Max Clients per 2800 AP Best Practice

[sammarshall3]

e are using 2802I APs and I need to know the recommended maximum number of clients per AP or per Radio, not the supported 200 max clients per AP. I have seen lots of recommendations saying that 20-25 clients is ideal, I am not sure how accurate this is or if that number is per AP or per Radio i.e. 25 on 2.4GHz and 25 on 5GHz 

We will be using 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios and client usage will not be too media content rich although they will use some voice, video and media services. We aim to allow every user to connect their corporate device AND a personal device. I imagine that lots of users will be streaming music and videos throughout the day from their personal devices whilst their corporate devices will mostly be for small file usage.  

Please advise. 

Thanks in advance

[balaji.bandi]

in our production environment we tried for good aroun 30-40.

There is good discussion here :

https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless-and-mobility/2800-ap-max-clients/td-p/3009739

https://community.cisco.com/t5/other-wireless-mobility-subjects/wireless-access-point-maximum-users/td-p/3042360

[RaffyLindogan]

Hi mate,

There is really no fixed rule on the max number of clients per AP.

Of course lesser load is better.
But it really differs on what type of client movement and environment you have.

Like if you deploy for voice, then you will be better with doing dense deployment type where you have more APs.

The site survey would really be your best guide on this.

Also you have to consider like if it's a normal static desk, a meeting room and even meeting room varies from large to small.

Some meeting rooms will cater for 4 people only and others are big meeting rooms which could cater to 20 or more users.

So it really depends on the type of environment  as number of clients per location differs per bssid.

And again site survey should guide your deployment on this.

At the end of the day, RRM will is suppose to assist you automating this load distributibution, channel, power, etc...

Cheers,

Raffy

[sammarshall3]

Thanks Raffy,

We have had a site survey completed whereby we were very clear with our requirements including client density in meeting rooms. However, the outcome was less than satisfactory and we have providing them with more recommendations and best practice information than they are to us. They have ignored our client density requirements and don't agree with our suggestion of 20-25 clients per AP for a service that would/could be using voice and video services hence trying to fact gather so that I have something to go back to them with.

Thanks though some good points in your reply there.

Sam

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@sammarshall3 wrote:

They have ignored our client density requirements and don't agree with our suggestion of 20-25 clients per AP for a service that would/could be using voice and video services hence trying to fact gather so that I have something to go back to them with.

---

25 to 35 is a good rule-of-thumb when doing low-level traffic, like emails, browsing, IM. 

When doing HD video streaming and voice calls, I'd recommend 10 wireless clients per AP. 

What you might want to do is run a series of tests:  One test when there is a low client density (like weekend or evenings) and then a few tests during business hours.

[patoberli]

You might be able to improve things by enabling AVC on the WLC and prioritize the important applications. That helped in my environment with VMware VDI clients (using PCoIP). Using 15-25 clients per AP when VDI is in use.
For the 2800 series, if you have a dense coverage, you might want to switch some of them to dual-5 GHz and thus disable the 2.4 GHz radio. That can also help a lot, but only if your coverage is dense enough. If using a WLC, the function FRA can help with that.