Best Chipset for Most Number of Concurrent STAs with hostapd

[Jeremy Ward]

Greetings,

Looking for the highest capacity WLAN module for use with hostapd on Linux
x64; would like 802.11ac capability, however it looks like there currently
is not much in the way of stable drivers that support 11ac cards in AP mode
(all that I have seen are listed as "experimental" status per kernel.org).

So this only leaves us the option of 802.11n dual-band with 3x3 MIMO; in
our application, this should be sufficient for the moment.

My previous experience, along with some research  has lead me to believe
that Qualcomm/Atheros 9000 series chipsets might be the best route to take
until a viable 802.11ac chipset is considered "stable" for AP support.

Again, the priority is high throughput along with a high number of
concurrent STAs, with a secondary requirement of a moderate RF output power
(25-29dBm approximately). Stability is of the AP is of great importance for
our application.

So, with all of that said, below are the questions that I have for the
members of this group:

1. Am I on the right track as far as the chipset manufacturer and model
(Atheros 9XXX Series)?
2. Any specific miniPCI module manufacturers that the members of the list
would recommend?
3. We also desire to have Bluetooth 4.0 integrated on the module to enable
some functionality that our software requires. Any suggestions for an
integrated card?

Thank you all for your time and expertise.

Jeremy D. Ward, CWNE
(954) 661-4965
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