R600 (Wave1) vs R720 (Wave2) for primarily mobile clients

[chris_belicose]

Hello,

I've worked with some wireless hardware from other vendors before but I've read a
lot of good things about Ruckus and I'm looking into using it for an upcoming project and would appreciate some guidance.

I need to provide connectivity in a 60' x 60' space.  There are no obstructions. I cannot ceiling mount any APs over the interior of the space however I can ceiling mount the APs around the perimeter.  I am planning to use 3 APs, staggered (ex: in the shape of a triangle) and ZoneDirector for management.

Total number of connected clients will be 500.  Client devices will be primarily mobile phones. Guest will be seated.  Use-case will be social media posting.  No video streaming or downloading.

I believe either the R600 or the R720 are the APs that I should be considering.  I've read that the suggested max number of clients per AP when using AES on the R600 is 180 (for 5g). I'm not sure if the same limit applies to the R720 but I would expect it to be the same or higher.

I'm trying to determine whether I should invest in 802.11ac Wave1 (R600) or Wave2 (R720) capable hardware given that 802.11ax is on the horizon.

Will current mobile clients see a significant benefit from the R720 over the R600?

[DarrelRhodes]

Hi George,

Many thanks for a great response. You can email me at darrel.rhodes@arris.com if that's easier.

Performance relating to the number of clients associated per AP is an often-debated point that has more questions than answers! It depends on so many factors that it is impossible to state conclusively.  E.g. Some Ruckus APs will allow 512 client associations but one wouldn't expect all those clients to be able to pass traffic at the same time.

I have designed HD networks with Ruckus APs and would usually design with between 100 and 150 active clients per AP as a maximum. In most scenarios user behaviour is random and one wouldn't expect all users to be connected to the network and be active all at the same time.  However if your scenario is more likely to have all users connected and active at the same time, then I would urge you to be more conservative and to design with more higher-performance APs to add in network resource.  However; remember in order to add-in Wi-Fi resource you must design with non-overlapping channels.  You will only have three in 2.4GHz but, depending on your location, several in 5GHz even with 40MHz channel-width.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,
Darrel.