How many clients?

[tom at ceisystems.com]

One more question, now.  Is the ability of HostAP to serve client
devices (STAs) a function of the system's speed, or is it just dependant
solely on interference and contention?  The help has been very useful so
far!  Thank you all so much!

Thanks all,
Thomas Cameron


-----Original Message-----
From: Theodor Milkov [mailto:zimage at del.bg] 
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 2:01 AM
To: Thomas Cameron
Subject: Re: How many clients?


On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 10:12:42PM -0400, tom at ceisystems.com wrote:
> Hello all,
> 	This is my first post to this list, so I hope it isn't a topic
that 
> has been covered to death.  I am wondering what the maximum number of 
> clients a HostAP access point can handle would be.  In other words, 
> how many WiFi clients can connect to my system?  Doesn anybody have 
> any specific experience with high numbers?  I'm thinking of the 
> 50-100+ range.


Hi,

In a busy wireless environment (too many competitive WISPS) hostap tops
at about 15 STAs or 2Mbps or 200pps. After exceeding any of these
parameters we began to see increasing packet loss.

I believe it's mainly the problem with the hidden nodes combined with
busy neigboring channels (signal at low level but enough to compromise
RTS).

If only 802.11b was not CSMA/CA... or we have working PCF...

Regerds,

-- 
        Theodor Milkov        Head Network Administrator
        Davidov Net           Phone: +359 (2) 730158