cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
3783
Views
0
Helpful
8
Replies

How many devices that 700 series AP can accommodate?

Amr Nasher
Level 1
Level 1

Dear all,

we have a university campus with more than 10,000 clients & students ... we are going to order more than 120 AP with 5508 WLAN controller with their license.. however we are worried about the number of concurrent devices that will be connected to the access point.

For a budgetary  purpose, we are going to get the AIR-CAP702I-A-K9 (Aironet 700 series AP) so how many concurrent devices that it can accommodate?? we did some research and Cisco is saying that 25 concurrent devices per access point for ideal purpose... the traffic it's only normal internet access for the students, so it will be normal http & emails ...

So the question is how many concurrent devices that can be connected to the AP with this traffic?? let’s say that 50 concurrent devices was connected to the AP and number 51 wants to connect, can he connect or the AP will be hang?? i mean what's the behavior of the access point when it exceeded the number of devices that it can accommodate?? does the AP will be hang or become out of service and all the users that was connected to it will be discounted?? or the next device will be in the queue until there is a room for it and will be connected??

The AP will be connected to WS-C2960S-48LPS-L so the uplink will be 1Gb.

Your fast respond is highly appreciated.

8 Replies 8

Scott Fella
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

25 is a rule if thumb. The WLC by default has 200 clients per AP. So max 200... The more users per ap the slower the performance. You really can't tell how the experience will be until it's deployed and you see for your self. I have schools that teachers have them download large files and simultaneous downloads is slow compared to a few at a time. Look at it like a hub. Wireless is half duplex just like a hub.

Your bottleneck will end up being the 1 gig port also.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

-Scott
*** Please rate helpful posts ***

Dear Scott,

thanks for your reply, so your advice that we go with the 700 series AP or should we change to 1600 series?? i mean is the hardware (CPU & RAM) of the 700 series is lower and can't accommodate the same number of clients like the 1600??

what's your advice in regarding the Access points selections??

also is there a way in the controller to limit the number of clients per access point so we can avoid the AP to be hung and guaranty the service level??

Lower end AP models are not meant for high density. Your almost better going with the 2602 as the minimum. You can limit the number of clients per AP, but your clients might have issues. The clients decide what AP they want to join so if a client wants to connect to AP 1 and it's full, the client may or may not try to find another AP. In school deployments with high density, I never see the 700 or 1600's being deployed.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

-Scott
*** Please rate helpful posts ***

Amr Nasher
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Scote,
Thanks for your reply, for budgetary purpose, can we mix the modules & part numbers?? I mean chose 700,1600 & 2600??



Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

Yes I guess, but at least keep the 2600's in areas that are high density of users.  I personally don't like to mix, but if its budget reasons, your better off using the 2600's in these areas and get the 1600's for the others.  I wouldn't use the 700's, but thats me.

Thanks,

Scott

Help out other by using the rating system and marking answered questions as "Answered"

-Scott
*** Please rate helpful posts ***

I am currently running >100 schools and all of them have wireless.

The biggest nightmare to the people who hold the purse strings, when dealing with wireless, is the explosion of BYOD and mobility.  The biggest issue is when you have wireless and you mix it with BYOD everyone wants to use wireless EVERYWHERE.

Wireless in school is good because students are no longer tied down in classrooms or lecture theatres/halls.  You can potentially have a lecture/class under a shaded tree. 

My point is, you want to have wireless?  Good on you.  Talk to the teachers and the students and ask them where would they see the benefit of wireless.   Talking to school executives, who spend all their time sitting behind a desk, would be a waste of time because most of the time they are very much "detached" from the reality of teaching and learning. 

Amr Nasher
Level 1
Level 1

Our problem now is that the budget is very low and we can't afford to implement AP 2600 series .. So we chose the AP700.. But now Scott said it's better to go with 2600 series .. The management was going with D-link as it's cheaper solution, but we want to go with Cisco ..

What's your advice if u were in our place??

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

What's your advice if u were in our place??

I agree with Scott.  AP700 has a place in wireless but it sure ain't in a school deployment.

Budget low?  Do the right thing and get the right equipment.  Getting the cheapest priced equipment is not a good idea because you always pay-what-you-get-for.  Sure you get Netgear stuff at a bargain price but can this model do what a Cisco can?  I seriously doubt.

If you can't get the right quantity then deploy staggered.  Stick the APs in the most critical areas and slowly grow when the budget get replenished. 

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: