster up to 16 APs but wap371 can cluster up to 8 APs,what does cluster mean?it means that I could purchase max 8 Aps of 371 for one building?or for one network?
Another question is what does AC and N mean in connectivity technology's feild in tis link:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-300-series-wireless-access-points/models-comparison.html

** depend on your answer I should create Special SSID for each standard? because I don't want the thing that you said about MBps will happen?

*** last question:how can I use 2.4 Ghz (not 5.0) Ghz radioradio for cover more distance?(I think it depends on my radio that my country support,is it true?)

[Eric Moyers]

If you have already calculated for the additional devices then you should be fine. Personally if you are looking at both I would consider the WAP371 only because of the fact that it has dual radios. Instead of the WAP551, I would also consider the WAP561. The WAP561 has dual radios vs the WAP551 which is a single radio.

The significance of that is in the question you asked about creating a special SSID for each standard. If you have only one radio, regardless of the SSIDs you can only broadcast at the weakest link. Because everything is coming from the same radio.  

With two radios with the WAP561, one is only 5 Ghz  and the other can be 2.4 or 5 Ghz. You can use the one radio for 2.4 "G" and with the other radio you can run at 5 Ghz "N" 

For the WAP371, it is basically the same, one radio is 5 Ghz can run "N" and "AC" and the other is 2.4 and can run "G" and "N"

For AC and N basically, AC is just another signal standard like N or G. With AC, in the right environment condition it will allow for wireless speeds reaching up to 1 Gigabit. Both the Access Point and the Wireless client that is connecting have to support the AC signal. Unless the device was manufactured in the last few months, most likely it will not be able to do AC. But fr laptops or PC you could purchase a USB Wireless adapter that would allow them to take advantage of AC.

Most countries can and should support 5 Ghz, what really matters in the support is if the wireless client connecting supports 5 Ghz. 

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Technical Support | Wireless and Surveillance Subject Matter Expert

[Eric Moyers]

This document link may help answer some questions about AC vs N as well.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12243811/have-any-questions-about-80211ac-check-out-these-faqs

Eric Moyers

[atiyehmahdavi]

Dear Eric,

thank you so much,your answer are very helpful for me,

but 1 problem I see now,

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/eos-eol-listing.html

500 series are Expired and I want too use wap371 according to your answers for dual radios,but 371 can cover 32 users not 50 user,so I should buy more than 551,but according to this link:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-300-series-wireless-access-points/models-comparison.html

can I buy more than 8 numbers of it,I have problem about this field :"Number of access points supported per cluster" what does cluster mean? becuse 8 of them not enough for me...
could you help me again please?

[Eric Moyers]

The WAP551 and WAP561 are not eol/eos. The link that you are referring to shows the Cisco 500 Series Wireless Express Access Points which are eol/eos. These are an enterprise access point.

But I am referring to these.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-500-series-wireless-access-points/models-listing.html

Yes you can buy as many as you like. A cluster as it is referring to is used for ease of management. A cluster can only support up to 8 Access Points. If you have say 10 access points I would suggest  creating two clusters of 5.

A cluster is used to create a single point of setup and management. For instance, once you get your network created and you needed to make a change to QoS settings, you can do that one 1 in a cluster and it is pushed out to the other access points in the cluster. Instead of making the same change on each access point.

Here are some links to read more about the models.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-500-series-wireless-access-points/models-listing.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/small-business-300-series-wireless-access-points/models-listing.html

and here is a place to view emulators of the devices:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/911/cisco-small-business-online-device-emulators

Eric Moyers