Multi SSID Environments (5+ SSIDs)

[dwash17]

Hi Everyone,

Time and time again, Meraki support has told me that the recommended SSID is no more than 3. I've stepped into a multi-network environment that has a minimum of 8-10 ssids broadcasting. Im in the process of trying to plan some consolidations but I struggle with this as I can only easily get rid of maybe 1 or 2 so I'm thinking my best solution is a per-AP ssid broadcast using tags. But that'll only probably get me down to about 5 broadcasting. I work for a k-12, so the schools have a variety of functions and access levels (students, faculty, main district staff who need to be able to go from school to school, guests and mobile devices). Has anyone successfully done a 5+ SSID environment (successful in your opinion)?

Also, I have mostly MR42s and 34s(slowing upgrading to 42s).

[Nolan H. · Accepted solution]

You can have 5 SSID's, its simply a recommendation because if you have more than say 4 or 5, then you start to increase your management frame overhead. Keep in mind this only applies to access points in the same area. You can calculate this via the following link:

http://www.revolutionwifi.net/revolutionwifi/p/ssid-overhead-calculator.html

If you have your lowest data rate on each of the access control pages configured for 12Mbps (safe spot to be), then you should be 'ok'. As long as you don't mind cutting off any support for 802.11b

I personally always make my SSID's use tags via the SSID Availability feature, this gives me granular control over which AP is broadcasting which SSID etc. You'll probably want to do the same, however if you have multiple schools, you'll want to make sure that everyone has the best expirience when going between schools. So you will want the same SSID across the board say for 'Faculty'. I would say you could most likely have a single SSID for all 'employee's of the schooling system easily. No need to break that up in my opinion. Same for students, and guest.

That being said, I agree you for sure need to do some consolidation.

You'll probably want to look at using radius vlan override

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Encryption_and_Authentication/Configuring_RADIUS_Authentication_with_WPA2-Enterprise

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Client_Addressing_and_Bridging/RADIUS_Override

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Client_Addressing_and_Bridging/VLAN_Tagging

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Client_Addressing_and_Bridging/VLAN_Tagging_on_MR_Access_Points

[Bossnine]

I have 5 SSID's and am working to combine a couple to get down to 3. That being said, how or why do they 'need' 8 SSIDs?

I'm in a school environment also and cannot fathom why anyone would need that many.

[dwash17]

There's definitely no need for as many as 8. It's me getting it down beyond 5 is the big concern. We have to have separate ssids for Students, Guest, Teacher/School Assigned Faculty, District Staff & Non School Assigned Mobile Devices (Each have different access levels regarding Content filtering and bandwidth). I think 5 will be a good start for me at least.