Recommended wireless AP for 400 users office

Thu Jan 29 19:50:20 UTC 2015

I have had this same behavior at my UniFi pilot site.  What I discovered in
my case was a combination of bad behaviors in both the UniFi unit and
Android.

Long story short Android really wants to hang on to a WiFi signal as long
as it can and does not seemingly scan for other signals when connected.  If
it sees even the slightest bit of a signal from the access point it's
connected to it doesn't give it up.  I can replicate this behavior on every
Android device I have where I can walk across a building and pass through
2-3 other "cells", even others on the same channel, and still see my device
connected to the AP I started on in the UniFi control panel until it
completely loses signal.

This behavior then interacts poorly with UniFi in that it seems to be very
willing to keep trying to get the data through to the distant client and
queues up everything else until it either succeeds or possibly times out.

Presumably if ZHR worked this would effectively work around the issue, but
as already noted it has its own issues that reduce its utility in a crowded
environment.  Our solution has been to stop using the "Long Range" units
and install more small cells to minimize the impacted area if this does
occur, plus ensure that any Android devices are set to sleep their WiFi
when the display is off (this is often set by default).  The customer we
were testing with had a few tablets that needed to be on most of the time,
but they switched to Windows devices for unrelated reasons and basically
eliminated the problem.

There is apparently some way to have the APs drop clients that are below a
certain signal threshold now, but I haven't looked in to it in a while as
it hasn't really been an issue.

---

Overall my experience with UniFi is positive, if you have relatively simple
needs they'll usually get the job done.  You'll probably need a few more
access points than you would with another solution, but they're generally a
fraction of the price so it still often works out.  If you need your
wireless to get fancy or handle a high number of clients on a single AP
look elsewhere.  Needing to work on 5GHz also changes the value equation as
those units are significantly more expensive than the plain 2.4GHz 802.11n
units.

On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 10:53 AM, Mike Hammett <nanog at ics-il.net> wrote:

> Did you figure out why it was dropping out? All of it dropping out? Just
> some APs dropping? Just some users dropping?
>
>
>
>
> -----
> Mike Hammett
> Intelligent Computing Solutions
> http://www.ics-il.com
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Paul Stewart" <paul at paulstewart.org>
> To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog at ics-il.net>, nanog at nanog.org
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 8:34:46 AM
> Subject: RE: Recommended wireless AP for 400 users office
>
> I had a bad experience with it one time at a tradeshow environment. 6
> access points setup for public wifi. The radio levels were quite good in
> various areas of the tradeshow however traffic would keep dropping out at
> random intervals as soon as about 300 users were online. It wasn't my idea
> to use UBNT but it definitely turned me off of their product after digging
> into their gear...
>
> Again as someone pointed out, for residential and perhaps SOHO
> applications it can probably work well - and in my opinion it's priced for
> that market.
>
> Paul
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-bounces at nanog.org] On Behalf Of Mike Hammett
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 8:23 AM
> To: nanog at nanog.org
> Subject: Re: Recommended wireless AP for 400 users office
>
> What problems have you had with UBNT?
>
> It's zero hand-off doesn't work on unsecured networks, but that's about
> the extent of the issues I've heard of other than stadium density
> environments.
>
>
>
>
> -----
> Mike Hammett
> Intelligent Computing Solutions
> http://www.ics-il.com
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Manuel Marín" <mmg at transtelco.net>
> To: nanog at nanog.org
> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:06:39 PM
> Subject: Recommended wireless AP for 400 users office
>
> Dear nanog community
>
> I was wondering if you can recommend or share your experience with APs
> that you can use in locations that have 300-500 users. I friend recommended
> me Ruckus Wireless, it would be great if you can share your experience with
> Ruckus or with a similar vendor. My experience with ubiquity for this type
> of requirement was not that good.
>
> Thank you and have a great day
>
>
>
>