WiFi network to handle many simultaneous HD Video streams

[dlbzone]

I am starting a new thread since I believe this use case is becoming more common. Note that there may be other continuous parallel high bandwidth applications that would also benefit from this discussion.

I have several TiVo DVRs and several TiVo Mini STBs. My family all like different TV programs, so from 8pm-10pm a few nights a week, there could be 3 or 4 simultaneous HD video streams to phones or tablets from TiVo or Netflix. With family visiting over Christmas, this demand could increase to 5-7 simultaneous HD streams to phones, tablets, or laptops.

I currently have two AC1900 routers. An Asus RT-ac68p as a wireless router and a Netgear R7000 as an access point. These are recent additions to replace older N routers from Linksys and Apple.

I am seeking input on how best to configure the network that will keep coverage throughout the >3000 square foot 3 level home for all clients and handle 5-7 simultaneous HD video streams. I'm thinking of adding back the 802.11N APs while family is visiting to handle the additional bandwidth demand.

Some questions that come to mind are:
1) How many SSIDs? Will the load properly distribute on its own? or do I need to manually split the load via multiple SSIDs? Or is there a better way to split the load?

2) There are three 2.4GHz non-overlapping channels so I don't think I would run more than 3 APs on 2.4GHz, right? I notice most devices are using 5GHz by default.

3) How do I best use the 5GHz spectrum? There are 8 lower 20MHz channels and 5 upper 20MHz channels. On the AC routers, the upper channels provide greater range than the lower channels. How does the 20/40/80MHz selection impact performance on iPhones/iPads? Should I run all 4 APs on 20MHz channels in the upper 5GHz band or run 20/40 and use some of the lower band? I don't think I have any clients that can use 80MHz channels.

I will probably eventually work through these questions through experimentation, but it would be great to get some advice from those that have already figured this out.

Thanks!

 

[Nullity]

Choice of SSID is based on signal strength, not available throughput.

Choosing between a single, distributed SSID and multiple SSID's is a decision between convenience and the ability to choose an AP. If the guests can tolerate adding 2+ SSIDs rather than 1, I would choose multiple SSIDs.

7+ HD streams is not that much (~50Mbit @ 720p), so even 802.11N APs could handle that without breaking a sweat.

Happy holidays!

 

[htismaqe]

I agree with Nullity, that's not a whole lot of traffic in actuality. We normally have 3-4 HD video streams running at any given time and I only have one WRT1900AC router.

I find that my load is pretty evenly split between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz just by letting the clients do the work. I have a single SSID across both bands.

 

[sfx2000]

1) How many SSIDs? Will the load properly distribute on its own? or do I need to manually split the load via multiple SSIDs? Or is there a better way to split the load?

2) There are three 2.4GHz non-overlapping channels so I don't think I would run more than 3 APs on 2.4GHz, right? I notice most devices are using 5GHz by default.

3) How do I best use the 5GHz spectrum? There are 8 lower 20MHz channels and 5 upper 20MHz channels. On the AC routers, the upper channels provide greater range than the lower channels. How does the 20/40/80MHz selection impact performance on iPhones/iPads? Should I run all 4 APs on 20MHz channels in the upper 5GHz band or run 20/40 and use some of the lower band? I don't think I have any clients that can use 80MHz channels.

1) SSID's - each case is different, and depends on the clients - I use common SSID's across all bands and AP's (I run two AP's)

2) 2.4Ghz - might consider running both Ap's on the same channel, as channels down there are scarce enough as it is with neighbors... narrow channels, B/G/N mixed, disable TurboQAM (up to 600Mbps or whatever the vendor calls it).

3) 5GHz - basically in the US, we have two non-DFS channels for 5GHz outside of the DFS/TPC blocks, high and low...thought here is throw as much bandwidth up there as possible, so the clients can burst as needed and get off the channel so other clients can get their chunks..

 

[dlbzone]

Thank you for your responses. I think I will set up my own torture test and experiment with settings for best stability and performance. Good project for the Holidays.

 

[dlbzone]

Well I have everything running on. Single SSID with one AP per floor. I have the Asus in the middle as Router and running both 2.4GHz on CH 6 with the turboQAM disabled and 5 Ghz on 40MHz of the high freq. Upstairs I have the Netgear using 5GHz only on the other 40MHz of the high freq. I put my old Linksys N router downstairs using 5GHz only on 40MHz of lower freq.

