I'm working on redesigning a wireless network. When we first built it, it was really only designed around maximum floor coverage, and only really meant to be supporting 10-20 wireless clients at any one time, spread out over about 20,000 square feet. We accomplished this, originally with 4, then expanded to 5 access points with a wireless LAN controller.
The wireless needs have been growing steadily, and we've been starting to see between 70-90 client devices connected at any one time, and the network has been running somewhat poorly, due to over saturation.
I was just informed that we should be expecting a jump to consistently having around 150 wireless devices on the network, in that same 20,000 square foot space, and this will be happening nearly immediately (with some additional growth expectations.)
I have an updated floor plan, and given coverage requirements, and expected growth, I think I'm looking at needing around 20 access points to provide appropriate coverage, and keep any one access point from becoming overcrowded.
I've been reading Cisco's guides on high density wireless deployments, and actually am feeling reasonably comfortable with most of it, but I'm a bit worried about the WLC situation. Our current WLC (2504) can have its licensing expanded to accommodate up to 75 access points and 1000 clients, but I'm skeptical of that one, single WLC properly handling the load from ~20 APs.
I've tried looking into when to add additional WLCs for any sort of load distribution, but I'm having trouble finding anything that can clearly define when this is appropriate.
I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on this for me.
