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Stadiums are tricky places to design and deploy Wi-Fi. Seating arrangements change, densities of the crowd and the use of the space all have to be accommodated in the design.
Add to this the difficulty of where to actually put an AP and you need to have some handy tricks up your sleeve - enter Cisco's purpose-built stadium access point, the Cisco Wireless CW9179F.
Stadium Wi-Fi Installation Constraints
One of the big issues with stadium Wi-Fi is where and how to install the APs.
If you install underseat APs, you typically want to ensure the conduit for the cabling is cast into the concrete, to ensure it's protected and also hidden from sight. Many stadiums have a very long shelf life of course, so will not have been designed with installing Wi-Fi in mind.
Stadiums by nature have a very high roof, so it's also difficult to install APs right up in the eaves of these - it's a long way to the seats below, so you need an AP and antenna that is capable of being highly directional, as well as very high gain.
It is possible to install on posts around the stadium and there are even special bollards and lampposts designed to take an AP - however this isn't going to be able to cover the whole site.
Stadium Wi-Fi Design Options
The answer with stadiums is that you actually need a mix of various technologies and solutions, in order to provide coverage across different areas.
There's a fair bit of surface mount conduit needed and use of industrial switching (such as the IE3400) allows for the installation of a fibre backbone and local copper delivery to the access points - they're in hard to reach locations quite often, so this works well to reduce the lengths of copper cabling needed.
Standard wall mount APs are common of course - the table below though discusses some of the other options needed.
| Install Option | Description |
| Hidden Enclosures |
There's a range of companies making street furniture suitable for hiding APs. Lamp posts, either with an AP installed externally, or with the AP hidden internally (commonly known as a "smart lamppost" - they normally also include help call buttons and an ethernet switch) are useful additions to the install options.
The photograph shows the Oberon bollard, into which an access point is installed. This is useful in concourse areas to provide localised coverage, as well as keep the AP hidden away. |
| Overhead Mount |
There are two prime choices for seating area coverage - overhead or underseat. The Cisco CW9179F is discussed in more depth below, and is a great example of the overhead AP type: a high-gain, directional access point designed to cover seating from the roof line. |
|
Railing Mount
|
Attaching APs to various parts of the stadium, to provide localised coverage is a requirement of stadium Wi-Fi. These can be typical wall mount APs (so just needing an L-Shaped bracket), or might use a tilt bracket for an external AP (ideal if you need to cover long narrow walkways), but there's a range of other specialised options available.
Ventev make an interesting railing mount installation enclosure, which is a handy addition in the kit bag. This allows you to install the APs alongside the rows of seats, reducing the need for as many overhead (or underseat) APs. |
|
Underseat Mount
|
Underseat APs require conduit installed underneath the seats. There are some advantages - and disadvantages to this design. Retro-fitting this to an existing stadium may be a little tricky - it will require surface mount conduit, as well as plastic boxes to be installed under the relevant seats, which have an AP installed. That said, not all stadiums have overhead options - some don't have any overhead roofs, so this might be the only way you can get coverage inseat. The other problems are obvious - installing an AP in this location will not give it a very good coverage pattern and since as humans, we're quite attenuating (with all that water in our bodies), we tend to be quite good at shielding the coverage from the AP. |
There are of course, many options for mounting - and hiding of APs, but the above table provides a good cross-section.
Cisco CW9179F: The Stadium Access Point
The Cisco Wireless CW9179F is Cisco's current stadium access point and the successor to the Catalyst 9104 stadium antenna (the one we nicknamed the "car door"). It combines a Wi-Fi 7 access point and high-gain directional antennas in one unit, with 2.4 GHz, dual 5 GHz and 6 GHz radios.
These are very high gain units, suited to the eaves and roof lines of stadiums, as well as the tops of low-rise buildings (university campuses are a good example). For very high-density venues, Cisco suggests a mounting distance of about 30 metres from the seats.
The real selling point is that the coverage is software-selectable. Wide mode splits the 5 GHz radios into two beams for two adjacent cells, narrow mode concentrates everything into a 35° beam for the longest reach, and front-and-back mode adds coverage behind the AP using an external antenna. You choose the mode in the Catalyst 9800 RF tag or the Meraki RF profile, without re-aiming the antenna.
Conference centres and multi-purpose venues get the most from this, as they reconfigure spaces often. We cover mounting, power and design tips in our Cisco CW9179F blog.
Stadium Wi-Fi: FAQs
Why Is Stadium Wi-Fi Hard to Design?
Very high client density, limited mounting positions, changing seating layouts and crowds absorbing signal all make stadiums challenging.
Where Are Stadium APs Mounted?
Typically overhead on roof structures or walls, aimed at the seating with directional antennas. Under-seat mounting is used where overhead options aren't available.
What Is the Cisco CW9179F?
A Cisco access point designed for stadiums and large venues, with directional antenna patterns suited to high-density seating areas.
How Is Stadium Capacity Calculated?
From the seat count, devices per person and expected take rate, divided by the number of clients each radio can support.
Stadium Wi-Fi: Summary
Firstly, in reading this blog, you will probably have already realised that the technologies and options discussed are not unique to stadiums. They are actually good for all large areas, open spaces, conference and entertainment venues.
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The second note is that no one size fits all. It takes a blend of the options to deliver consistent Wi-Fi coverage and it can be difficult, expensive and time consuming to get APs into the locations you need.
The use of industrial switching is a key part of the equation too - you need to be able to connect the APs and power them to the network. Mesh is an option for connecting APs in tricky locations, but may not be ideal if high throughput is a requirement.
Stadium design takes time and a lot of thought, especially for the physicality of the site and the aesthetics, expense and practicality of installing access points.
Hopefully this blog has been of use. As ever, if you need support with your design and install, drop us a line at sales@iptel.com.au
Need Help With Your Wi-Fi?
Our Wi-Fi survey and design team designs, surveys and fixes enterprise Wi-Fi across Australia, and the free AP Estimator gives you a first AP count. If that would be useful, get in touch with the IPTel team or email sales@iptel.com.au.