Router for 100+ wireless clients?

[sucroid]

I have been reading the wireless router charts and many routers can handle over 10,000 simultaneous connections. I supposed that they are not all wireless clients.

Is there a router that can handle 100 simultaneous wireless connections? Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[jdabbs]

Wireless operates on layer 2, so the number of TCP connections doesn't matter nearly as much as channel utilization, which determines how much time is spent waiting to transmit. As for the number of clients, 20-30 is a more realistic expectation than 100.

 

[sucroid]

Thanks for the clarification.

So no single router can server a classroom of 100 students simultaneously?

 

[jdabbs]

Short answer: No.
Long answer: You should be looking into high-density wireless deployments.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps10981/design_guide_c07-693245.html

 

[sfx2000]

I have been reading the wireless router charts and many routers can handle over 10,000 simultaneous connections. I supposed that they are not all wireless clients.

Is there a router that can handle 100 simultaneous wireless connections? Any info is greatly appreciated.

Most SOHO/Consumer grade routers - no...

Each connection takes up resources to map out routing tables/NAT tables/etc...

at 100+ users, you're at the Small/Medium Business/Enterprise level - using consumer grade equipment is not a good approach.

 

[stevech]

100 users ... implies relatively large coverage area.
Both capacity and area coverage needs take you to the need for a step above consumer products.

I'd do this with 3-4 Cisco Aironet Access Points and one good wired router.

oh.. and as is common, distribute these APs on different non-overlapping channels if their coverage overlaps.

 

[jdabbs]

100 users ... implies relatively large coverage area.
Both capacity and area coverage needs take you to the need for a step above consumer products.

I'd do this with 3-4 Cisco Aironet Access Points and one good wired router.

oh.. and as is common, distribute these APs on different non-overlapping channels if their coverage overlaps.

Given the density, you'd need something to handle load balancing between APs, so you're looking at a WLC as well. This is definitely above "recommend me a router" and more along "recommend me a consultant" or "why am I not asking campus IT" territory.

 

[tipstir]

All what's on the market for SOHO can't handle so many WiFi connections, unless those slated to handle them. A buddy of my SE at a huge campus Aerospace have deployed several CISCO WAP in each of the 11 building. There are thousands of employees where as the OP is just looking for 100 WiFi connections. Company like meraki giving away free High Power AP for those who attend their web conferences. I might just do that. Still something to look into beside the CISCO.

 

[stevech]

for just 100, I'd stay away from controller based WiFi such as Cisco's Airespace product line (thin APs, different product line than Aironet, and of course Linksys).

Aruba is Cisco's largest competitor in the enterprise.

But for 100 people, just a few access points and figure out some way to get people to use a specific AP. Maybe based on different SSIDs and WPA keys they are given when enrolled? Simple.

 

[sucroid]

for just 100, I'd stay away from controller based WiFi such as Cisco's Airespace product line (thin APs, different product line than Aironet, and of course Linksys).

Aruba is Cisco's largest competitor in the enterprise.

But for 100 people, just a few access points and figure out some way to get people to use a specific AP. Maybe based on different SSIDs and WPA keys they are given when enrolled? Simple.

Thanks for the suggestion. I might just go with this solution since the bandwidth requirement for each client is expected to be very light (no video or audio). Will have to give this a test.

 

[sfx2000]

Ruckus Wireless is something to consider... they scale very well.

 

[frekri]

ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight 11n N900 Router

We are running two ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight 11n N900 Router in an office and event space where there are up to 100+ people with computers and smart phones. I don't know yet how many users a single dark knight router can handle, but our two can at least handle 100+.

We are using WPA2 encryption and the routers are in bridge mode. Both have the same SSID name so the users are able to roam between both AP.

The only problem we have had so far is that there is a bug in OS X witch break the roaming feature of some macs with a certain language settings.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1352518?start=1530&tstart=0