Range / Signal questions

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi Expert team,

I have some questions on wireless network design. Now we are using wave 2 Cisco 2800 series APs for wireless. 

Questions are below:

1. How much will long range / Signal be accepted without any loss of data?

2. I will hang an AP in room roof then how much area will be covered?

3. How many users can be connected without speed or data loss?

Please reply and help me.

Thanks,

Deepak Kumar

[Leo Laohoo]

How much will long range / Signal be accepted without any loss of data?

I will hang an AP in room roof then how much area will be covered?

How many users can be connected without speed or data loss?

These are very broad questions so I will answer broadly:   In a wide open space where there is no walls, no other wireless devices within a 100 metre radius, then the answer would be around 50 to 80 metres.  

[Joseph W. Doherty]

As Leo already described, your questions are very broad, but they are also impacted by many variables - i.e. your questions are a very much "it depends".

With wireless, you're dealing with radio signals.  Questions like range are very much impacted by what's in line of sight between the sender and receiver.  Different materials cause different attenuation of the signal.

As some radio signals are omni broadcast, some materials will reflect signals which cause interference between the sender and receiver.

The radio frequencies used by wireless are also shared with other devices which can also cause interference.

The interactions of the above, can change much just by moving the location of the sender and/or receiver even a few inches.

Another variable includes what wireless standard is being used by sender and receiver.

As to how many users can be connected, again, "it depends".  Wireless shares bandwidth, so not only might absolute numbers matter, but so would individual usage.  I.e. 100 users might, with very light usage might be fine while just two users with very heavy usage might not.