Mr. Sekar

Meetings & Conventions

Making Event Wi-Fi Work

By Kiren Sekar, Director of Marketing, Meraki

Why is it that at home, people can reliably connect their laptops, smartphones, and iPads wirelessly, yet at conferences, expos, and other large events, the Wi-Fi is a slow, unreliable headache?

Wi-Fi technology is built into millions of devices – laptops, smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, gaming consoles, printers, POS devices… the list goes on and on. Today, many devices, like the iPad, only have wireless connections – wired Internet access is not even an option! Fortunately, when you purchase broadband at home, your cable or DSL provider likely includes Wi-Fi for free. In the office, wireless has supplemented – and is gradually replacing – wired network access. And when traveling, it’s expected that Wi-Fi be available in the airport, at the hotel lobby, and in the guest rooms. Even the airport shuttle bus might have Wi-Fi these days.

Five years ago, if a conference offered Wi-Fi, it would be used by a handful of individuals. Today, virtually every attendee brings a laptop, smartphone, and perhaps even an iPad. They constantly check email, access Facebook, upload photos, and do business. And they expect, not unreasonably, that the Wi-Fi be fast and reliable, like it is at home, at Starbucks, or in the office.

Unfortunately, the typical sub-par event Wi-Fi experience reflects poorly on the venue and the organizers. Users don’t hold back blame, sharing equally between Wi-Fi providers and the hosting venue itself. A poor wireless experience can leave attendees with a bad taste in their mouths about the entire event, even if the rest of it is flawless.

Conference and event Wi-Fi is notoriously difficult to manage and run successfully. The previous generation of technology simply doesn’t meet the demand of hundreds or thousands of users accessing the network at once. What can be done to make it better?

Technical and operational challenges

Often times a number of challenges conspire to “break the network.” These are often technical or operational issues, and they aren’t trivial. Most conference attendees expect fast and reliable Wi-Fi wherever they may roam.

At a large event, there might be hundreds or thousands of users in a single conference room. However, there is only a finite amount of radio spectrum available to serve them.

Not only are there large numbers of users, but the number and type of wireless devices is hard to predict. Users bring many wireless devices on site — Windows laptops, MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and more — and expect them all to work.

Devices can create a traffic jam on the network. Wireless devices often simultaneously attempt to associate when the users arrive on-site, or throughout certain points in the event, for example during break periods.

As if the technical challenges weren’t enough, there are other challenges that the network administrator responsible for the wireless network must face. For example, it is very difficult to simulate the actual network load before the crowds arrive, and time on-site before the event begins may be very limited. And if there is an issue during the event, there is very little time to fix the network.

Network design recommendations

Taking the time to design the network properly can dramatically increase the odds of running a successful event. The following are recommendations we have found to be useful when deploying a large wireless network.

The first step in planning a successful event is to allocate enough time. Ideally, you should begin planning 4-8 weeks ahead of the event. This ensures there is enough time to procure the necessary Wi-Fi equipment, switches, and backhaul circuits (often the longest lead-time item).

It’s important to calculate the expected number of clients that will be served, and use this number throughout the planning process. The number of devices and attendees will affect how much backhaul is required and how much rate limiting will need to be applied.

Although wireless most access points (APs) do not have a hard client limit, as a practical matter 50 client sessions is a safe limit and is convenient for planning. Then use the expected number of clients to determine the number of APs needed. More clients may be supported depending on the bandwidth each requires. For example, at the LeWeb conference, Meraki APs were able to support over 100 clients per AP.

Once the number of clients and APs are known, the required backhaul can be determined. It’s worth noting that events are often plagued by limited backhaul. To calculate the backhaul requirement, multiply the bandwidth limit by the expected number of clients. While it is unlikely that all devices will use up to their full bandwidth limit, this conservative calculation will minimize the odds that the backhaul is insufficient. As backhaul can be very expensive, this needs to be weighed carefully.

Before deploying the APs to be used at the event, make sure there are no APs already installed that may interfere with your network. To the extent possible, disable those as possible so that they don’t interfere with the event’s wireless installation. Otherwise, the existing APs may cause severe interference headaches once the event begins.

Don’t forget about having extra equipment in case things go wrong. Spare hardware should be readily available in case of failures. It’s best to be prepared and have extra hardware that goes unused instead of getting into a problem that could be solved with spare equipment, if only it were available.

Network configuration recommendations

Proactively configuring network settings will go a long way towards ensuring the wireless network is prepared to handle the most demanding users and applications. Then, during the event, time can be spent troubleshooting specific issues as they arise, instead of trying to find the optimal network configuration settings on the fly.

Perhaps the most important single configuration is to enable bandwidth limits. If bandwidth limits are not enabled, a small number of clients can quickly saturate a channel. One simple and effective strategy is to start with low limits and, if no problems are encountered, then gradually increase the limit.

Often, users will arrive at an event and attempt to use a very wide range of applications. It’s worthwhile to consider blocking applications that might be considered abusive, such as file sharing or peer-to-peer software, and also consider rate-limiting applications that may consume large amounts of bandwidth.

Tips for use during the event

Designing the network properly and choosing the right settings will go a long way towards a successful wireless deployment at a large event. Naturally, the rubber meets the road once the event starts, and there are ways to be proactive about the network’s management to make sure the system works as expected and any issues are resolved in a timely manner.

Since there is often uncertainty about how many clients will appear and how heavily they will use the network, start with conservative bandwidth limits and ease them up as the event progresses if the network can handle it.

Of course, to do this, it’s important to keep a close eye on the network as clients begin to show up and be ready to react. Careful monitoring will give confidence to know whether a reported problem is a real problem or a client-specific issue. Inevitably someone will tweet that the Wi-Fi isn’t working, but if monitoring of the network shows it is working for 700 people, it is very likely this person is having a client-specific problem.

It’s also worthwhile to go out on the floor and run a speed test at certain intervals, for example, every hour. By doing this it’s possible to find issues before users notice them. Consider using Twitter or another mass communication tool to inform users about issues or to get feedback about the network’s performance. To some extent, if users are having problems, knowing that someone cares will help. Also, by delivering reports on the network, it’s possible to avoid getting into a situation where one person’s bad experience leads to a general perception that the network wasn’t performing as well as it actually was.

Deploying wireless for a large conference or event can be a daunting task. Following a methodical approach using the design and configuration recommendations will go a long way towards providing a wireless service that exceeds users’ expectations and helps ensure the event runs smoothly. Large event Wi-Fi can be done right!

Kiren Sekar leads marketing efforts at Meraki, the leader in Cloud Networking. With a 100% cloud-based product line, Meraki’s architecture delivers out-of-the-box security, scalability, and management to enterprise networks. Meraki has been deployed in over 18,000 customer networks worldwide, including Stanford University, British Telecom, Burger King, Starbucks, and M.I.T. Meraki was named a visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN, and won Techworld’s Wireless and Mobility Product of the Year. Mr. Sekar is active in network infrastructure community, having recently participated on panels in wireless, cloud computing, and wide area networks at Interop 2011 in Las Vegas. Mr. Sekar can be contacted at 415-632-5800 or pr@meraki.com Extended Bio...

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