Calculating Users on a Wireless POP

10:1 ratio of total vs active users on a network at peak times (ie, 1000 users, 100 active) 100 users active / 6 radios (3 horiztonal, 3 vertical with proper isolation) = 16.7 users per radio at peak times.

So, 3 120* sectors with 40 concurrent users each = 120 simultaneous users at peak times.

- CPE 5 minute in-activity timer (maybe as low as 3 minutes). This would need to be designed into the drivers or into the CPE unit itself.

- Limiting the radio max number of associations to 40 users. Raylink has this feature, do any DS radios have this feature? This could be implimented using a linux based server with multiple WLAN cards. At xx associations, disallow future associations until at least one CPE idle timer kicks in and disconnects.

- AP 5 minute in-activity timer, per connected client (force disconnect of users if they have happened to bypass the CPE idle timer)

- Max session time, allow each radio a maximum session time of xx-xxx minutes. Max session times of 60-180 minutes would be acceptable in a residential or SOHO environment, most of the time. An over-ride option on a per-customer basis would be nice so that customers who need an 8 hour uninterrupted telnet session can be configured with a longer max session time.

Most customers wouldn't notice being disconnected every 180 minutes if they are reconnected within a matter of seconds, if they are not idle.  Rotations give other users the ability to associate with an access point, but while limiting them to a non-24x7 connection. There are 8-10 hours/day that a computer is not in use and having it associated the entire time is not only bad for your overall network design, but also for security reasons. No need to leave a customers wireless connection wide open while they are sleeping 8 hours and while they are working another 8 hours and doing other non-Internet related things for 2-8 additional hours.

In the residential market, users average about 60 hours of online time in any given month. This is for the 800+ dialup users in our radius database right now.

48,000 hours / 720 hours per month per association = 66.7 "active" users at any given time

Lets figure it over a 20 day month with a 16 hour day (8am until 12 midnight) for a total of 320 hours/month per association.

48,000 hours / 320 hours = 150 "active" users on average between 8am and midnight.

That means, you need an average of 50 available associations during peak times from 3 radios.

Double the number of radios by going vertical and horizontal polarization and your average is only 25 associations per radio during peak times.

Because these are residential (ie, non-critical) users, there is a good chance that you could deal with a small amount of retransmissions/collissions due to radios on over lapping channels. You could "possibly" put 4-5 DSSS radios in the same cell in vertical and 4-5 in horizontal polarization. I say possibly, because others seem to be doing it, but its currently unknown how well their systems will work when under a heavy load at peak times on all radios.

40 associations * 3 sectors = 120 simultaneous users in vertical polarity double that for horizontal polarity: 240 simultaneous users In order to achieve 1000+ users, a ratio of 4.2:1 would need to be achieved.

1 to 1 ratio, no, 1000 users could probably not be achieved with DSSS 4 to 1 ratio, possibly 5 to 1 ratio, very possible 10 to 1 ratio, 2000+ users is possible in theory.