Ruckus Wireless has introduced new advanced Smart Wi-Fi products, technologies, professional services and training packages that address the growing challenges faced by service providers to support thousands of simultaneous Wi-Fi users within high-capacity venues and locations.

The new Ruckus high-density Smart Wi-Fi solutions, which include one of the first ultra high-capacity outdoor Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs), the ZoneFlex 7782-N, a remarkably compact and lightweight system, combines specialized smart sector antenna technology that narrowly focuses Wi-Fi signals within a 30-degree beamwidth with advanced software capabilities that optimize capacity and minimize interference through predictive channel selection (ChannelFly).

Planning for Wi-Fi coverage in high-density environments with the goal to deliver consistent performance to thousands of simultaneous users is quite different from planning coverage for low- to medium-density environments where the goal is to deliver ubiquitous signal coverage with the fewest number of APs.

As more Wi-Fi-capable devices enter the market, the average number of clients in any given area of a network increases dramatically. In the case of extremely dense venues such as stadiums or exhibit halls, these very dense populations introduce significant stress on the network and require specific design considerations such as the density and placement of Wi-Fi APs, the number of clients needing to connect, radio frequency (RF) noise and dealing with co-channel interference.

 “For Towerstream, being able to explicitly focus RF energy in a specific direction and automate channel selection is essential to providing Wi-Fi connectivity within high-density metro deployments where APs are mounted in close proximity to each other,” said Arthur Giftakis, VP of engineering for Towerstream.

“There’s no single silver bullet to solve these high-density problems. Ruckus has taken a more holistic approach to the high-density problem, by combining a number of essential hardware and software technologies into a carrier-class solution that is highly scalable and delivers the highest Wi-Fi performance we’ve seen within some of the most contentious Wi-Fi environments on earth.”