Ruckus AP capacity planning/formula

[samuel_eng]

Ok,

CLIENTS: Single stream, 802.11ac

Connected to 5Ghz (only) and 20 channel width with theoretical and optimal RF conditions

AP: Single R500

How many concurrent clients can I serve with for example a Netflix 5mbps stream?

What is the formula / model?
Thanks

[seanmuir]

ATF by this summer..... wait for the tumbleweed 🙂

[david_henderson]

I wanted to followup with some additional testing we did, should have put this in my first post. After we did the video streaming test at 20MHz channel width and got 7 802.11ac laptops streaming 1080p video we did two more tests.

At 40MHz channel width with one AP we got 13 laptops streaming 1080p video

At 20MHz channel width with three APs, we got 18 clients streaming 1080p video. The laptops were evenly distributed with 6 clients per AP

[bill_burns_6069]

Short answer:
Go for 40Mhz channelization (at least) in the 5Ghz spectrum.

You generally place APs close enough together to provide good 2.4Ghz coverage.
5Ghz spectrum does not propogate as well and there is more 5Ghz bandwidth available.

If you go for max bandwidth (channelization) on an AC capable AP, you've cut yourself down to 3 usable 5Ghz channels.
That's not any worse than the 2.4Ghz situation and (since 5Ghz signals don't propogate as far) you're still less likely to get interference in the 5Ghz band.
(assuming there are no 5Ghz cordless phones, etc.)

In general, I let the APs choose their channelization, and they go for the max that they're capable of.
I don't have many AC capable APs but so far I don't think this has caused me any problems.

[bill_burns_6069]

oh... and yes, if a client is capable of connecting at 40Mhz channelization but doesn't because the AP is hard-coded to 20Mhz, then that client will go slower. (and consume more airtime) This leaves less airtime for the other clients, effectively slowing everyone down.

[seanmuir]

This is dependant on band on the r500 until they fix airtime fairness on the 5GHz radio:


Here is Bill explaining Airtime Fairness:

http://www.ruckuswireless.com/asset/watch/276