Shared or Individual Bandwidth

[Vanadil]

Hi Guys,


I have a "g" WAP that is currently configured to allow a "maximum rate" of 11Mb/s and a maximum connection of 64 clients. My questions is whether or not each of those 64 clients will be allowed an allocation of 11Mb/s each, or if that will be shared among the clients?

Some simple math says:

64 x 11Mb/s = 704Mb/s (Unlikely?!)


or


11Mb/s / 64 = 0.17Mb/s each (I hope not! And obviously there's not normally ever 64 clients connected. More like 10)


I've been having problems with this WAP when more than 5 or so users connect to it as it's been incredibly slow to respond to pings (>1000ms) and sometimes just drops out all together.

Any ideas?!

Thanks!

 

[ngrego]

A wireless G WAP is capable of up to 54Mbps, so what you have there is a B class WAP which is capable of up to 11Mbps, or a G class WAP working in 802.11b mode.
Due to the older technology the 11Mbps is (unfortunately) shared, but it does not work like the equasion you indicated. The 11Mbps is offered to connected users taking one request at a time, this will allow each to have 11Mbps ata time. The process is rather fast so you may have a small delay untill your request is sent but it is not as tragic as it sounds!
For the WAP to handle multiple connections at once it would have to be MIMO and have more than one antenna.
Your best option would be to spring for a new AP that will work at faster speeds (802.11N 150 or 300Mbps). You dont need to spend too much as even a low end AP will probably do a better job than the one you have now...

 

[Vanadil]

Hi Ngrego,


Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

It is indeed a G WAP running at 11Mb/s. However it also is broadcasting a second network on G speed (54Mb/s) that is used for bridging another AP. I would love to replace it, but it is unfortunately part of a large roll out.

My main concern is whether or not simply having 5 - 10 users connected to a "b" network at 11Mb/s with the alternating connection pattern that you described is capable of causing the delay and connectivity issues that I mentioned in my OP? If so, then I may get both our wishes and replace it.


Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

It is actually much worse that just sharing the 11m. All devices transmit at 11m but they do not have any method of taking turns so they transmit over the top of each other at times. This causes the devices to attempt to retransmit to correct the error. This can easily cascade when you have a lot of devices and you pretty much get into not passing any traffic. If you were to really try to run 64 active devices I would suspect nobody would get anything and it would appear crashed. Running only 5 will work if they are not doing things like streaming. Streaming sends packets almost constantly which greatly increases the chance of transmitting over the top of someone else.

The main reason N works better is they can transmit the message faster and maybe not transmit over someone else as much...still this is a fundamental problem to wireless that only a single device can transmit and there is no structured control to determine who can transmit when.

 

[Vanadil]

It is actually much worse that just sharing the 11m. All devices transmit at 11m but they do not have any method of taking turns so they transmit over the top of each other at times. This causes the devices to attempt to retransmit to correct the error. This can easily cascade when you have a lot of devices and you pretty much get into not passing any traffic. If you were to really try to run 64 active devices I would suspect nobody would get anything and it would appear crashed. Running only 5 will work if they are not doing things like streaming. Streaming sends packets almost constantly which greatly increases the chance of transmitting over the top of someone else.

The main reason N works better is they can transmit the message faster and maybe not transmit over someone else as much...still this is a fundamental problem to wireless that only a single device can transmit and there is no structured control to determine who can transmit when.

Very interesting answer thank you