The Challenge of Calculating WiFi Capacity and Where the Answers Lie

Anyone who’s ever been involved in designing or upgrading a WiFi network knows that two key questions are, “What is our estimated current capacity?” and “What is our estimated future capacity?”

Now, these aren’t bad questions. They are, in fact, things that we need to understand or we risk designing a network that doesn’t support our users’ digital experience at all. It isn’t the questions that are the problem, but the traditional methods used to estimate capacity. They fall short. 

We’re going to look at why that is and share what you can do instead to answer these questions effectively for your specific network.

The Challenges with Estimating WiFi Capacity

There are two main issues. The first is how to accurately estimate capacity needs. The second is how to design a network that meets those needs. Here are some common challenges that complicate both elements:

• Over Reliance on Theoretical Calculations

Theoretical calculations are standard when it comes to estimating WiFi capacity. This is when we do something like, “If I have 10,000 employees, and they all need 5 devices, and two of those devices need 4K video streaming, and the other 3 need WiFi speeds of 100 Mbps — then I need two thousand Access Points (APs).”

As you can see, the problem with this is that an overestimation of what each device needs leads to the supposition that the network needs a ridiculously high number of APs.

Let’s look at this again.

This type of theoretical calculation assumes all devices will be connected at all times. While it is very likely each employee will have 3-5 devices (personal and professional), it is highly unlikely they will all be sending data intensive messages all day.

So we can see that it’s less about the number of devices and more about user behavior and bandwidth utilization.

This doesn’t mean you ignore the number of devices. That would be a bad idea. But don’t start counting each device as a user. If you have 10,000 employees with 5 devices each, don’t calculate your WiFi capacity needs as if you have 50,000 employees. Instead, look at those 10,000 employees and determine how much bandwidth they need. What are their network activities? These are the questions we need answered.

• Ignoring Your Environment

A second problem is that theoretical calculations ignore real world environments. 

Our work spaces – offices, warehouses, manufacturing plants, remote sites – are not identical. Even office spaces within the same city are not identical. Each space is subject to WiFi performance challenges, everything from walls and furniture interfering with coverage to interference from a variety of sources like Bluetooth devices and neighboring WiFi networks.

These environmental factors can significantly impact WiFi signals. They must be taken into consideration when estimating how to best meet capacity requirements.

• The Challenges of Dynamic User Behavior

Network users do not behave in robotic, programmatic ways. We are dynamic and our behaviors cannot be consistently, accurately predicted.

How likely is it that the same number of people will connect to the WiFi at the same time every day and perform the same task? The number of devices connecting to the network, and the different applications running, fluctuate throughout the day. WiFi capacity calculations that ignore this, are going to be inaccurate.

Yes, this is why organizations must know both their network baseline and their network’s peak utilization. However, this takes us back to the first point. How do you calculate those numbers accurately? 

Practice helps. The more experience someone in the IT industry has, the better they will be at designing and maintaining reliable, optimized networks.

What about those who don’t yet have extensive experience? Or those who have the experience and would like a way to simplify the process?

This is where AI-powered complete network visibility is crucial.

The Solution: Complete Network Visibility

While there’s no getting around the fact that calculating WiFi capacity will always be more about estimating than precision, you can minimize the guesswork and take proactive steps to ensure your network meets user needs and adapts to future demands. 

The best ROI is an AI-powered digital experience management solution.

• Complete Network Visibility

Our solution, the AI-powered Wireless Intelligence Platform (WIP), delivers complete network visibility. This includes visibility into backend and frontend infrastructure, connected WiFi and wired devices, non-WiFi devices like Bluetooth users, and nearby networks.

With this support, IT professionals always know what current capacity is, and can see exactly how the network behaves at different capacity levels – and determine what is needed for sustained, optimal performance. 

• Automation and Proactive Troubleshooting

WIP automatically delivers real time alerts at the first sign of an issue. With its proactive troubleshooting and root cause identification, IT professionals can resolve problems 90% faster, often before end users are impacted. These advance insights allow IT to know how the network is behaving whether there are 200 users connected or 3000.

It also ensures that teams know if WiFi problems are due to capacity issues, or if there is another root cause that must be addressed.

• Real Time and Historical Analytics

Our AI-powered solution automatically provides real time performance and behavior analytics, and historical analytics for long-term performance trends.

Know what’s happening now and what happened in the past, and use those insights to make educated guesses as to what will likely happen in the future.

How does your network respond to 200 users using video conferencing apps? 1500? 3000? How often is that utilization seen? How will the network react if you hire 20 more people? What happened the last time you hired someone? What happened the last time you brought on new devices?

Let WIP’s analytics tell you exactly how every capacity factor influences digital experience.

Then, take its insights and design the best future-proofed network out there.

If you have any questions about how WIP can help, contact us today. We’d love to set up a demo or free trial and start eliminating your WiFi issues and safeguarding your digital experience.