I do not think the designers of wifi ever have envisioned the proliferation of access points.
The standard implementation is not particularly suited to a situation where many access points see each other.
A high level of adjacent “noise” is interpreted as a signal, as a consequence the “listen-before-talk” protocol lowers the effective throughput up to zero. The AD-converters have a limited dynamic range so increasing the signal strenght of an emittor to overcome “noise” does not work very well (oversteering).
Where does that hurt you? In a densely populated city like Amsterdam.
See this scan of SSID’s (Apple Airport) in a flat: 37 access points are visible (of which still 6 are open without encryption) for 13 channels max.
Luckily my friend has a 801.n router (5 GHz), otherwise he would suffer like others that see a strong wifi signal (“5 bars”) but have no throughput. But it is still only a matter of time before the 5 Ghz band shows the same problem.
A new design is needed, derived from mesh technology to cope with this.
(Thanks Bram)
