Hundreds of 2.4GHz Clients

[t_higgins09]

1. My name is also Tim Higgins.
2. I tried to buy timhiggins.com like twenty years ago and was surprised when it directed to a site like this. I'm now a SE.
3. Two decades later, I'm here for advice. Hello.

I'm on the way to 100 2.4GHz IoT devices; specifically, lightbulbs. I like to spam them with as many UDP packets as they can process. Sometimes the devices are on and sometimes they're not. The more data I can get through, the better. Each room has cat 5e.

I'm thinking multiple APs on 1/6/11 and something like AiMesh as it appears it will automatically load balance. Does this solution make sense, and do you have a recommendation for a model?

 

[coxhaus]

If you want to move more data to all devices in a home at the same time then you will want each AP on separate channels with the APs on wire. You really want to consider TCP as that is the real meat of data but slower than UDP. If you are doing general broadcasts then it probably does not matter but nobody does that except in a lab. You need to be doing directed broadcasts doing real work, different channels will move more data. 20MHz might be your best bet.

How much data you can move depends partly on your neighbors and their use of the same channels.

You can move a lot more data on 5GHz with more channels.

 

[t_higgins09]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm limited to UDP, but that's OK here as I don't want to wait for acknowledgement. I'm also limited to 2.4GHz. As for the amount of data, it's ~100K bytes per second per device.

It looks like with wired backhaul, AiMesh puts everything on the same channel which is not what I expected. So, never mind on that.

Is there a solution similar to multiple wired APs but with some sort of load balancing/signal strength consideration? Otherwise, multiple APs on different channels it is. Although, a bunch of devices could pick the same AP... and I'd rather not have multiple SSIDs.

 

[coxhaus]

You need to lay out your APs so they do not overlap too much but that is all based your house. I took me a few months of moving APs just little bit before I got 5 GHz to work the best in my house. I have 3 bathrooms with tile down the back middle of my house. I use the same SSID on all my APs but I use a different VLAN, SSID for my guest VLAN.

I use Bluetooth for my home automation not 2.4 GHz.

 

[Tech9]

I like to spam them with as many UDP packets as they can process.

What they are expected to process, for example?

As for the amount of data, it's ~100K bytes per second per device.

What devices?

 

[Tech9]

I use Bluetooth for my home automation not 2.4 GHz.

You mean not Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is still on 2.4GHz.

 

[t_higgins09]

What they are expected to process, for example?



What devices?

Color animations
2.4GHz Wi-Fi lightbulbs

 

[t_higgins09]

I may pick up two routers, put one in AP mode, wire them together, and see how it goes with the same SSID. If too many devices end up on one, I'll assign them separate SSIDs. But, I'm still interested in a solution that would automatically load balance (between eligible router/AP, not WAN).

 

[sfx2000]

I'm on the way to 100 2.4GHz IoT devices; specifically, lightbulbs. I like to spam them with as many UDP packets as they can process. Sometimes the devices are on and sometimes they're not. The more data I can get through, the better. Each room has cat 5e.

I'm thinking multiple APs on 1/6/11 and something like AiMesh as it appears it will automatically load balance. Does this solution make sense, and do you have a recommendation for a model?

There's a lot of good advice in the thread here - one thing to point out is that most consumer router/AP's have a limit on the number of wireless devices associated - typically around 32 devices per radio, some are higher, some are lower.

In your use case, I would seriously consider a commercial-grade set of AP's - Cisco WAP's or Ruckus, both of which have much higher capacity, and on the second-hand market, are fairly cheap to get.

802.11n is really all you need on these AP's, which will bring the prices down.