How many AP's can I have in 1 area?

[JasonSnyder]

Recently we added a large number of wireless devices in one area, and we have seen 80+ devices on the Access Point, so we have another about 50' away in another room.

Could we have 2 access points side by side, one channel 1 / 100 and another 11 / 156 to split up the connections? or is it better to keep them separated by some distance?

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't personally put them closer than 300mm to each other.  You don't want the RF energy from one to bleed into the other.  I would let the Meraki system work out the channels to use rather than manually controlling the channels.  Then the system can adapt to interference and other transient issues.

If possible, I would try to equally space the access points amongst the high density users, but sometimes you can't do that easily.

[EricLoz]

Alternatively, you can lower the signal strength of the access points and place them closer together distributing the traffic and device load across two or more devices that would normally cover just one area. This is used frequently in conference centers where you see multiple access points on the ceilings of rooms with hundreds of guests. As we all know, each person is more than one device these days - I'm personally "littered" with electronics that all seem to need a WiFi connection.

[StormTrooper]

I would also suggest getting a professional wireless site survey performed.  It's not just the interference from your own devices that needs to be considered, but also that coming from neighbouring AP's in nearby building/office floors.  

I have found in the past that the Meraki auto ordering of channels does not always work as well as it should, and manually setting them can prove more successful.

As always proper planning prior to deployment can aleviate problems further down the line.