Wireless 4K Streaming

[PAR]

Hi,

This is just a general query about wireless capacity. Traditionally we have used the 30 users per AP model for capacity, however, if you have a customer who has a requirement that the wireless infrastructure must support 4K video streaming is there a general rule for how many users per AP?

Thanks for any advice, much appreciated.

[Scott Fella]

Users per ap varies and you would need to really test to see how many devices can provide good 4k.  Also note is there is any compression or transcoding that is done prior or not.  Can't really tell you what to go with as I haven't really seen post in regards to this and or testing.  

[Scott Fella]

You might want to reference this Meraki guide also.  Should help, since it has calculations.

High Density Wi-Fi Deployments - Cisco Meraki

[PAR]

Thanks Scott, I'll take a look.

[saravlak]

There're many factors to account for, following doc is old but most of the principles do apply.

Cisco Unified Wireless Network Solution: VideoStream Deployment Guide
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-1/VideoStream/b_Cisco_Unified_Wireless_Network_Solution_VideoStream_Deployment_Guide.html

Wireless High Client Density Design Guide
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-7/b_wireless_high_client_density_design_guide.html

[PAR]

Thanks Saraviak, I'm trying to work through an example: -

If you had 150 users in a building and they all wanted to do 4K video streaming (assume 15-18Mbps), at the same time, how many access points would be required? And how would this change between clients who support 2 spatial streams and connect via Wifi 5 or Wifi 6?

I believe Wifi 6 can support 8 clients simultaneously, whereas Wifi 5 its only 1, which would have an impact on the backbone connections, MultiGig ports for Wifi 6 access points.

Appreciate the support. 

[saravlak]

to start with, Try test with one AP and 15 clients.

Rough estimate only:
WiFi 6 APs. 10+ APs ==> depends upon the environment/setup/config.
Use Videostream feature.
40mhz, 5ghz only wlan, lower data rates disabled.
connecting datarate, SnR and RF Bandwidth availability matters.
less likely to throttle AP's wired port.

[PAR]

Thanks, appreciate the response.

I was mainly looking at the planning process as opposed to the actual configuration side. 

Before we get the config side if a customer says I want to support these 150 users 4K streaming, what is the maths you would give them to say "Mr Customer you need x access points based on these figures".

[saravlak]

4.4 Video Performance

https://miercom.com/pdf/reports/DR201007G.pdf

it depends on so many factors, i'd tell cust that it takes 10+/X APs as min.

[Rich R]

I was just about to post the link to that Miercom report but you got there first lol

[saravlak]

Lol 🙂

[PAR]

Cheers guys I'll take a look at the report.