Fairly large event WiFi setup

Hey guys,

My facility will be hosting a conference with about 300 people, and
we're expecting about 300 people to show up. We're estimating 250-300
concurrent connections. From an RF standpoint, it's easy coverage.
We have a large amphitheater-style hall with an outdoor patio, so
coverage is easy.

It's the sheer amount of connections I'm worried about. We're
planning on deploying 12 Cisco 1132AGs. We'll have a 10 Megabit
connection available, which, unfortunately, is a lot slower than I
like. That's something I'm working on with the guys upstairs. A few
of the APs need to cover the outside, where we'll be using Powerline
Ethernet to hook them into our network.

Are a dozen APs enough for this? Should we get more? Less?

Any other thoughts or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

- Mike

On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:57:50 -0800 (PST), BigMike82
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<7603d8f9-965d-4f94-bf6e-(E-Mail Removed)>:

>My facility will be hosting a conference with about 300 people, and
>we're expecting about 300 people to show up. We're estimating 250-300
>concurrent connections. From an RF standpoint, it's easy coverage.
>We have a large amphitheater-style hall with an outdoor patio, so
>coverage is easy.
>
>It's the sheer amount of connections I'm worried about. We're
>planning on deploying 12 Cisco 1132AGs. We'll have a 10 Megabit
>connection available, which, unfortunately, is a lot slower than I
>like. That's something I'm working on with the guys upstairs. A few
>of the APs need to cover the outside, where we'll be using Powerline
>Ethernet to hook them into our network.
>
>Are a dozen APs enough for this? Should we get more? Less?
>
>Any other thoughts or advice is much appreciated.

I don't think the number of access point is unreasonable. What I'd
worry about is physically placing them so clients get spread more or
less evenly. If you try to make it one big wireless network, my
experience is that too many participants will get connected to too few
access points. You might want to have two or even four wireless
networks, and allocate participants evenly between networks. I also
suggest using WPA Enterprise to secure all connections from each other,
and to keep the outside out.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

"I'd worry about is physically placing them so clients get spread more
or
less evenly."
You're right. The way we'll situation the APs should take care of
most things like that. We'll have good coverage, and the APs will be
spaced out very nicely. That, and even if I've got 50 users on one
AP, they will still be more limited by the bandwidth, than by the
number of clients on that AP.

"I also suggest using WPA Enterprise to secure all connections from
each other,
and to keep the outside out."
Ordinarily I'd agree. However, this is a one time event where we'll
have 300 people in one area, and so we'll keep it open. Our wireless
network is segmented away from our main network, so we're not worried
about unauthorized users at the moment.

On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:19:23 -0800 (PST), BigMike82
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<5d276641-bf91-48d7-8a0f-(E-Mail Removed)>:

>"I also suggest using WPA Enterprise to secure all connections from
>each other,
>and to keep the outside out."
>Ordinarily I'd agree. However, this is a one time event where we'll
>have 300 people in one area, and so we'll keep it open. Our wireless
>network is segmented away from our main network, so we're not worried
>about unauthorized users at the moment.

That still leaves the issue of any user being able to sniff all traffic
to/from all users. Suggest you at least advise all participants to use
VPN.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>