How many clients support access points 1602, 2602, 3602?

[Sergey Tarasevich]

Hi! How many clients support access point 1602, 2602, 3602. I have found for example that the 1602 supports 32 ClientLink clients and max 128 clients, APs 2602, 3602 supports 128 ClientLink clients and max 200 clients. But is it really? And can we say for example that the AP 2602 will withstand max 200 clients?

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

Sergey,

The issue or I should say the question isnt really how many clients an ap can handle. You are limited by the RF also called the medium. 802.11 is a half duplex medium. As each client is added, the bandwidth becomes half each time.

Ideally for data you can expect 20 clients per ap. If you are doing voice and video on wifi, i would like to 15 or so.

Hope this helps ..

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
__________________________________________________________________________________________
‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."

[Sergey Tarasevich]

Here is the link where I found it:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps11983/at_a_glance_c45-691984.pdf

See the table in the section Summary.

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

That's a nice marketing slide:)  stick with 20-25 and you should be good unless your doing voice or video.

Thanks,

Scott

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[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

That is the supported amount by Cisco's terms of client link or mac address.  The rule of thumb is 25 clients per ap no matter what type of ap.  This can change depending on the applications that will be using the wireless.  If its jsut web and email, then maybe 30-40, but video might be 4-8.

Thanks,

Scott

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[Francois Jansen van Vuuren]

Ruckus Wireless AP's blows that theory right out of the water.

Not even their entry level AP does such low client count.

I'm a Cisco guy, not slating Cisco at all! :)

[Scott Fella]

Bottom line is that you have a gigabit port on the AP.... So you need to look at your oversubscribing just like if you have 200 wired ports and the link to the core was a gig link... doesn't make sense.  Wireless is also half duplex, so if you connect at 300mbps, you really will only achieve half of that and the more users, the more the allocated throughput for each user is cut in half.  Many deployments I see these days are for high density because of all these BYOD devices and guest users on the wireless.  You don't want to max out the AP or else people will just complain about it.  Plan it out right and everyone will be happy in the end.

Thanks,

Scott

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[Sergey Tarasevich]

I understand it is better to adhere to the rules of 15-20 clients per access point. And everyone will be happy. Right?

[Scott Fella]

That is correct.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Sergey Tarasevich]

Thanks for the help!

[George Stefanick]

So long as all the devices play nice ..

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
__________________________________________________________________________________________
‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."

[jmeachum]

The reason the answer varies so much, is because there are so many variables (this is also why the value ranges so much from one manufacture to the next).  When determining the answer you are looking for you need to consider the following factors and likely more:

• AP model and the features it supports
• single, dual, or tri radio AP
• 20, 40, or 80Mhz wide channels
• Device type (b/g, b/g/n, a/b/g/n, a/b/g/n/ac, spatial stream support, and channel width support)
• Security/QOS method(s) employed
• Average distance from the AP
• Obstructions between devices and radios
• Number of competing radios for the same channel
• Data rates configuration
• Rogue detection/mitigation configuration
• Surrounding client density not just the area of concern client density
• Noise floor levels
• Application types/per user network load (is it heavy like YouTube traffic or a drone on the network like Pandora)
• Network latency on the switching side - including the internet circuit
• Application of per SSID, per user, and or per application rate limiting
• The list continues, but I think you get the idea

I have personally seen 80 devices on a 5Ghz radio of a 3500 access point with several other access points and at least 200 other clients in the area and it was working well.  That being said I would never design to expect that many on a single radio, but I think it is better said that you can safely design for 20-30 clients per 2.4Ghz radio and 25-40 clients per 5Ghz radio.

The default statement of 20-25 per AP and similar low expectation statements concerning Cisco wireless have been around for many years.  It is now 2014.  About 65% of clients support 5Ghz, ~9% support AC (already), ~90% support some form of N, and ~0.01% support B only.  The landscape of wireless is changing fast making questions like this one have ever changing answers.

I hope this helps :).

John