Client Density Calculator
Check clients per radio and per access point against your design target, and see how much spare association capacity is left.
About Client Density Calculator
Association capacity is a per-radio property, not a per-AP one, so a dual-band AP has roughly twice the client budget of a single-radio one. Comparing the actual load per radio against the design target shows both the current pressure and the spare capacity for growth or an AP outage. Radios keep accepting associations well past the point where airtime runs out, so the association count is the earliest warning that a floor is over-subscribed.
Formula
Client Density
clients per radio = clients ÷ (APs × serving radios); utilisation = clients per radio ÷ design target.
- totalRadios
- Serving radios across the whole coverage area
- target
- Clients per radio the design is built for
Worked example
With the default values below, Client Density Calculator returns Clients per Radio of 15.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Concurrent associated clientsaccepts 1–200,000 clients
- 240 clients
- Access pointsaccepts 1–5,000 APs
- 8 APs
- Serving radios per APaccepts 1–4 radios
- 2 radios
- Design target per radioaccepts 1–200 clients
- 30 clients
Results
- Clients per Radio
- 15.00
- Clients per Access Point
- 30.00
- Radio Utilisation vs Target
- 50.0%
- Spare Client Capacity
- 240
- Assessment
- Healthy load with room to grow
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Client Density
- 3Clients per Radio= 15.00
- 4Clients per Access Point= 30.00
- 5Radio Utilisation vs Target= 50.0
- 6Spare Client Capacity= 240
- 7Assessment= Healthy load with room to grow
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Client Density calculated?
clients per radio = clients ÷ (APs × serving radios); utilisation = clients per radio ÷ design target. Association capacity is a per-radio property, not a per-AP one, so a dual-band AP has roughly twice the client budget of a single-radio one. Comparing the actual load per radio against the design target shows both the current pressure and the spare capacity for growth or an AP outage.
Why does Client Density matter?
Radios keep accepting associations well past the point where airtime runs out, so the association count is the earliest warning that a floor is over-subscribed.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 4 inputs: Concurrent associated clients, Access points, Serving radios per AP, Design target per radio. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.