Originally Posted by
phltraveler
I got this on an A320 recently on an evening flight when few people were using the system, it went away about 10 minutes takeoff. I'm not convinced the bandwidth error is always an issue of bandwidth and that it may have other causes.
The person next to me had no issues, but she started watching the minute we took off. I waited until after the meal to try, and by that point, all the sessions were taken. I tried a few times during the flight, and no luck.
The FAs said there were 5 "servers" on the plane (presumably, they meant access points), and that they were getting more complaints from the front of the plane where the load density was higher. They said I could move to the back to try, but I was in F and didn't want to go back to E-, so I didn't bother. Plus, I work in technology, so I didn't feel like troubleshooting or isolating CO's technology issues on a volunteer basis.
Originally Posted by
phltraveler
I would be curious to know what wireless standard they are using. To support 150 passengers at 3mbps, it'd require 450mbps. Wireless N is theoretically 600mbps but that requires dual band (not every device has, both on router and client side) and you never get the max speed. 802.11ac supports 1.9GBPS and beyond in dual band, but the same caveats apply, plus the standard is relatively new and not only do many devices not support it, but I find it difficult to imagine it would get certified/tested quickly enough for the installs they're doing now.
We can easily check the connection type next time we connect. But keep in mind that the published maximum vs. actual speeds on wireless can be radically different. That, and most enterprise access points will start giving usability issues you get above 40-50 users. And given that this is streaming, where people are pulling data constantly, it might even be lower than that. Of course they'll all advertise you can get more users per AP (which you theoretically can), but in reality, if you want a reasonable user experience, best to keep that number as low as possible.
With our 777 and around 220 customers, with 5 APs, we're being cut off at less than 40-50 per AP. And not everyone was using the system.