I ran 5 streams upstairs without any apparant hiccups. Using inssider on a macbook pro, I don't see any 5GHz neighbor traffic and tons of 2.4GHz neughbor traffic.

I hope my clients will primarily run on the 5GHz, but I kept one 2.4GHz channel for one or two legacy devices. I will run this for a while and fingers crossed that it will run nice and stable.

 

[coxhaus]

I gave up on 2.4GHz also at my house because of the surrounding neighbors traffic. I only run 5GHz 40MHz wide now at my house. People who come over now have new enough devices that moslyt support 5GHz so it has not been a problem. The only issue is a friend has an old iPhone 4s which does not have 5GHz. He just uses his cell service.

 

[sfx2000]

I gave up on 2.4GHz also at my house because of the surrounding neighbors traffic. I only run 5GHz 40MHz wide now at my house. People who come over now have new enough devices that most support 5GHz so it has not been a problem. The only issue is a friend has an old iPhone 4s which does not have 5GHz. He just uses his cell service.

Seems to be getting worse with more AP's in my neighborhood trying to do Turbo, and of course, the Cable/Telco guys with their high power Gateways in 2.4GHz... and then with some draft-N doing wide channels, and all the other cruft down low in that band..

I still pretty much use 2.4GHz as a backstop, as the range is decent, if bandwidth isn't so much anymore, and then overlay my 5GHz footprints where the clients are - family room and bedrooms, and the home office is all wired now...

I run the guest WiFi network once in a while, only if guests are staying longer than a day or two...

(I run two dual-band AP's on my LAN, with Gigabit between them)

 

[coxhaus]

My guest VLAN and wireless guess SSID stays up all the time. I have moved my wife's Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPad Air to the guest VLAN network including the AppleTV. No reason for me to run them in the desktop and server VLAN. Only devices connecting to the server run in that VLAN now. It seems to work.

My wife's devices go offsite so they are less trusted than desktop and server devices. Not that there are any problems it just what I am trying. We are getting ready to add a smart TV which will be less trusted also so it will run in the guest network.

 

[System Error Message]

It is apparent that none of the wifi routers have the capability for wire to wifi bandwidth bigger than 1Gb/s, you would need many wifi routers to support many HD streams unless you are using encoding. 8Mb/s -10Mb/s is the bandwidth used by a 1080p stream but raw file access uses a lot more.

 

[htismaqe]

My guest VLAN and wireless guess SSID stays up all the time. I have moved my wife's Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPad Air to the guest VLAN network including the AppleTV. No reason for me to run them in the desktop and server VLAN. Only devices connecting to the server run in that VLAN now. It seems to work.

My wife's devices go offsite so they are less trusted than desktop and server devices. Not that there are any problems it just what I am trying. We are getting ready to add a smart TV which will be less trusted also so it will run in the guest network.

I too keep my guest network up 24x7. I run my company-provided devices in the home office off of it.

My work PC is riddled with crap and corporate compliance-ware. Since they took away all of our admin rights, we have no control, or even really any idea, how much stuff is on there to track us, scan us, and otherwise spy on us.

So I treat the company's devices as untrusted and throw them on the guest network.

 

[L&LD]

I too keep my guest network up 24x7. I run my company-provided devices in the home office off of it.

My work PC is riddled with crap and corporate compliance-ware. Since they took away all of our admin rights, we have no control, or even really any idea, how much stuff is on there to track us, scan us, and otherwise spy on us.

So I treat the company's devices as untrusted and throw them on the guest network.

Any device I have not personally setup myself is not allowed (ever) on my main, home, network.

Doesn't matter who vouches for it, I know I am secure because there is never a chance of being insecure.

 

[sfx2000]

I too keep my guest network up 24x7. I run my company-provided devices in the home office off of it.

My work PC is riddled with crap and corporate compliance-ware. Since they took away all of our admin rights, we have no control, or even really any idea, how much stuff is on there to track us, scan us, and otherwise spy on us.

So I treat the company's devices as untrusted and throw them on the guest network.

Same here - as a telecommuter, I really do not want to "cross the streams" between work and personal, so the company official use devices live on the guest network where they are VLAN'ed out and isolated (my AP has a selection where AP isolation is an option)...

It's really to protect both sides - they don't know my LAN/WLAN, and I just see their network from a VPN end-point...