mesh network vs broadcast/multicast question

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, 2007-06-26 at 17:10 -0400, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> Hi -
> 
> On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 04:49:40PM -0400, Dan Williams wrote:
> > [...]
> > > Does this mean that one needs a school server/bridge in order to talk
> > > to two differently-channeled friends ?
> > 
> > Yes.  You must spread the XOs between channels to maximize the overall
> > system bandwidth [...]
> 
> Is it obvious that this benefit (increased aggregate bandwidth) is
> worth the cost (the necessity for a special bridge - possibly
> hamstringing an ad-hoc mesh away from the schoolhouse)?  How
> bandwidth-hungry are common XO activities anyway?

It depends, but packing 50 normal laptops onto a single radio channel
_today_ with infrastructure APs doesn't really work well, especially
when they all start to talk.  We're likely to have that many laptops in
a single classroom, and when you get a couple classrooms next each
other...

Dan