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I am setting up multiple networks(pods) at a trade show. Each pod will be running on it's own separate network. In each pod are a machine(s) and a wireless barcode scanner (android tablet) to verify the feeder set-up. My question is: would it be better to have one access point that connects all the machine to the scanner, or run each pod independently using it's own access point? I've been told that using multiple access-points independently would cause performance problems.

Thanks You John

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  • Did any answer help you? If so, you should accept the answer so that the question doesn't keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you could provide and accept your own answer.
    – Ron Maupin ♦
    Aug 15, 2017 at 17:39
  • multiple access points will only interfere with each other if they are on the same channel
    – Yanzzee
    Sep 21, 2022 at 18:20

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Does it need to be connected with wireless? I'd assume that a trade show is going to have a lot of wireless interference from other attendees. Adding more AP's won't help that and its possibly that your users will have no wireless access in that crowded of an environment.

To answer your main question, you could have a separate SSID per pod on a single AP but depending on your AP hardware there is a limited number of SSID's.

If possible, I'd physically cable this all up and skip the wireless and feed it back to whatever the trade show is giving you as a main connection (if Internet is required). Then you could just run separate VLANs/subnets for each pod.

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@John Hengst - I concur with cmschmidt15 towards providing a guaranteed service to the pods with structured cabling. We do a couple of shows per year and primarily provide cabling installed by licensed cablers.

But there are always a couple of pods where the clients are physically too far and wireless becomes the solution.

You could investigate installing installing an access point as a workgroup bridge.

Here is an example from one manufacturer and just about all other manufacturers have that option. https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/16796/how-configure-cisco-access-point-ap-workgroup-bridge

And avoid using 802.11b/g if you can but use 802.11a as Androids supports them. Not much interference on the 5GHz ranges compared to the 2.4GHz ranges.

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