topic Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment in Access Points - Indoor and Outdoor

Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

robert_lowe_722 — Thu, 14 May 2015 14:46:12 GMT

Hi All, just wondering if you could advise on max clients in a mixed authentication environments. Not that I am planning to max out any specific AP's but as I understand it the max clients drops from 500 (250 per radio) to 200 (100 per radio) when encryption is used. My question is; what if the AP provides both open and encrypted networks? Dose the lower value still stand or do both max amount count (200 encrypted and up to 300 open). I am specifically referring to R600 & R700 AP's however I guess the question stands for most.

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

michael_brado — Thu, 14 May 2015 17:20:56 GMT

The number of clients per radio on the AP depends on the authentication/encryption used on your
advertised WLANs. Any TKIP/WEP clients will consume 4x the memory slots vs WPA2-PSK.

Here is a guideline KBA article for reference:

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/answers/000003753

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

robert_lowe_722 — Thu, 14 May 2015 17:40:55 GMT

Thanks Michael, that's useful info. I realise maybe i should have been more specific with my question. The info that I am looking for is this (in a bit more detail). How would the introduction of clients using WPA2-PSK AES affect the max number of clients on an AP also providing an open network? Does the introduction of WPA2 AES clients reduce the max number of clients that can connect to an AP by 1:5 ratio? so if I have 10 WPA2 AES clients on an AP is the max number of theoretical open clients now 450?

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

michael_brado — Thu, 14 May 2015 18:04:04 GMT

That's a great word, "theoretical"... Marketing says that theoretically, 500 Open Auth clients can all *associate* to a dual-band AP at once.
But... if they all tried to pass traffic, they wouldn't have much bandwidth between them to share.

Realistically, as most clients since 2005 have WPA2 capabilities, you can expect to have 200+ AP clients on both bands using the network.
There won't be as many WPA/TKIP only clients to take up slots.

How many guests are you expecting, and how many APs do you have to manage, on what version of ZD firmware?
(you want to manage your APs with a ZD for seamless roaming)

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

robert_lowe_722 — Thu, 14 May 2015 19:06:00 GMT

Thanks Michael. Its more for future design than a specific scenario. Obviously I don't design to theoretical maximums. Always a ZD at moment (maybe SCG in the future). Most installations are in hotels but the design of large conference facilities where we have both open networks for guests and WPA2 networks for hotel services is what I am thinking about.

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

michael_brado — Thu, 14 May 2015 20:26:45 GMT

Hi Robert,

Glad to know about your planning, and to offer advice to maximize client connectivity, configure your hotel service WLAN(s) with WPA2/AES PSK (not WPA, not TKIP or
Auto); and you can create WLAN Group(s) with all or only some of your defined WLANs (the fewer the better) and apply to your conference room level vs guest
only floor APs. We do also have the AP Group concept in SCG/vSCG too for the
same purpose.

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

nuno_pimentel — Fri, 15 May 2015 10:11:21 GMT

Hello Michael,
so let see if i understand, by your words if a plan a venue with let's say 2 SSID's (one open and other WPA2), and for example i have an average of 10 user per AP authenticated in the close SSID and the other is for the open access, i would to count with +-200 user per AP (on total radios) correct?

regards

Re: Max clients per AP in mixed authentication environment

michael_brado — Fri, 15 May 2015 17:48:53 GMT

That would be a good number to approximate with, yes.