Originally Posted by
channa
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.
I'd be curious to know the technology for the sake of it, but I work in technology as well and don't feel like fixing their system either
Transcoding isn't computationally cheap for streaming, so the "bandwidth" message might be a misnomer generated when there is some chokepoint (CPU, RAM, disk access, or actual bandwidth).
Originally Posted by
channa
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.
Yeah, I have a dual band wireless N wifi card from intel, and a new dual band Wireless AC 1.9gbps router at home. With the wireless N dual band capable card on that, I should see a theoretical max of 600mbps. Within 5 feet and open air to the router, it registers at 144mbps in windows - and of course, when you do a speedtest or activities, I don't max my 100mbps connection out, not even close (speed is around 50mbps). Combine that with all the people on the crowded 2.4ghz band, plus the number of devices, and you're not going to get close to that.
As far as telling what type of wireless standard is used, I usually don't boot my laptop on the plane, and iOS doesn't make it clear out of the box what speed/standard is in use. There's probably something on the app store for it though.
Originally Posted by
channa
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.
Trying to venture about how many users can get on without knowing the technology details is just guessing. I do more than 50 devices on a home router, but they're not all trying to stream video, which makes any comparison apples and oranges (or maybe apples and a non-fruit), plus they're not all wireless.
Originally Posted by
channa
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.
Welcome to non-Google betas, where there are actual bugs
I hope they continue working on this and I hope whatever system they picked is modular for easy upgrades to future wireless standards. When many people get on, the quality drops very quickly.
The fact that someone can join and then have consistent quality and then it gives the bandwidth message makes me think there's some sort of session reservation logic and then once whatever metric is hit that says the system is at capacity, it stops accepting new sessions.